psych

The Development of Emotions

Understanding Emotions

Emotion Regulation

Temperament

The Role of Family in Emotional Development

Mental Health, Stress, and Internalizing Mental Disorders

Outline of Chapter

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Emotions:

More complicated than simply sensations or reactions

A combination of physiological and cognitive responses to thoughts or experiences

Have several components:

Neural

Physiological

Subjective feelings

Emotional expressions

Desire to act

The Development of Emotions

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Differential (or Discrete) Emotions Theory

Proposed by Tomkins, Izard

Emotions are innate and discrete from one another from very early in life.

Each emotion is believed to be packaged with a specific and distinctive set of bodily and facial reactions.

Functional Perspective

The basic function of emotions is to promote action toward achieving a goal.

Emotions are discrete from one another and vary somewhat based on the social environment.

Theories on the Nature and Emergence of Emotion

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The Emergence of Emotions

Characteristics of Some Families of Emotion

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Happiness

Social smiles: Smiles that are directed at people

First emerge at 6 to 7 weeks of age

Fear

Separation anxiety: Feelings of distress that children, especially infants and toddlers, experience when separated, or expect to be separated, from individuals to whom they are emotionally attached

Other Emotions: Anger, sadness, surprise, disgust

Self-conscious emotions: Emotions that relate to our sense of self and our consciousness of others’ reactions to us (shame, guilt, embarrassment)

The Emergence of Emotions (cont.d)

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Pride or Shame

18 months — self-awareness; pride; shame; embarrassment

Fearful

9–14 months — with strangers (stranger wariness; separation anxiety)

12 months — fear of unexpected sights and sounds

Angry or Sad

4–8 months — anger

Angry — healthy response to frustration

Sadness — indicates withdrawal

Happy or Content

6 weeks — social smile

3 months — laughter; curiosity

4 months — full, responsive smiles

First Appearance of Infant Emotions

Early Emotions

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With age, children learn to:

Understand their emotions

Identify emotions

Know the meanings of emotions

The social significance of emotions leads to social competence.

Understanding Emotions

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At 3 months, children can distinguish facial expressions of happiness, surprise, and anger.

Social referencing is evident by 12 months.

16- to 18-month-olds prefer toys associated with surprise and happy faces.

Labeling emotions occurs by 2 years of age.

Social Referencing: the use of a parent’s or other adult’s facial expression or vocal cues to decide how to deal with novel, ambiguous, or possibly threatening situations

Identifying the Emotions of Others

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The ability to delay gratification in situations can predict social, emotional, and academic competence years later.

Emotional Intelligence (Affective Social Competence): A set of abilities that contribute to competence in the social and emotional domains

Emotional Intelligence

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Children rapidly understand emotions that certain situations will evoke.

By age 3: Identify situations that make people happy.

By age 4: Identify situations that make people sad.

By age 5: Identify situations likely to elicit anger, fear, surprise.

By age 7: Self-conscious social emotions (pride, guilt, shame, embarrassment, guilt) emerge.

Understanding the Causes and Dynamics of Emotion

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By age 3, children realize that emotions people express may not reflect true feelings.

By age 5, false emotions improve more.

This is due to a growing understanding of display rules: a social group’s informal norms about when, where, and how much one should show emotions and when and where displays of emotion should be suppressed or masked by displays of other emotions

Advances in the understanding of display rules is linked to increases in cognitive capacities

Understanding Real and False Emotions

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Emotion Regulation

A set of conscious and unconscious processes used to monitor and modulate one’s emotional experiences and expressions

Develops gradually over childhood

Paves the way for success in social interactions and academic settings

Emotion Regulation

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Co-regulation: The process by which a caregiver provides the needed comfort or distraction to help a child reduce his or her distress

An external process

Self-comforting behaviors: Repetitive actions that regulate arousal by providing a mildly positive physical sensation; an internal process

Self-distraction: Looking away from an upsetting stimulus in order to regulate one’s level of arousal; an internal process

Improvements in self-regulation is partly due to maturation of neurological systems; emotion regulation associated with social competence

The Development of Emotion Regulation

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Temperament

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 (Rothbart & Bates, 1998)

Present from infancy

Genetically based

Influenced by genes and environment

Temperament

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Slow-to-Warm-up Babies

Somewhat difficult at first but become easier over time as they havw repeated contact with new objects, people, and situations

Difficult Babies

Slow to adjust to new experiences; tend to react negatively and intensely to events; irregular in their daily routines and bodily functions

Easy Babies

Adjust easily to new situations; quickly establish daily routines such as sleeping, eating; generally cheerful mood; easy to calm

Thomas and Chess classified infants in three groups:

Temperament (cont.d)

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TABLE 10.2 Measuring Infant and Child Temperament: The Infant Behavior Questionnaire and the Child Behavior Questionnaire

Measuring Temperament

Measuring Infant and Child Temperament: The Infant Behavior Questionnaire and the Child Behavior Questionnaire

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Temperament is a combination of genetic and environmental factors:

Genetic (biological factors): More similarity in emotion and regulation found in identical twins than in fraternal twins

Dopamine and other neurotransmitters implicated

Parenting (environmental factors): Warm, and flexible, parenting leads to fewer emotional problems

Determinants of Temperament

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Inhibited children have problems with anxiety, depression, and social withdrawal at older ages.

Trend continues into adulthood

Also more likely to engage in illegal behavior

Goodness of fit: The degree to which an individual’s temperament is compatible with the demands and expectations of his or her social environment

Differential susceptibility: A circumstance in which the same temperament characteristic that puts some children at high risk for negative outcomes when exposed to a harsh home environment also causes them to blossom when their home environment is positive

The Role of Temperament in Social Skills and Maladjustment

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Family is the primary environment of children during their early stages of development.

Responding to emotions influenced by:

Quality of parent-child relationships

Parents’ emotional expression

Parents’ reactions to children’s emotions

Teaching of display rules

The Role of Family in Emotional Development

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Securely attached children tend to show more happiness and less anxiety than do insecurely attached children.

Also show more openness and honesty

Have an advanced understanding of emotions, which leads to better emotion regulation

Quality of Parent-Child Relationships

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