Task 5 Flashcards
What is emotional intelligence?
Set of abilities that contribute to competence in social and emotional domains.
What is an emotion?
Characterized by neural and physiological responses,sujective feelings,cogniions rlated to those feelings and the desire to act, including escape, approach or change people or things in the environment.
What are the different theories on nature and the emergence of emotions?
Differential/Discrete emotions theory
Functionalist approach
Dynamic systems theory
Differential/discrete emotions theory
Theory about emotions in which they are viewed as innate and discrete from very early in life, and each emotion is believed to be packaged with a specific and distinctive set of bodily and facial reactions.
Functionalist approach
Theory of emotion that argues that the basic function of emotions is to promote action towards achieving a goal. Here, emotions are not discrete from one another and vary somewhat based on social environment.
- Example: Fear causes us to flee/avoid stimulus representing threat (= goal of self-preservation) / Children’s experience of emotions is related to values and standards from parents (= social environment).
Dynamic systems theory
Novel forms of functioning arise through spontaneous coordination of components interacting repeatedly.
- Cognitions, emotional feelings and neural events link together with each occasion to form a coherent ‘emotional interpretation’.
Positive emotions through the ages
First clear sign of happiness that infants express is a smile.
First month – Fleeting smiles, primarily during REM phase of sleep. Seems to be evoked by biological state rather than social interactions.
Third – eight week – Smile in reaction to external stimuli (= touching, high-pitched voices).
2 months age – Happiness was showed in social and nonsocial contexts, in which they can control particular event.
By third month – Exhibit social smiles, that is, smiles directed toward people. These strengthen infants’ relationship with other people.
7 months age – Smiling at familiar people rather than at people in general. It motivates parents to interact with them, prolonging positive social interactions. It makes parents feel special and strengthens bond between them.
Late in first year – Cognitive development allows children to take pleasure from unexpected events.
Second year of life – Children enjoy making others laugh. It demonstrates their desire to share positive emotion and activities with parents.
Preschool and elementary school years – Expression of positive emotion declines, because children learn that expression of some emotions might be inappropriate in some contexts, like working on tasks.
Negative emotions through the ages
First negative emotion in newborn infants is generalized distress, evoked by experiences ranging from hunger and pain, to overstimulation.
By 2 months age – Facial expressions appearing to represent anger and sadness have been differentiated from each other, as well as distress/pain situations.
From 5 to 12 months age – Correspondence between context and infants’ emotional expressions becomes more consistent.
Negative emotions include fear, distress, anger and sadness.
From age 3 to 6 years – Children show less negative emotion because they have the ability to express themselves with language.
What is the regulation of emotions?
Process of initiating, inhibiting, or modulating internal feeling states and related physiological processes, cognitions and behaviors.
Emotions have regulatory function because they affect nature of child’s thoughts and behaviors in specific situations.
What is the development of emotional regulation characterized by?
Three general age-related patterns of change.
1. Transition from infants’ relying on others to regulate their emotions to them being able to self-regulate in early childhood
.2. Increasing use of cognitive strategies and planful problem solving to control negative emotions.
3. Increasing selection and use of appropriate, effective regulating strategies.
- Transition from infants’ relying on others to regulate their emotions to them being able to self-regulate in early childhood
- 2-month-old – Parents regulate emotional arousal by soothing or distracting infants.
- By 6 months age – Infants reduce distress by unselectively averting their gaze from source of distress.
Self-soothe – Infants can rub or stroke their body repetitively. - 9 – 12 months – Children show awareness of adults’ demands and begin regulating themselves accordingly.
- Second year (1-year-old) – Children are able to inhibit motor behavior when asked to do so (still limited, though).
By age 3 – 5 years, these abilities have improved considerably and continue to do so in school years and beyond.
2Increasing use of cognitive strategies and planful problem solving to control negative emotions.
- In unpleasant and threatening circumstances, children rethink their goal, so they can adapt to situation.
This ability helps them avoid acting in counterproductive ways.
- Increasing selection and use of appropriate, effective regulating strategies.
- With age, children become aware that adopting a particular coping behavior depends on specific need, goal and nature of problem.
- Planning and problem-solving skills improve across childhood and adolescence.
- Children become able to distinguish between controllable and uncontrollable stressors – They adapt to situation rather than changing it.
How do children differ in their emotional regulation?
Children differ in their timidity, expression of positive emotion and way they deal with emotions. It is thought that a combination of genetic and environmental factors jointly contributes to these individual differences.
Temperament
Nature and nurture
Constitutionally based individual differences in emotional, motor and attentional reactivity and self-regulation that demonstrate consistency across situations, as well as relative stability over time.
Nurture – Temperament also refers to neural development, hormonal responding, that can be affected by nutritional deficiencies, maternal stress, exposure to drugs, premature birth, maternal insensitivity or child abuse during early years of life.
Nature – Temperament also refers to genetically inherited characteristics.
Classification of babies in terms of temperament
Easy babies – Adjust to new situations, establish daily routines and are cheerful in mood and easy to calm.
Difficult babies – Slow to adjust to new situations, react negatively to novel stimuli/events, irregular in daily routines and bodily functions.
Slow-to-warm babies – Difficult at first but easier over time, as the contact with new objects/people/situations increases.
Six dimensions of infant temperament
- Fearful distress/inhibition – Duration of distress and withdrawal in new situations.
- Irritable distress – Anger and frustration if child is not allowed to do what he/she wants to.
- Attention span and persistence – Duration of orienting toward objects/events of interest.
- Activity level – How much infant moves.
- Positive effects/approach – Degree to which child smiles, laughs and approaches people, and is cooperative and manageable.
- Rhythmicity – Regularity and predictability of child’s bodily functions (= eating and sleeping).
A seventh dimension was suggested – Agreeableness/Adaptability.
Exhibition of positive emotions and behaviors towards others (agreeableness) and ability to adjust to specific conditions (adaptability).
What have differences in aspects of temperament been associated with?
Differences in aspects of temperament have been associated with differences in children’s social competence and maladjustment.
Longitudinal study – Young children that were negative and unregulated have more problems with adjustment as adolescents/young adults. Later in life, they were more prone to poorer physical health, greater substance dependence and more criminal offenses.
Whta is differential susceptibility?
‘For better or for worse’ pattern that occurs because aspect of temperament and behavior that are adaptive for survival vary across positive and negative social contexts.
Different types of environment for differential susceptibility to occur?
Stressful environment – Children express negative emotions to obtain attention and vital resources needed for survival.
Supportive environment – Children are more sensitive to parents’ attempts to socialize positive behaviors.
