Lecture 4: Emotional Development Flashcards
How do we know an emotion is a basic emotion?
When it appears at an early age
Why is emotion research with children difficult?
- Babies/toddle cannot express their emotions verbally (don’t know why they’re crying)
- For ethical & practical reasons, some methods cannot be used with children
- Most common are observational studies but are still debatable
What does crying in babies mean?
- Distress - newborns’ undifferentiated protest against anything unpleasant or threatening
- typically reflects physical pain, discomfort or response to unexpected loud noise
- a message to getting other’s attention
Is crying contagious? if so, under what circumstance?
Yes, newborn’s will cry is they hear ONLY other newborn’s cry
- they cannot feel another baby is in a stressful situation, just means baby is irritated by the cry
When does the baby understand the other baby’s cry is due to distress?
at 8m
and at 18m, it will be more responsive to their other siblings crying
What is a baby crying in response to fear resemble?
It is similar to baby crying in response to anger
What does smiling in newborn’s mean?
It reflects pleasure (e.g taste), physical comfort during REM sleep
most common during REM sleep - little connection to social situation
When do babies start social smiling?
Social smiling - begins around 2m, initially restricted to the mom/dad/caregiver
Why does social smiling start later?
B/c of visual acuity - 1st babies have blurred vision, they only see your forehead, than by 6-8m start to recognize facial features propoerly
Is smiling learned?
No, b/c even blind babies smile in the same pattern
Is laughter contagious?
Yes
What is the moro reflex? When does it occur?
A sequence in which the infant flings out its arms & spreads its fingers & then contracts quickly into a fetal position with fingers bent
Display this when infant hears a loud noise, when they’re being dropped, bright light, or a figure coming towards them
-they don’t understand these situations r dangerous, but the human NS have developed a resonse that’s innate
What was the study of do babies display discrete emotions? (Oster)
Participants viewed photos of babies (< 7 months old) expressing emotions, tried to guess emotion
- Joy and surprise expressions labeled correctly by > 70% of participants
- not very accurate for negative emotions, Majority labelled distress or sadness instead of the intended label
- results indicate that negative affect expressions are not fully differentiated in infants
- sadness was the default choice when babies looked upset
Do babies experience surprise? (wakely)
Participants: 5 months old babies
Results: Infants look longer at “impossible” event, when the two dolls were still there, but do not show recognizable surprise expression
Argument: Babies might be showing interest more than surprise
When were babies able to show surprise expression?
Until the 14m babies were not able to show surprise expression
When does anger develop? (Sternberg)
Participants: 1-, 4-, and 7-month old infants
Procedure: Arm restraint by experimenter
Results:
1 months: Brows lowered, cheeks raised in expression somewhat distinct from distress
4 months: Some anger expression; infant looks at arm being restrained
7 months: More prototypical anger expression; infant looks at experimenter, or mother.
What were the implications of the sternberg study?
Anger develops from undirected frustration to anger directed at experimenter as infant develops ability to understand situation.
How do emotions develop?
Physical maturation
Cognitive maturation
Social interaction
