Emotional Development in Children Flashcards
What are emotions?
Neural responses to a stimuli
They are involuntary bodily responses
Feelings make us aware of our emotions
What method is usually used to identify children’s emotions?
Focus on their facial expressions
-AFFEX is a system for coding emotions in infants, looks at the link between particular facial expressions & facial muscle movements
What are some limitations of relying on focusing on facial expressions to identify children’s emotions, and systems used for this such as AFFEX?
- Often hard to determine exactly which emotions infants are experiencing
- Is particularly difficult to differentiate among negative emotions that young infants express
AFFEX: - Very complex
- Takes hours to understand what muscles move for different facial expressions
What are the four emotions that adults typically discuss?
Happiness, Anger, Fear, Sadness
What is recommended to do when trying to study emotions of babies in order to make it easier (rather than attempt to identify all individual emotions)?
Split emotions into two categories: positive emotions and negative emotions
Outline what happens in each stage of the development of Smile/Happiness?
1-3or4 weeks: smiles are physiological reaction, not representative of any emotions
3or4-8 weeks: children smile as reaction to stimulus
3-4 months onwards: babies laugh as well as smile, social smiles (directed at people)
7-8 months: babies smile at people they know, research suggests babies smile more towards people than objects, smile more when can control event e.g. attach string to child’s arm so string moves when baby moves
1 year onwards: expression of happiness increases to wider objects&events as cognition develops
Why is it difficult to know whether a baby experiences different types of negative emotions?
- The type of cry a baby makes might be determined on position of their head, their respiration & eye fixation
- It’s possible they express mixed emotions rather than differentiated emotions
- The same child in same situation might express different emotions e.g. might show fear one time and anger another time
How old is a baby when they start to show fear?
- At around 4 months there is evidence that children start to experience wariness with unfamiliar people&objects
- 6-7 months: first signs of fear.
- Fear of strangers
intensifies&lasts until
age 2
- Shown by Braungart-
Rieker, J. M., Hill-
Soderlund, A. L., &
Karrass, J. (2010)
What other emotion do infants typically express at the same time as anger?
Sadness
- this is to indicate distress
How old is an infant when they start to clearly express anger?
12 months: clearly express anger
18-24 months: express more anger
3-6 years: express less anger because can express themselves with language
As infants get older, they can demonstrate more sadness. What situation in particular causes the expression of sadness?
When they are separated from their parents/carers & nobody gives them attention.
What are self-conscious emotions?
Guilt, Shame, Jealousy, Empathy, Pride & Embarrassment
At what age do children start to express self-conscious emotions?
2 years old & onwards
- develop at same time as child develops sense of self
What is separation anxiety?
How old are children when it emerges?
The distress of a baby/toddler, experienced if primary caregiver is separated from them.
- Experienced more if caregiver moves away from child rather than child moving away from caregiver
Typically emerges at 8 months old
What happens if separation anxiety persists?
It can become a disorder, starting as early as 3-4 y.o. &continuing into adulthood
- Children can become very tearful when they feel as though they’re alone, can range from subtle crying to extreme tantrums.
- Children are difficult to comfort when they feel anxious due to separation
