Emotional Development Flashcards
What is emotional Awareness
- Being aware of one’s own emotions
- Reacting to the emotions of others (this can be done implicitly)
- Being sensitive to the effects of one’s own emotions or behaviour on others
- Adhering to social conventions of emotional expression
- Regulating our own emotions
- Coping with negative emotions
Why is it important
Appropriate emotional expression, emotional understanding, and empathy essential for effective social and communication
Case of autism
emotion recognition difficulties lead to difficulties with social functioning and relationship formation
Case of alexithymia
difficulties in effectively describing one’s own internal emotional experience associated with difficulties in empathy
Expression of emotions in Infancy
•Basic/primary emotions (Darwin,
1872) – happiness, anger, disgust,
sadness, fear and disgust)
•General agreement that positive
emotions are expressed in response
to positive events from a young age (e.g. Izard, 1992)
•Less agreement as to whether negative emotional expressions match underlying states
Early reactions to the emotions of others
Meltzoff and Moore 1977
Infants as young as 12 days old copy facial expressions
Early reactions to the emotions of others
Caron et al, 1986
Infants can discriminate between the emotional expression of others-habituation paradigm
Early reactions to the emotions of others
Haviland & Lelwicka (1987)
10 week olds respond with happy/angry expressions when their mother is happy/angry
Social referencing
Gibson and Walk 1960
Evidence for innate expression and understanding of emotions early in development
–Infants imitate facial expressions
–Infants show appropriate facial expressions in response to situations
–Infants more likely to cross ‘visual cliff’ in response to smiling than scared caregiver
Appropriate expression and understanding of others’ emotions important for
Communication
Smith 2006; Baron-Cohen et al. 2013
Empathy
●Affective empathy – ability to react implicitly to others emotions
●Cognitive empathy – ability to understand others emotions and where they occur
●Autism – lack cognitive empathy
●Psychopathy – lack affective empathy
Affective empathy
ability to react implicitly to others emotions
●Cognitive empathy
ability to understand others emotions and where they occur
Autism
lack cognitive empathy
●Psychopathy
lack affective empathy
Dunn (1988);
Empathy
●Toddlers attempt to comfort siblings in distress
●Deliberate teasing and hurting
●Suggest basic understanding of their ability to affect the emotional states of others
Acquiring emotional knowledge
Basic understanding of emotions acquired in the
1st 2 years then has to become mentalistic
Wellman, 1990
Acquiring emotional knowledge
One of the first concepts to be integrated into a child’s Theory of Mind
Talking about emotions
Smiley & Huttenlocher, 1989
At about 2 years
Smiley & Huttenlocher, 1989
Conversations about emotions result in
quick accumulation of knowledge (link to language and learning)
Dunn, 1991
Talking about emotions
By age 3 children ask questions about mental states and emotions
Not until much later (6ish) do children fully appreciate the link between
emotions and internal states (they relate emotions to external events)
Understanding the relationship between situation and emotion
Harris, 1987
5 year olds have a basic understanding of the relationship between situations and emotions - but only basic ones (those obviously related to facial expressions
Understanding the relationship between situation and emotion
Graham, 1988
An understanding of less physically obvious emotions is dependant on conversation
So, those that are talked about more are understood earlier
Acknowledging mixed feelings includes
Certain situations result in emotional ambivalence
Acknowledging mixed feelings
Harter (1983) - Asked children
(6,8,10)
if it would be possible to experience two emotions simultaneously and describe example situations
•6 Years – Only those in which one emotion followed another
•8 years – Situations that would give rise to two emotions of the same valence (e.g. sadness and anger)
•10 years – Acknowledge the possibility of feeling two opposing emotions
Acknowledging mixed feelings
Meerum Terwogt et al (1986)
Reversed demands of procedure (explain emotional reactions) – same results
Why?
Early ToM construction is based on simple perceptions of cause and effect relationships between events and emotional reactions
Conflicting emotion cues
Gnepp, J. (1983)
•When presented with conflicting emotional and situational cues, young pre-schoolers base judgements on facial expression alone
–They are unaware of the conflict
•Bias decreased with age
Display rules
•Children subsequently
become aware of display
rules
•Display rules refer to when we need to put on a socially desirable response and suppress an undesirable response
•Needs emotion understanding, empathy
•BUT also emotional regulation, inhibition
–Executive function
Unwanted gift paradigm
Kiera’s et al (2005)
•Children 3-5 years asked to rate different toys
–1st given their favourite toy
–2nd given their least favourite
–Emotional responses video taped and rated
•Measures of effortful control
Slowing down motor response
Display rules
•Children 4-6 years •Inhibition of prepotent response: –Only copy when I say “Simon says” –Don’t touch the “magic robot” until I get back! –Don’t peak while I’m wrapping your well done present! •Emotion regulation: –The well done present is …. –Don’t tell anyone the gold-fish Can talk!
Display rules
Carlson, S. M., & Wang, T. S. (2007)
- Emotion regulation and inhibitory control related
- Even after controlling for age and verbal ability
•Executive control of attention, action, and emotion are skills that develop in concert in the preschool period
Recap – ToM and EF
- Theory of Mind refers to ability to understand others emotional and mental states, and use these to predict behaviour
- Inhibitory control shown to be important for passing Theory of Mind tasks
- Also important for emotion regulation and social skills
Coping with negative emotions
Lazarus & Folkman (1984)
To do this effectively we need to develop strategies
What is strategy use dependant on?
2 types of coping behaviours;
•Problem-focused – aim to remove the actual problem
•Emotion-focused- aim to cope with the resultant emotion
Lazarus & Folkman (1984) -2 types of coping behaviours;
- Problem-focused – aim to remove the actual problem
* Emotion-focused- aim to cope with the resultant emotion
Problem-focused
aim to remove the actual problem
Emotion-focused-
aim to cope with the resultant emotion
Coping Behaviours
Rothbaum et al (1982);
- Primary and Secondary coping strategies
- We use problem-solving strategies first
- Emotion-focused strategies are used;
- If PS ones fail
- We see that PS won’t work before we attempt to use them (e.g. bereavement)
- We foresee negative emotional repercussions of using PS methods (e.g. removing emotional support from a loved one)
Coping strategy use: Development
Band & Weisz (1988)
6 year olds can use Primary strategies inc;
•Avoidance
•Asking help of others
•Direct behavioural intervention
It’s not until much later (10) that children start to use secondary strategies
Why?
Social factors (not confronted with social restrictions, be aware of the consequences of their primary attempts)
But is it more than this?
Emotion as a mental phenomena
●PS strategies effect behaviours
●EF strategies depend on the recognition of emotions as mental phenomena (you can cognitively reappraise situations so as to affect your emotional responses)
How do you react to a poor assignment mark?
●A development of a mentalistic understandings of mind develops at around 4- but this basic
●After that they have to re-appraise their understanding of emotions (and this takes time)
Coping with Guilt and Shame
Ferguson and Stegge, 1998
Harter & Whitesell, 1989
- Most emotions have to be socialised
- Some emotions are dependant on social norms - guilt, pride and shame
- Reflexive emotions – result from our comparisons with social norms
- Shame and Guilt serve important intra & inter-personal functions
- They foster self-improvement & strengthen social relationships
- Real guilt and shame are felt when social norms are internalised (about 8 years)
Coping with Guilt and Shame
Ferguson and Stegge, 1998
•They foster self-improvement & strengthen social relationships
Coping with Guilt and Shame
Harter & Whitesell, 1989
Real guilt and shame are felt when social norms are internalised (about 8 years)
Masking emotions
- Older children appreciate the possibility of people faking their emotions
- Recognising fake emotions is difficult so this is a cognitive discovery rather than a refinement of their observational skills (Harris, 1989)
- The deliberate concealment of emotions begins at about age 7 (Saarni, 1979)
- Based on a developing appreciation of the social consequences of the expression of some emotions
Masking emotions
Harris, 1989
- Older children appreciate the possibility of people faking their emotions
- Recognising fake emotions is difficult so this is a cognitive discovery rather than a refinement of their observational skills
Masking emotions
Saarni, 1979
- The deliberate concealment of emotions begins at about age 7
- Based on a developing appreciation of the social consequences of the expression of some emotions
Individual differences in emotionality
Malatesta & Wilson (1988)
- Surfeit bias- a certain emotion is over used by an individual
- Deficiency bias- under use of a specific emotion
Individual differences in emotionality
Where do these ID’s come from?
Goldsmith, 1993
Temperament
Individual differences in emotionality
Kagan (1994)
- Inhibited vs. uninhibited
- Uninhibited demonstrate more positive emotions
- Suggest that whether inhibited children retain their temperamental style depends on environmental factors (and their resultant emotional awareness)
ID’s in emotionality contd.
Magai & McFadden (1995)
- Parents play an important role in the socialisation of emotions & the development of a full emotional repertoire
- Especially in terms of containing emotions (& the development of guilt and shame) & developing empathy skills
- Imitation is a key factor
ID’s in emotionality contd.
Tronick & Giannino (1987)
Parental depression
Cummings et al (1991) – Anger in children that witness angry confrontations between parents
ID’s in emotionality contd.
Cummings et al (1991)
Anger in children that witness angry confrontations between parents
Typically developing children develop ability to:
–Recognise and react appropriately to others emotions
–Understand and manipulate others thoughts and emotions
•Empathy and ToM important for socialization and communication
–Understand complex emotions and masking
–Regulate their emotions and show appropriate emotions in social situations (display rules)
•Important role of EF in this and ToM
–Develop coping strategies for dealing with negative emotions
•Important for resilience in later life
Autism
Difficulties with socialisation and communication, imagination, restricted obsessive interests
Autism ( 3 circles)
Socialisation
Communication
Imagination (repetitive behaviours / interests)
Emotion and atypical development
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD):
difficulties recognising and responding appropriately to the emotions of others part of diagnostic criteria
Emotion and atypical development
Theories - Baron Cohen et al 1985…
Theory of mind
Emotion and atypical development
Theories - Cognitive empathy …
Baron - Cohen 2013
Emotion and atypical development
Theories
Harms et al 2010
Emotion recognition
Emotion and atypical development
Theories - Emotion expression production…
Sheppard et al 2016
Emotion and atypical development
Theories - emotion regulation…
Mazefsky 2013
Theories into Emotion and atypical development
●Theory of Mind (Baron-Cohen et al. 1985)
●Cognitive empathy (Baron-Cohen, 2013)
●Emotion recognition (Harms et al. 2010)
●Emotion expression production (Sheppard et al. 2016)
●Emotion regulation (Mazefsky et al. 2013)
Alexythymia
●difficulty describing own internal emotional experiences
●Common in ASD
●Difficulties in similar areas of EA as in ASD
●Overlap of symptoms between alexythymia and ASD? (Bird et al. 2010)
Bird et al. 2010
Overlap of symptoms between alexythymia and ASD
Evidence for emotion recognition difficulties in ASD mixed
Risko et al. 2012; Harms et al. 2010
More complex, dynamic emotions more likely to reveal difficulties
Complex emotion processing
Pelphrey et al. 2002
Individuals with ASC tend not to integrate facial features
Complex emotion processingHumphreys et al. 2006
have difficulty processing emotion blends
Complex emotion processing
Ashwin, C., Chapman, E., Colle, L., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2006). Impaired recognition of negative basic emotions in autism: A test of the amygdala theory. Social neuroscience, 1(3-4), 349-363.
Study
Not naturalistic emotions:
–Black and white pictures –Posed or artificially blended –Lack social context –No dynamic cues –No verbal cues
Cassidy et al. 2015; Speer et al. 2007
Eye movements and recognition differ depending on stimuli
Dynamic, more people, verbal cues ….
Freeth et al. 2010; Cassidy et al. 2015
Delay in looking to socially pertinent information rather than absence
Golan, O., Baron-Cohen, S., & Golan, Y. (2008). The ‘reading the mind in films’ task [child version]: Complex emotion and mental state recognition in children with and without autism spectrum conditions. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 38(8), 1534-1541.
Autistic children rely more on verbal content than other cues
Emotions and behaviour do not occur in
Isolation
We also need to be aware of where emotions occur and when they are appropriate
Other ToM tasks only ask us to
Predict behaviour
Emotion in context
Baron- Cohen et al., 1999; Loveland et al., 2001
•Autistic children have difficulty understanding:
–what behaviours are appropriate in different social situations
Emotional development key for
developing social and communication skills
Inhibitory control is also key related factor in
emotion regulation
Social and communication skills
People diagnosed with ASD have difficulty with a number of aspects of
understanding, recognising, attributing, controlling and expressing emotions
Impact of ER difficulties in ASD
McCrimmon, A. W., Matchullis, R. L., & Altomare, A. A. (2016)
•Reduced resilience – adapting to life’s challenges?
–Children with ASD did not score lower on emotional intelligence (EI) or resilience than TD children
–EI and resilience correlated in ASD
Cassidy et al. 2014; Lecavalier, 2006
Emotion regulation in ASD
Irritability, aggression, self-injury, suicidal gestures, anxiety and impulsivity
Cassidy et al. 2014; Lecavalier, 2006
•Suggests difficulties in emotion regulation
•Underlying factors:
–Less goal directed and more internally driven responses
–Poor problem solving, rigidity, impaired ToM
–Sensory hyper-responsivity
–Different presentation of co-occurring mood disorders
Potential impact of double empathy problem?
•Autistic people more likely to experience:
–social isolation
–Loneliness
–Those with high autistic traits more likely to experience thwarted belongingness
Potential impact of double empathy problem?
Heldey et al. 2018; Pelton and Cassidy, 2017
Associated with depression and self-harm
Research yet to explore…
direct impact of double empathy on mental health in ASD …
Impact of Atypical Expression
Sasson, N. J., Faso, D. J., Nugent, J., Lovell, S., Kennedy, D. P., & Grossman, R. B. (2017). Neurotypical peers are less willing to interact with those with autism based on thin slice judgments. Scientific reports, 7, 40700.
- NT peers less likely to want to interact with autistic people based on a brief sample of behaviour
- Occurs within seconds, do not change with exposure, and persists in adult and child groups
Impact of Atypical Expression
•20 ASD and 20 NT participants were videotaped for 60 secs audition for a reality/game show
•NT participants rated autistic participants as less favourable overall (except for transcripts)
–Now what you say, but how you say it
•Rated as more awkward, less attractive, and less inclined to hang out
Impact of Atypical Emotion Expression
Milton, D. E. (2012). On the ontological status of autism: the ‘double empathy problem’. Disability & Society, 27(6), 883-887.
- Autistic people also have difficulty successfully recognising others emotions, interpreting and predicting others behaviour, and responding appropriately
- Additionally, autistic people may be less readable by non-autistic people
- This could result in a ‘Double Empathy Problem’
Emotion expression in ASD
•Similar RM paradigm, but autistic and neurotypical people’s reactions filmed in response to 4 social prompts
–NT participants then inferred what situation cause the response
•NT participants more successful at inferring what happened to NT than autistic targets
•NT participants rated autistic and NT targets as similarly expressive
•NT participants gave different explanations for NT and ASD reactions
Atypical emotion expression in ASD part of diagnostic criteria:
–Lack of emotional expression (flat affect)
–Inappropriate facial expression to situation (e.g. laughing inappropriately)
•Do neurotypical people find autistic people more difficult to mind-read than non-autistic people?
Emotion processing in ASD
Pillai et al. 2014; Cassidy et al. 2014; 2015
Autistic adults have difficulty successfully working out what happened to someone from their response
•Autistic adults learn what emotions are appropriate in different social situations
•Difficulties successfully recognising complex emotions persist into adulthood
Cassidy et al. 2014; 2015
Emotions and ToM
●Adults with autism can understand what emotions are appropriate to each situation
●They make congruent emotion and gift inferences (e.g. positive for chocolate, masked for home-made)
●Autistic adults have difficulty successfully recognising others’ complex emotions
●Particularly masked emotions
●Adults with autism have difficulty with complex emotion recognition, not emotional understanding
Retrodictive Mindreading” – what gift did the person receive, and how did they feel about it?
Complex emotions in context
●Simple emotions – positive / negative : chocolate / monopoly money
●Complex emotion: masking (home-made)
●To do this, we need to:
●Understand the link between emotion and behaviour – how would a chocolate or fake money gift make you feel?
