Emotional development Flashcards
Explain how positive, negative and self-conscious emotions emerge and develop Discuss whether emotions are innate Describe emotion regulation and why it is an important skill Define temperament and its different components Explain how temperament can be measured and the strengths and weaknesses of each approach Discuss the role of other people, parents and culture in a child’s emotional development
Define a basic emotion and give an example
Emotion in its purest form
anger, happiness, sadness
Define a complex emotion and given an example
Blend of emotions
nostalgia
Whats the earliest sign of positive emotion
During the first month infants smile during REM sleep. Between 3rd and 8th week infants smile at people. At 3 months they smile at those who talk to them. At 7 months they smile at familiar people.
Whats the earliest sign of negative emotion
Distress issues due to hunger, pain or over stimulation. Its thought that this is generalised distress and hard to tell what the infant is feeling. Some research can tell anger and sadness apart in 2 month olds
When does fear emerge
At 4 months infants become wary of unfamiliar objects. At 6-7 months they are wary of strangers. This fear intensifies until 2 years old. At 7 months they fear loud sounds, sudden movements and novel toys.
How does separation anxiety emerge
At 8 months infants are distressed when taken away from their caregiver. They show more distress when their parents walks away from them. It increases until 15 months
How does anger emerge
At their first birthday infants clearly show anger, this increases until 16 months when they begin to be able to take control f their environment. They show more anger at 18 than 36 months probably because they can verbally express themselves.
Explain when self conscious emotions emerge
By their second year infants show guilt, pride, shame and embarrassment.
What is the discrete emotion theory
It developed Darwins theory that emotions are innate by arguing that all emotions are packages with a specific set of physiological, bodily and facial expressions so they can be differentiated
How do researchers use basic affect systems to argue emotion isn’t innate
They say infants only experience excitement and distress in the first few weeks and other emotions emerge later. Basic affect systems (joy, anger, fear) undergo developmental changes during the first few weeks of life.
Whats the functionalist approach to describe emotional development
1.) A basic function of emotions is to promote action towards achieving a goal in a given context.
2.) emotional reactions are affected by social goals, including other relationships with people involved, values learnt
Some emotions need interaction to develop
Define self regulation
The set of processes whereby people seek to redirect or dampen down their feelings of emotion.
What are the 3 stages to emotional regulation
- ) The transition from caregiver to self-regulation
- ) the use of cognitive strategies and problem solving to control negative emotions
- ) the selection of appropriate strategies
Why is emotional regulation important
It fosters social competence which helps us achieve our goals and maintain positive relationships. They also do better at school
Define temperament
It describes a person’s emotional, attentional reactivity and self regulation that show consistency across situations and stability over time
What are the 6 aspects of temperament
- ) fearful distress / inhibition; distress in new situations
- ) irritable distress; anger the the child doesn’t get what they want
- ) attention span; duration or orienting towards objects of interest
- ) activity levels
- ) positive affect / approach; approach to people / cooperativeness
- ) rhythmicity; regularity of routines
Strengths and weaknesses of questionnaires to measure temperament
Strengths: parents have extensive knowledge of their Childs behaviour
weaknesses: parents can be objective and don’t know other children behaviour to compare it to
Strengths and weaknesses of lab measures to measure temperament
Strengths: data is objective and less likely to be bias
Weaknesses: behaviour is only observed in a limited setting and could just reflect their mood
Strengths and weaknesses of physiological measures to measure temperament
Strengths: objective data
weaknesses: its hard to tell if is a cause of consequence of temperament in a situation
How do parents effect emotion development
- ) Their own expression of emotion with their child and other people (less emotion in the house makes children think they should express emotion less)
- ) their reactions to their child expressing emotion (parents who criticise emotion have less emotionally competent children)
- ) Discussions about emotion and emotion regulation (parents who teach children when to express emotion have more emotionally competent children)
