expression and recognising emotional expressions Flashcards
1
Q
3 ares of children’s emotional developmnet
A
- the ability to recognise different emotional expression
- children’s understanding of emotions
- how young children become able to regulate their emotions
2
Q
are expressions of emotions innate
A
- Darwin [1872] argued ability to communicate emotions through facial expressions is innate
this has been investigated by exploring:
- whether different emotional facial expressions are universally understood
- whether newborns spontaneously produce recognisable facial expressions
3
Q
cross-cultural evidence for universaility of human facial expressions
A
- Ekman and Friesen [1971] found cross-cultural similarity in adults’ interpretation of facial expression when showing fore people from New Guinea photographs of western adults’ face expression
- Ekman [1973] found the same when Americans were showed face expressions go the fore people
4
Q
basic infant emotional expression
8
A
- happiness
- interest
- surprise
- disgust
- sadness
- distress
- anger
- fear
5
Q
complex infant emotional expression
6
A
- pride
- shyness
- jealousy
- guilt
- shame
- embarrassment
6
Q
debate over emergence of basic VS complex emotions in early life
A
- some have suggested that complex emotions are not evidence until the second year of life [ Dunn, 1994; Harris 1989; Lzard 1994]
- others have suggested that very young infants may show complex emotions
- Reddy and colleagues found that infants as young as 2-4 months could display shyness and embarrassment [Draghi-Lorenz et al., 2005; Reddy, 2000]
remains controversial
7
Q
studies on adult interpretation of infant expression
A
Izard et al. [1980]
- adults could accurately judge facial expressions in 1-9 month old infants following either a pleasant or unpleasant experience, such as being given an injection, or during a playful interaction
- but they are less accurate in discriminating types of negative facial expression, eg fear compared to anger [Oster et al., 1992]
8
Q
infant identification of facial expressions
NOT STUDIES
A
understanding of emotions would require more than just demonstrating them but identifying them in others
- this has been examined using habituation-dishabituation technique
- if you show an infant the same stimulus repeatedly they will become bored and look at it less [i.e. habituate], if you show them a new stimulus, looking time will identify if they recognise that is it different
9
Q
infant identification of facial expressions
STUDIES [3]
A
- Barrera and Maurer [1981] 3-month-old could distinguish between smiling and frowning
- Canon et al. [1987] 4-7 months old could distinguish between happiness and surprise
- but this doesn’t mean they know what the face expression means
10
Q
emotional understandingf
A
- there is evidence that 2-3 year olds perform better than chance [Denham, 1986]
- but there is some evidence of 18 month old infants appreciating someone else’s emotion
- Repacholi and Gopnik [1997] infants watched experimenter taste broccoli and crackers, reacting positively to broccoli and negatively to crackers. 18 month old selected to ‘feed’ the experimenter broccoli even though personal preference for cracker
11
Q
the role of modelling research
A
- around 10 months children start to use social referencing, where infants look to the caregiver for how to act or respond
- this different from emotions contagion where infants demonstrate the same emotion as their caregiver
- the effect of social referencing is particularly enhanced which child feels uncertain
- parent influence can be
- direct [language or action]
- indirect [obserbation and modelling]
12
Q
modelling and mental health
a study
A
Murray et al. [2008]
- sample of mothers with social anxiety and control mothers
- mothers interacted with a stranger in full view of their child
- children first observed at 10 months and again at 14 months
- mothers with social phobia displayed more anxiety during interaction with strangers
- at 10 months no difference in infant behaviour
- at 14 months, infants who were behaviourally inhibited and had mothers with social phobia showed increased avoidance of stranger by 14 months
13
Q
children’s language and emotional understanding
A
- children begin to talk about emotion from a young age
- Bretherton et al. [1981] reported accounts of children using emotion words as young as 18 months of age with rapid increase in emotional vocab during 3rd year of life
- Bretherton and Beeghly [1982] found that 28 month olds could use emotion words to comment on their own and others behaviours
- “you sad, daddy?”
- “Bees everywhere. Scared me!”
14
Q
langauge and fear learning
A
Racheman [1977] 3 pathways to fear learning; classical conditioning, observation and verbal info
- parents communicate messages of threat and safety
- parents of anxious children communicate more ‘anxious’ messages [eg ‘be careful’] [Beidel & Turner, 1998]
- Moore et al. [2004] anxious mothers used more catastrophising in their communication
- Suveg et al. [2005] anxious mothers described positive emotions less
15
Q
Pass et. al [2017]
A
- 65 preschool children and their mothers
- Asked the mothers ‘are you worried about your child starting school?’
- Asked the mothers to talk to their child about social aspects of school.
- Children used doll-play to complete brief scenarios aboutschool
- Mothers who said they were worried were more likely to:
- mention unresolved threat
- use at least one anxiety-related word
- show clear/consistent negativity across their description of school
- Emotional tone of mother’s description was associatedwith child’s own representations of school
16
Q
emotional regulation
A
- Young children tend to be bad at hiding their true feelings
- but children as young as 3 years old show some ability to control the expression of mild negative emotions [Cole, 1986]
- This is likely due to learning from others reactions when displaying emotions
- by the age of 5yrs, some children have even learnt that some positive emotions are undesirably eg showing off [Reissland & Harris, 1991]
