Emotional Development Flashcards
Emotions
Combination of physiological and cognitive response to thoughts or experiences
Changes in:
Neural responses
Physiological factors (e.g. heart rate, breathing rate, hormone levels)
Subjective feelings
Emotional expressions
Desire to take action (e.g. desire to escape, approach, or change people or things in the environment)
Discrete Emotions Theory
Darwin
Neurological and biological systems have evolved to allow humans to experience and express set of basic emotions through adaptation to surroundings (from infancy)
Infants express set of recognizable, discrete emotions before they can be taught about them
Similar emotional facial expressions observed around the world (even in remote tribes)
Vocalizations of basic emotions recognizable across different cultural groups
Functionalist Perspective
Individuals experience emotions in order to manage the relationship between themselves and the environment
Emotions are goal oriented and vary by social context
Exceptions occur when people realize they can fake emotions
Does not draw hard distinctions between emotions and their roots
Six Basic Emotions
Happiness, fear, anger, sadness, surprise, disgust
Universal in all cultures
Each serves important survival and communication functions
The Self Conscious Emotions
Require children have a sense of themselves as separate from others
Guilt, shame, jealousy, empathy, pride, embarrassment, etc
Shyness
Fear, discomfort, and reticence when faced with new social situations and the potential for social evaluations
Conflict between high social approach and high social avoidance motivation
Emotional Intelligence
Ability to cognitively process info about emotions and use that info to guide thoughts and behaviours
Essential for emotion regulation
Linked to positive outcomes
Roots of Empathy (ROE)
Kindergarten through grade 8
Lessons on emotional understanding, empathy, problem solving, perspective taking, parenting, development, caring for others
Parent and infant ‘adopted’ by a class for these lessons
Increases prosocial behaviour, proactive behaviour
Less relational aggression
Did not change children’s own reports of empathy and perspective taking
Display Rules
Social or cultural group’s informal norms about when, where, and how much one should show emotions
And when emotions should be masked
Emotion Regulation
Conscious and unconscious processes used to both monitor and modulate emotional experiences and expressions
Develops gradually over childhood
Required for success in social interactions and academics
Co-Regulation
Emotion regulation facilitated by interaction with a caregiver
Comfort, soothing
Distraction
Self Comforting Behaviours
Repetitive actions that regulate arousal by providing mildly positive physical sensation (e.g. sucking fingers)
Decreases over the first year
Self Distraction
Looking away from upsetting stimulus to regulate arousal
Increase use of self distraction and decrease self comforting as the first year progresses
Self Control
Ability to inhibit negative behaviours or positive emotions
In second year and increasing with age
Marshmallow studies
Social Competence
Set of skills that helps individual achieve personal goals in social interactions while maintaining positive relationships with others
Emotion Socialization
Acquiring the values, standards, skills, knowledge, and behaviours that are regarded as appropriate in one’s culture
Still-Face Paradigm
4 month olds
Control: play with child for 10 mins
Experimental: play with child for 2 mins, still face for 2 mins, alternate
Infants quickly became distressed when parent doesn’t express emotion
Emotion Coaching
Parents discuss emotions and learning ways to cope with emotions and express them appropriately
Related to higher social competence and empathy and lower risks of depression
Temperament
Individual differences in emotion,a activity level, and attention exhibited across contexts and present from infancy (genetically based)
Easy Babies
Adjust readily to new situations, quickly establish daily routines, generally cheerful and easy to calm (40%)
Difficult/Spirited Babies
Slow to adjust to new experiences, react negatively and intensely to novel stimuli, irregular in daily routines and bodily functions (10%)
Slow To Warm Up Babies
Somewhat difficult at first but became easier over time with repeated contact with new objects, people, situations, fairly regular in routines (15%)
Surgency
Tendency toward positive emotions, seeking stimulation, high activity levels
High surgency: lots of positive emotions, physically active, enjoys stimulation, initiates social activities
Negative Affectivity
Tendency toward negative emotion and difficulty settling down when aroused
High negative affectivity: quick to discomfort/sadness, many fears/worries, frustrated/saddened when goals are interrupted, hard to soothe when upset
Effortful Control
Ability to focus/shift attention, inhibit impulses, and cope with low intensity, complex, or new activities
High effortful control: resist temptations, can remain attentive and content in low stimulation environments, persevere through tough tasks, self soothe when distress (good self regulators)
Differential Susceptibility
Same temperament characteristic that puts some children at high risk for negative outcomes when exposed to harsh environment also leads them to blossom when their home environments are positive
Dandelions & Orchids
Dandelions: do well in all but the most high risk environments
Orchids: flourish under supportive conditions, struggle under difficult conditions
Mental Health
Children’s sense of psychological well-being
Internally: emotions and stress levels
Externally: relationships with parents and friends
Stress
Physiological reaction to some change or threat in the environment
Toxic Stress
Chronic high levels of stress and lack supportive adults to mitigate effects
Results in long lasting structural and physiological changes to the brain
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
Traumatic childhood experiences linked to mental and physical health problems later in life
More ACEs led to greater stress, mental health issues, substance use
Consistent regardless of gender, race, education
Mental Disorders
Chronic, negative emotional reactions to aspects of environment or to social relationships that affect daily life and may persist throughout childhood and adulthood
Equifinality
Various factors can lead to same mental disorder
Multifinality
Certain risk factors do not always lead to a disorder
Depression
Sad or irritable mood along with physical and cognitive changes that affect ability to behave and interact in a normal way
Anxiety Disorders
Inability to regulate the emotions fear and worry
Treatment of Internalizing Mental Disorders
Drug therapy common for depression
CBT effective for both depression and anxiety
Internalizing Mental Disorders
E.g. depression and anxiety
Involve internal emotional states
Difficult to identify and diagnose compared with behaviour disorders
