Unit 10 - Emotional Development Flashcards
emotions
changes in: neural activity, physiological state, subjective experience, expressions reflecting one’s internal experience, thoughts, motivations, actions
do you feel or think about your emotions first?
we feel the affect on our physiological state before it enter our cognition to determine what that emotion is
discrete emotion theory
- basic emotions and their expressions are innate products of evolution
- each has a unique psychobiological basis and found across all cultures
- paul ekman
functionalist perspective on where emotions come from
- emotions are goal-oriented and accordingly vary by social context
- does not draw hard distinctions between emotions and their roots
- Lisa Feldman barret
- still evolving theory
what are the 6 basic emotions?
- anger
- happy
- fear
- sadness
- surprise
- disgust
happiness
expression: smiling, rasing cheeks, squinting eyes
first signs: in the first month, babies can start to smile in the REM sleep, this decreases with age
- between 3-8 weeks, smile response in a range of stimuli (social smiling)
- by 7 months, familiarity plays a role, smile at people hey normally see but not so much with strangers
- by age 1, kids can find pleasure in funny noise, appearances, language, behaviuor
fear
expression: mouth open or closed (corners are pulled backwards and down), eyes are wide open, middle eyebrow raised
first signs: little evidence in first few month (sensory systems are still developing), rely on adults to keep them safe
- develop stranger anxiety around 7-8months, will continue to intensify until year 2
- lots of variability in fearfulness (individual differences and contextual factors)
- necessary for survival (evolutionary perspective)
- develop separation anxiety (distress when one is separated from the figure of attachment), shown to increase between 8 to 15 months
anger
expression: furrowed brows, flared nostrils, square mouth, baring teeth
first signs: hard to pinpoint (can be mixed with sadness), better to use distress as the signal to say that something is wrong
- by 4 months, anger can be clearly evoked (study with baby and interrupting their goal of reaching for the toy)
- react with anger peaks between 18-24 months and has a general decline from age 3 onwards due to language skills increased, understanding others pov, and sensitivity to social norms
sadness
expression: downturned corners of mouth, lips pushed together, slightly furrowed brow
first signs: some signs in early infancy but hard to distinguish from anger (distress), starts to become evident when not being shown care
- study with toy being taken away, when they look towards their mother, most children showed sadness to elicit social support
surprise (something unpredictable has occurred)
expression: eyes wide open, arched eyebrows, mouths in O shape
first signs:
- not the same thing as the startled response, which is more of a reflex (attention-grabbing stimulus), present at birth
- when something defies your expectations, you are surprised (not a relfex), challenge to expectations< emerges over 6 months
disgust
expression: nose crinkled, nostrils flared, mouth open and lips pulled back
- important as it promotes us from avoiding things that might make up sick (avoid this)
- study with just birhted babies a sour and sweet solution to suck on, they show obvious difference in expression
- begin calling things yucky.gross early in toddlerhood
- before age 9, they often confuse disgust with anger
self0consciuos emotions
emotions related to one’s senstivity to the perception and reactions fo others and one’s perception of oneself (guilty, shame and shyness)
guilt
- focused specifically on one’s actions and thier consequences for others
- feelings of remorse, regret, empathy for other
- associated with attempts to remedy the situation
shame
- focused more broadly on one’s feeling of self-worth, inherent value
- feelings of being a failure, exposed, needing to hide
- associated with social avoidance, withdrawal, not making amends
guilt and shame in kids
- guilt increases from 2nd to 3rd year
- promote feeling guilt vs shame by focusing on behaviour not traits, guiding empathy to repair, avoiding humiliation
- cultural difference in shame and guilty
- more guilt is shown to have fewer behaviours in the future
- more shame is shown to lead to more risky behaviuors
shyness
fear, discomfort, and reticence when faced with new social situations and the potential for social evaluation
- conflict between social approach and social avoidance motivations
- starts to emerge in early middle childhood
- strong predictor of later social anxiety