Week 12 - Emotional Regulation Flashcards
Emotional regulation
set of conscious and unconscious processes used to
both monitor and modulate emotional experiences and expressions
Develops gradually and paves the way for success in relationships
Down-regulate
Attenuate emotion - not wanting to feel the emotion so try to diminish it
Up-regulate
Amplify emotion - want to feel it more
Emotion regulation strategies
Appraisal theory - gross 2015
Situation selection - avoid the situation
Situation modification - change the situation
Attentional deployment - refocus attention
Cognitive change - change perception
Response modulation - shift reaction
distressed vs happy infants
Parents help regulate by soothing (holding/rocking,
distracting, talking, singing, “shushing”)
Upregulate happiness by showing happiness
themselves or repeating act that caused the emotion
Co-regulation
caregiver provides the needed
comfort and/or distraction to help a child reduce
their distress
Rudimentary emotional regulation
5 months old: show signs of rudimentary emotion
regulation
Self-comforting behaviours: repetitive actions that
regulate arousal by providing a positive physical
sensation
• Self-distraction: looking away from the upsetting
stimulus in order to regulate one’s level of arousal
Marshmallow test
• Strategies were important for regulating
• Those who covered eyes and distracted themselves did better
• Some distractions effective, some not
• Delay of gratification longitudinally predicted:
• Attention, intelligence, and use of strategy 10 years later
• Better performance in high school
• Higher education, self-esteem, and better coping with stress at age 30
Causes of change in emotional regulation
- Development of the frontal lobes
(managing attention and inhibiting
thoughts/behaviours) - Understanding expectations
a. With increased mobility, parents
expect children to manage behaviour
b. With increases in language ability,
parents negotiate and discuss
emotional situations
c. Attending to social norms
Why is emotion regulation important
ER abilities -> Social Competence (ability to achieve personal goals
in social settings while maintaining positive relationships with others)
Ways that families influence emotional development
Indirect (implicit) emotion socialization
Direct (explicit) emotion socialization
Emotion socialization: direct and indirect influence that parents have on their children’s emotions
Indirect emotion socialization
• Parents’ expression of emotion (modeling)
• Affects children’s understanding of what types of
emotional expressions are appropriate to
experience when
• Low emotional expressiveness in the family =
message that emotions should be avoided
• Affects children’s own distress and ability to
process important info about the others’
interactions (emotion contagion)
Still faced paradigm
Still-Face Paradigm (Tronick et al.,
1978)
• Control group: play with your
children for 10 minutes
• Experimental group:
• Interact normally for 2 mins
• Still face (sit back in chair and
maintain a neutral expression)
• Interact normally for 2 mins
• Still face
• Interact normally
Still faced paradigm results
Infants look away to regulate stress
Still face leads to an increase in distress
Emotional expression in the home
Happiness - Children express and experience higher levels of happiness and are more socially skilled, better able to understand others’ emotions, display rules, and have high self-esteems
Anger - Children experience and express negative emotions, exhibit low levels of social competence, at risk for depression and anxiety, inability to regulate
Universal emotion characteristics
Some general themes of what triggers each emotion
Debated
- 7 emotions - happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust, contempt
- facial expressions of the 7 emotions
Cultural specifics and emotions
Interdependence vs independence
- interdependence less likely to express happy emotions
Display rules: guidelines we learn about how and when to express our emotions
Language used to describe emotion and specific words for emotion
Specific events that are likely to call forth an emotion
Attitudes about emotions
Direct emotion socialization strategies
Supportive
• Validating
• Magnifying
• Rewarding
• Problem-solving
Unsupportive
• Dismissing (minimizing)
• Neglecting
• Criticizing
• Punishing
Parents’ discussions about emotions
Parent-child conversations are critical for shaping children’s emotions and emotion
regulation abilities
Through conversations, parents teach
children about:
* The meaning of emotions
* Contexts in which the emotions should (not) be expressed
* Consequences of expressing emotions
* Practice regulation skills (emotion coaching) - discuss emotions, help them to learn to cope and express them appropriately
How do discussions impact emotional development
Rich conversations that involve discussions about thoughts and emotions early in development Children’s emotion language and understanding
Childs own characteristics impact
Temperament
Individual differences in children’s emotion, activity level, and
attention exhibited across contexts
• Broader than personality traits
• “Building blocks of personality”
• Represent the innate biological structures of personality + influence of early environment
Three characteristics of temperament
- Activity level = overall amount of energy and of behavior a person
exhibits - Emotionality = The intensity of emotional reactions
- Attention = attending and focusing on an object and a task for an
extended period of time. - Sociability = general tendency to affiliate with others
Temperament categorizations
Easy Babies 40%
• Readily adjust to new
situations
• Establish daily routines
easily
• Cheerful in mood and
easy to calm
Difficult Babies 10%
• Slow to adjust to new
experiences
• React negatively and
intensely to novel
situations
• Irregular in daily routines
Slow-to-warm-up babies 15%
• Difficult at first but
become easier over time
with repeated contact
Temperament dimensions
Fear
Distress at limitations
Attention span
Activity level
Smiling and laughter
characterize a child along set of dimensions
Fear
Fear
Tendency to experience unease,
worry, or nervousness to novel or
potentially threatening situations
“How often during the last week did
the baby startle to a sudden or loud
noise?”
“My child is not afraid of large
dogs and/or other animals”
(reversed for scoring).
Distress at limitations (infant)
or anger/frustration (in
childhood)
Negative emotional response
related to having ongoing task
interrupted or blocked
“When placed on his/her back, how
often did the baby fuss or protest?”
“My child has temper tantrums
when s/he doesn’t get what s/he
wants.”
Attention span
Attention to an object or task for
an extended period of time
“How often during the last week did
the baby stare at a mobile, crib
bumper, or picture for 5 minutes or
longer?”
“When picking up toys or other
jobs, my child usually keeps at
the task until it’s done.”
Activity level
Rate and extent of gross motor
body movements
“When put into the bath water, how
often did the baby splash or kick?”
“My child seems always in a big
hurry to get from one place to
another.”
Smiling and laughter
Positive emotional response to a
change in the intensity, complexity, or incongruity of a stimulus
“How often during the last week did
the baby smile or laugh when given a
toy?”
“My child laughs a lot at jokes
and silly happenings.”
Measurement tools
Parent report
Pros - extensive knowledge of child’s responses
Cons - reporting bias, differing comparison reference points
Laboratory observations
Pros - less bias, more objective assessment
Cons - no measure is perfect, may not get general tendencies
Temperament and genetics
• Some evidence from twin studies that genetics matter
• Identical twins more similar in their emotion and regulation than fraternal twins
• Self-regulation is related to genes that are responsible for dopamine function
Temperament and environment
• Teratogens (nutritional deficiencies, drugs, stress during pregnancy)
• Regulation of attention and behaviour
• Harsh home environment
• Self-regulation and emotion expression difficulties
• Warm responsive home environment
• More positive affect and prosocial behaviour
• Remember, there is always a bidirectional relationship!!
• Parent tailors their socialization strategies to the child
Differential susceptibility
Dandelion - can adapt in different contexts
Orchid - flourish in positive environments, do bad in negative environments
Biopsychosocial model
Mental, social, physical health all interacts for well being
Stress
A physiological reaction to some
change or threat in the environment
Stress happens when demands ≠ ability
periodic stress benefits adaptive function of mobilizing the child to take action
Stress components
• Increased heart rate
• Secretion of stress hormones
• Increased flow of blood to the brain
• Heightened feeling of vigilance and fear
• Release of cortisol
Eustress
• Form of stress that might be good for you
• In response to generally positive events (e.g., getting your diverse
license, before a competition)
• Still has physiological effects on body
Daily hassles
routine nuisances of day-to-day living (Kanner et al., 1981). They
refer to unexpected small occurrences that disrupt daily life
In urban environments:
• Related to crowding, noise, pollution, crime, and personal alienation
• Makes for daily and chronic issues
• Green space can help
In impoverished circumstances:
• Poverty = violence, crime, discrimination
• Wealthy people experience fewer daily stressors
• Exposure during childhood particularly impactful
Study by Elsayed et al (2019)
• More daily hassles → Worse sadness
regulation, especially for those who did
not experience much stress pre-
migration
• Family routines helped manage
emotions
Traumatic stress
stress from a single major negative event (e.g., hurricanes, terrorist attacks)
• Children experience high levels of emotions (anger, sadness, anxiety) that can lead to mental
health challenges if not intervened
• Talking about these events can be helpful for helping children cope with these emotions
Toxic stress
Chronic high levels of stress without the appropriate supports
• Can have effects on the brain
• Brain regions (e.g., amygdala and hippocampus) can get overloaded and atrophy
Adverse childhood experiences
sources of toxic stress (e.g., child maltreatment,
parental illness, violence exposure, etc.) that, when many are experienced, lead to mental and
physical health problems
• More ACES = more harm to healthy development
What do we do about toxic stress and ACES
• Providing children with opportunities to experience positive events
(benevolent childhood experiences; BCEs)
• Removing them from the adverse environment and placing them in a safe
home with consistent authoritative parenting
• Community-based programs:
• Parental education
• Educating pediatricians to recognize signs and effects of toxic stress
Mental disorders
chronic, negative emotional reactions to aspects of the environment or to
social relationships that affect daily life
Equifinality and multifinality
Equi - no single pathway to a disorder
Multi - one stress can lead to a variety of outcomes
Depression
involves a sad or irritable mood along with physical and cognitive
changes that affect the child’s or adolescent’s ability to behave and interact in a typical way
Depression diagnosis
• Feeling sad or irritable for a period of 2 weeks
• Physical and cognitive symptoms (e.g., difficulty sleeping)
• Changes in weight (loss or gain)
• Inability to concentrate
• Loss of interest in activities
Depression statistics
• ~3% of children and adolescents meet criteria for depression
• On the rise following COVID-19
• Girls more likely than boys to develop depression
• Risk increases in adolescence
Causes of depression
• Genetics (40% of the variance)
• Low parental sensitivity, warmth, and structure
• Rumination
• Low self-esteem
Anxiety
the inability to regulate fear and worry such that the individual experiences
excessive and uncontrollable fear of real or perceived threats or future threats
Anxiety diagnostic criteria
• Intense fear and anxiety that lasts for days, weeks, months
• Inability to concentrate on tasks
• May also involve panic attacks (sudden and intense surges of fear and discomfort)
• Phobias of animals or situations
Other anxiety disorders
• Separation anxiety in young children
• Agoraphobia and panic disorder in adolescents
• 7% meet the criteria for an anxiety disorder
Anxiety causes
• Genetics (30% variance)
• Temperament (fearful or inhibited temperaments)
• Social learning and classical/operant conditioning
• E.g., child bit by a dog = phobia of dogs
• Parents who are overprotective, overinvolved, controlling (helicopter
parents)
Treating internalizing mental disorders
Pharmacotherapy → SSRIs, but not a great option
Cognitive behavioural therapy → effective! Learn appropriate skills to effective regulate their emotions and interpret their environment
Family therapy is likely most efficacious
7% children prescribed at least one medication for mood disorders
development of emotion regulation
2 months - crying, use reassurance to calm
next few months - vocalizations, holding, rocking
5 months - self comforting behaviours - repetitive actions - self distraction
9-12 months - awareness of adult expectations and regulating self accordingly
parental reactions to emotions
influence child’s tendencies to express emotions
dismissing or criticizing - telling children their feelings are not valid
supportive - help children regulate emotion, better adjusted
physiological measure of temperament
heart rate, how the CNS responds to novel situation
activation of right frontal lobe linked to withdrawal, fear, anxiety - more reaction during novel stimuli
biological determinants of temperament
genes related to dopamine function relevant for self regulation
variance in effortful control, negative affectivity, and extraversion explained by heritability
gender differences in adolescent depression
girls 2-3x more likely
girls express more internalizing emotions
rumination - repeadetly focuses on causes, consequences, symptoms of depression
co-rumination - extensively and almost exclusivey discussing and self disclosing emotional problems with another person
