Emotional Development Flashcards
Components of Emotions (6)
1) neural responses
2) physiological/physical changes
3) subjective feelings
4) emotional expressions
5) cognitions
6) motivation to behavior
Neural Responses
e.g. brain processing info
Physiological/Physical changes
HR, breathing, skin conductance, stress hormones
Subjective Feelings
e.g. sense of dread that you label as fear
Emotional Expressions
e.g. eyebrows raised, mouth pulled back
Cognitions
how we interpret emotions
may notice physiological effects, but not always good at interpreting emotions
4 Main Aspects of Emotional Development
1) Expressions
2) Recognition
3) Understanding
4) Self-regulation
Emotional Expressions
ability to express clearly different emotions
Early Emotional Expressions (1st year of life)
Primary emotions
distress, disgust, interest, surprise, contentment, joy, anger, sadness, fear
Later Emotional Expression (2-3rd year)
Secondary emotions
embarrassment, coyness, shyness, empathy, guilt, jealousy, envy, pride, contempt, gratitude
need to understand that people have different emotions
Which emotion comes in first?
a) happiness
b) embarassment
a) happiness
primary emotion
Emotional Recognition
ability to recognize or become aware of emotions
6 months - can recognize most emotional expressions of others in terms of people’s faces or voices
12 months - social referencing
Emotional Understanding
ability to verbally label and comprehend the use of emotions in themselves and others
Most aspects develop LATER than expression & recognition
preschool years to adolescence
mixed emotions - come in around 9 to 11
Emotional Self-Regulation
ability to control one’s emotional expression
rudiments of emotional self-regulation are seen in shared attention and social referencing late in the 1st year of life
although self-regulation continue to develop throughout childhood
Izard’s Discrete Emotions Theory
emotions are viewed as innate, something ur born with
each emotion has a specific and distinctive set of bodily and facial reactions
Darwin
physiological
largely automatic
basic emotions - anger, sadness, surprise etc. - present early in development, ACROSS CULTURES but may be labelled differently
Functionalist Approach to Emotional Development
individuals experience emotions to manage the relationship between themselves and the environment
basic function: promote action toward achieving a goal
emotions are NOT discrete from one another
vary somewhat based on the social environment
Evolution of smiles from infancy to 2nd year
Early smiles - reflexive, e.g. smiling in response to touch, farting
Social smile: directed towards peoples, starts around 2-3 months
2 months - smile at controlling environment
e.g. when they make a sound they like, pick up rattle
7 months - more likely to smile at familiar people
2nd year - like making jokes and making people laugh
Do different environments lead to different amounts of smiling?
Yes
Peaks at 4 months
Children raised with natural family smile more (vs Kibbutz and institution-raised)
Are negative emotions well-differentiated in early infancy?
No, not in first few months
Parents have to guess, be responsive
Most say by 6 months it is clearly differentiated
Negative emotions affected by physical factors
What is the most adaptive or functional emotion?
Fear
Getting out of harm’s way
What are young children most afraid of?
loud noises, novel things, sudden movements
Factors that affect infant fear of strangers (4)
1) Context
2) Characteristics of stranger
3) Behaviour of stranger
4) Degree of control over strange person or object
Stranger Context
More fear:
-unfamiliar setting (lab)
-no physical contact/distant from familiar figure
-sober or negative reactions to stranger from familiar figure
Less fear:
-familiar setting (home)
-close physical proximity to familiar figure
-positive or encouraging reaction to stranger from familiar figure
Characteristics of Stranger
More fear: adult size and features
Less fear: child size and features
Behaviour of Stranger
More fear: passive and exhibits sober expression
Less fear: active, friendly, smiling
Degree of control over strange person or object
More fear: low control and unpredictability
Less fear: high control and predictability
Separation anxiety begins at ___ months and peaks at ___ months
8 months
13 months
What is a major influence on separation anxiety?
culture
less in cultures where children are used to being around lots of people
When is a child more likely to experience fear?
a) when they leave their mother
b) when the mother leaves them
b) when the mother leaves them
When do young children tend to get angry?
When they are frustrated
e.g. removed, restrained, left, or put down
If a child is sad in a situation that would typically invoke fear, what could this indicate?
Neglect or abuse
Not good
Learned helplessness reaction
Self-Conscious/Complex Emotions (4)
1) Embarrassment
2) Pride
3) Guilt
4) Shame
Which emotion is worse?
a) guilt
b) shame
b) shame
Embarassment
18 - 24 months - become embarrassed at being center of attention
e.g. 1-year olds birthday - not sure what to think but are happy
e.g. 2-year olds birthday - will hang their head because they’re embarassed
Pride
Apparent pretty early
Great pride in 1st steps
When older, more pride in difficult tasks
Guilt
about what YOU did
different than shame
a better thing that shame
Shame
about who you ARE
the self
shame in 5th grade - more delinquent behaviour in adolescence, live up to self-perceptions
In which culture would you expect greater pride over individual accomplishment?
a) Canada
b) Japan
a) Canada
Japan is more collectivist
Experiment with leg falling off doll
showed that guilt and shame are distinguishable quite early
rigged doll so that leg would fall off
some children - shame reaction - hide the doll, avoid telling experimenter
some children - guilt reaction - try to fix doll, tell the adult early on
When would a child feel more pride?
a) when they fail at a difficult task
b) when they fail at an easy task
a) when they fail at a difficult task
Can children recognize basic emotions in infancy?
Yes
But doesn’t mean they understand them
Social Referencing
Use of a parent’s or another adult’s facial expression or vocal cues to decide how to deal with novel, ambiguous, or possibly threatening situations
When can children start to understand the causes of basic emotions?
Preschool
e.g. happy because they have ice cream, sad because their dog is lost
When do children understand that you can experience multiple emotions at once?
Middle childhood
When do childhood understand the concept of mixed emotions (opposite, conflicting emotions)?
Age 10
Display Rules
social group’s informal norms about when, where, and how much one should show emotions and when and where displays of emotion should be suppressed or masked by displays of other emotions
helps with understanding fake emotions
vary based on culture
Steep increase in learning this in middle childhood:
between ages 4 → 6 → 8
even babies show differences in display rules based on culture (has to do with genetics, temperature, parents)
e.g. American baby being more vocal than Chinese baby
2 Main Components of Display Rules
1) Simulating an emotion
2) Masking an emotion
Simulating an emotion
Usually do this to be NICE
e.g. pretending you like aunt’s cooking
Masking an emotion
Usually do this for SELF-PROTECTION
e.g. pretending not to be afraid of bully
Emotional Regulation
very important aspect of emotional development***
set of both conscious and unconscious processes used to both monitor and modulate emotional experiences and expressions
develops very slowly and gradually
Components of Early Regulation (3)
1) co-regulation
2) self-comforting behaviours
3) self-distraction
Co-regulation
process by which a caregiver provides the needed comfort or distraction to help a child reduce his or her distress
early infancy
external - parents doing it for the baby
Self-Comforting Behaviours
repetitive actions that regulate arousal by providing a mildly positive physical sensation
e.g. sucking finger, rubbing hands together
decreases over time
Self-Distraction
looking away from an upsetting stimulus in order to regulate one’s level of arousal
e.g. turning head away from noise
increases over time
somewhat - 6 months
consistent distraction - 12 months
When do outbursts in children peak?
1.5 years
when they develop a sense of self
Boys - show anger, more reactive in childhood
Girls - more socialized not to express anger
Still Face Experiment
Showed how important parent responsiveness is
mom keeping still face and not smiling at baby is very distressing for baby
not connecting in early development is a predictor of depression
Emotion Socialization
process through which children acquire the values, standards, skills, knowledge, and behaviours that are regarded as appropriate for their present and future roles in their particular culture
e.g. America - encourage children to express emotions, other places - mask
Emotion Coaching
use of discussion and other forms of instruction to teach children how to cope with and properly express emotions
e.g. reading to kids, why do you think the character in the story feels that way
Determinants of Temperament (3)
1) Genetics - strong!
2) Teratogens
3) Parenting
Thomas & Chess’s Categories of Temperament (3)
1) Easy Child
2) Difficult Child
3) Slow-to-warm Child
What is the most common temperament?
Easy child
What is the least common temperament?
Difficult child
Easy Child Temperament
40%
moods of mild to moderate intensity, usually positive
responds well to novelty and change
quickly develops regular sleep schedule and feeding schedule
takes to new foods easily
smiles at strangers
adapts easily to new situation
accepts most frustrations with little fuss
Difficult Child Temperament
10%
intense and frequently negative moods
cries often and loudly, laughs loudly
responds poorly to novelty and change, new situations, routines
sleeps and eats irregularly
accepts new foods slowly
suspicious of strangers
reacts to frustration with tantrums
Slow-to-warm Child Temperament
15%
mildly intense reactions, both positive and negative
responds slowly to novelty and change
sleeps and eats more regularly than the difficult child, less regularly than the easy child
mildly negative initial response to new stimuli (e.g. first encounters)
fine as long as your introduce slowly
gradually dev
Rothbart’s Temperament Questionnaire Components (5)
1) Fearful/distress/anger/frustration/inhibition
-worry, nervousness, startling, being afraid
2) Irritable distress
-limitations, task interruption, fuss, protest
3) Attention span
-for extended period
4) Activity level
-gross motor movements
5) Positive affect - e.g. smiling and laughter
Stability of Temperament Over Time
conflicting results
more stable later in childhood
kids at extremes more likely to retain
more stability for emotions than activity
Goodness of Fit
degree to which an individual’s temperament is compatible with the demands and expectations of his or her social environment
Differential Susceptibility
some babies sensitive to parenting style - orchids
some babies thrive no matter what - dandelions
e.g. orchid
good parenting, do really really well
poor parenting, do really really bad
What has more of an effect on the child-parent relationship?
a) temperament
b) quality of the relationship
b) quality of the relationship
Equifinality
many routes can come to the same end point
end point: depression - can be caused by child abuse, mom’s PPD
Multifinality
same thing can cause many different end points
e.g. child neglect
end point:
-boys - externalizing problems
-girls - internalizing problems
