Week 11: emotional development Flashcards
An essential part of social competence is the ability to…
Express emotions in a regulated way and understand the emotions of others
What is emotional development?
The way emotions change or remain stable across the lifespan
What are the main distinctions between the emotions of adults and children (4)?
Children display fewer types of emotions
Physiological patterns related to emotions differ from adults (e.g. heartrate, sweating)
Children have fewer and simpler verbal emotional concepts (may only say someone is happy, sad or angry not much of a range)
Children may experience the same types of emotions as adults but manifested in different ways
What are the 3 elements of emotional development?
- Emotional expression
- Regulation of emotional experience
- Emotional understanding or recognition (understand how other people are feeling)
How long do real emotions last?
Between half a second and four seconds
Shorter or longer in duration and it is likely to be fake
Being emotionally competent means…
knowing what expressions are appropriate in the situation
Latency of emotional expression?
Time of stimulation to the time expression begins
Onset of emotional expression?
Latency to the maximal level of expression
Apex of emotional expression?
period the expression is maintained at maximal strength
Offset of emotional expression?
Apex to the disappearance of expression
Intensity of emotional expression?
Depth or strength of the emotional experience
Can infants express emotion?
Yes they can.
Crying (most important to show distress or pain)
Smiling also becomes important
Explain infant smiling?
Reflexive smiles (often during sleep - 1 month) Social smiles (2-3 months in response to a stimulus) Is reinforced when caregivers show appreciation
Emotional masking in childhood?
Children learn to mask negative emotional expression as they learn more about the rules of social interaction
They learn that expressing most intense emotional reactions may not lead to goals being met
Emotional expression in adolescence and adulthood?
- Can be completely masked
- Become more mixed/complex
What is regulation of emotional experience?
How we control and direct our behaviour while emotional signals are being communicated
We can learn to regulate emotion in 3 different ways. What are these?
- Emotionally: ceasing to feel an emotion
- Cognitively: cognitive restructuring or shifting focus
- Behaviourally: doing something that changes the way that they feel
When is regulating emotion important?
In adolescence, as they deal with demands of emerging adulthood
Better self-regulation of emotional experience =
better psychosocial outcomes
Emotional regulation with experience?
It improves with experience however it does decline with cognitive capacities so we see an upside down U from adolescence - middle adulthood - late adulthood
What does it mean to understand and recognise emotion?
interpreting and encoding emotional signals from others
How does emotional understanding/recognition improve?
It improves with cognitive development, so it improves with age
What is an important skill to have to be able to understand and recognise emotions?
Theory of mind
(Understanding that people can feel different to how you do and understanding that what is on their face may not be what they are really feeling)
Knowledge of emotion and their functions across the lifespan is essential for..
Understanding normal development and diagnosing and treating developmental psychopathology
Where did Freud suggest emotion came from?
Conflict between the id and the ego creating a mental energy that fuels your behaviour (initially)
He later thought that it was a sign of anxiety and using repression to keep it down
What are the critiques for Freud’s theory of emotion?
There is no description of any other emotions and there is no explanation for the development of emotions
Who contrasted Freud’s theory of emotion?
Spitz with genetic field theory - he wanted to deemphasize the focus on internal drives
What is genetic field theory?
Considered instead the affective relations between the mother and infant
And was the first to consider milestones in children’s emotional development
What 3 organising principles did Spitz come up with regarding childrens emotional development?
Are there any critiques?
- The smiling response (thought this was the childs first stage of recognising the difference between themselves and others) - 3 months
- Anxiety in the presence of a stranger (getting to know who you can trust) - 8 months
- Semantic communication (negativism) - (learning to communicate and say no)
Doesn’t really go past this early childhood so is not really used
What are the 3 basic human emotions as proposed by Watson and Morgan in behaviourist theory? what were they thought to be?
FEAR
RAGE
LOVE
Thought to be habits or reflexes conditioned by the environment
What did cognitive approaches to emotion suggest?
That it is the appraisal that is important (personal significance of an event - how you see it)
Emotions do not occur without an antecedent appraisal of the event and it is this appraisal that causes the emotion
What is the dynamic integration theory of emotion?
Based on Piaget’s work on cognitive development
As cognition develops, it transforms our emotional repertoire and regulation
- new emotions emerge
- ability to coordinate negative emotions develop
What is the trait theory of emotion?
Temperament considered to be to biological basis of personality
What did Thomas and Chess find regarding the trait theory of emotion?
That 60% of children could be categorised as:
Easy children - regular cycles, positive approach to novelty, mostly good mood
Difficult children - irregular cycles, negative approach to novelty, slow to adapt to change, often frustrated, problems with social expectations
Slow to ward up children - fairly regular cycles, mild negative approach to novelty but accepted after repeated exposure
RECENT RESEARCH HAS FAILED TO REPLICATE
What did Eisenberg think regarding the trait theory of emotion?
That there were 3 temperament types that were intrinsically related to social-emotional development
- Self-regulation/effortful control: have strategies to regulate emotion, can self-sooth
- Negative affect/emotionality: easily distressed, cry often, inhibited (mask emotions)
- Positive affect/approach: approach novel situations and people, uninhibited (don’t mask emotion)
What are Ekman’s basic emotional expressions (6)?
These are universal and cross-culturally recognised
- Happiness
- Sadness
- Anger
- Surprise
- Disgust
- Fear
What did Ekman say were secondary emotions?
Not pure emotions, or a combination
Children cannot recognise them easily
- Amusement
- Contempt
- Contentment
- Embarrassment
- Excitment
What is the facial feedback hypothesis?
Emotions cause facial expressions (different musculature changes) that can provide us with cues about what emotion a person or ourselves is feeling
What is the dynamic systems theory of emotion?
Elements interact reciprocally (adjusting themselves to each other and to other people and events in social interaction)
- Appraisals: assessments of relations between perceived events and persons goals, motives and concerns
- Affect systems: biological and bodily processes that contribute to the experience of emotion
- Overt action tendencies: the need to act in the context of a given type of appraised event and affective experience
What is morality?
A system of values and systems of conduct based on the distinction between right and wrong
What is moral reasoning?
The thinking process behind deciding whether an act is right or wrong
What is moral development?
Maturational changes in judgements, behaviours and emotions about what is right or wrong
Babies and toddlers are seen as…
immoral
At what age do infants begin to show empathic concern for others?
13-15 months
At what age do children show distress when anticipating disapproval for violating standards?
18-24 months
What else might help with moral development?
Theory of mind - taking others perspectives and being good to others
Adolescence that engage in juvenile delinquency show what in comparison to those that do not?
Less empathy and concern for others
As well as little guilt over their acts
Some moral development can still occur at what age?
In people’s 20s and 30s
- But no obvious major further development in later adulthood
What did Freud say about moral development?
He focussed on guilt and shame in moral development (you have strong innate desires doe things that may be immoral and guilt then occurs becuase your superego is strong as well)
Before age 5: parents enforce standards
After age 5: internalise parents standards and the superego now guides your own behaviour
Adolescence: superego becomes more independent
When did Freud say moral sentiment begin?
When children develop empathy or begin to consider others’ perspectives
- Basically theory of mind
Which of the things Freud claimed surrounding moral development are still important today?
Early relationships with parents are an important part of morality and motivate moral behaviour
Children must internalise moral standards in some way if they are to behave morally without an authoritative figure present
Which of the things Freud claimed surrounding moral development are unsupported today?
Moral children do not come from punitive parents (instead warm and responsive parents)
Males do not have stronger super egos than females
What was Piaget’s view on moral development
Stages:
- Premoral period (5-6yrs): little awareness of rules, can’t yet be considered moral beings
- Heteronomous morality (6-10yrs): Rules are external. moral reasoning is absolute, centration on amount of damage
- Autonomous morality (10-11yrs): Rules are internal. Moral reasoning is relative, accounts for intentionality
What is Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development?
Suggests that morality develops in universal, invariant stages, each growing from the next
- suggest that it continues to develop across the lifespan
Preconventional level (avoid punishment, gain reward): punishment/obedience and exchange
Conventional level (social rules): peer opinion (pleasing others), law and order (conforming to existing laws and customs that helps society)
Post conventional level (moral principles): social contract/individual rights (welfare of society of a whole) and self-chosen universal patterns (universal justice over laws)
What did Gilligan propose?
That Kohlberg’s model was biased towards males and that females emphasise social concerns over justice and individual rights
Proposed ethics of care:
- Survival orientation (thinking about yourself)
- Conventional care (what is goof and right, what pleases others)
- Integrated care (integrate your ideas with others ideas)
Social cognitive theory of moral development?
Learned through operant processes and modelling
Generalization: socially appropriate behaviour in one context is extended
As individuals mature they can engage in self-regulation
Moral self-regualtion?
We monitor and evaluate our own actions and approve/disapprove of ourselves accordingly
Moral disengagement allows us to avoid self-condemption
What is Banduras social-cognitive theory of triadic reciprocal determinism?
Persons cognition and emotion + social aspects of the environment = moral behaviour
Moral performance does not = moral competence becuase of the role of situational factors
What is sternbergs triangular theory of love?
The 3 points of the triangle are 3 types of love
Liking (intimacy) Infatuation (passion) Empty love (commitment)
All 3 = consummate love (ideal)
The 3 sides of the triangle represent combinations fo 2 types of love
Romantic (passion+intimacy) Fatuous love (passion+commitment) Compassionate love (intimacy+commitment)
What is Izard’s Differential emotions theory?
- up to 10 discrete emotional states
- emerge within the first 2 - 7 months of life
- universally recognisable, innate, basic emotions
