Emotional development

How are basic emotions expressed

All humans express then and each comprises differentiable distinct features eg. facial expressions, physiological patterns and subjective feelings

How are complex dependent emotions

dependent on interactions between affective and cognitive processes influenced by experience learning and socialisation eg. shame and guilt

What is the dynamic systems theory

A system is made up of components in a dynamic system, these components influence and change each other over time via the process of self-organisation. For most people , the result of self-organisation is a more flexible efficient way of functioning. The outcomes of self-organisation are called attractor states.

Are emotional expressions universally understood - Ekman & Frieden 1971

South Fore people in New Guinea who were unexposed to western media 9189 adults & 130 children) Had to identify correct emotional pictures from a set of three/two that matched a story. children had a high percentage of choosing the correct face above 76% accuracy and adults had more trouble with complex emotions but had high accuracy for simple emotions.

Are emotional expressions learnt or genetic Valente et al., 2017

Blind and seeing athletes have the same facial expression when loosing/winning an event. Congenitally blind people (born blind) can produce similar spontaneous emotional facial expressions to seeing people, but have trouble producing voluntary emotional expressions

Facial expressions in unborn foetuses

•No invariant linkage between emotional expression and emotion

•Fetuses produce a variety of facial expressions including smiles and pain expressions during non-painful ultrasound

•findings for prenatal facial expressions align with a dynamical systems view of emotional development

What was the main objective of the study by Bennett, Bendersky, & Lewis (2002)?

The study examined the specificity of early facial expressions in 4-month-old infants in response to five different eliciting situations, testing predictions from Differential Emotions Theory (DET).

How many infants participated in the study, and how was their facial expressivity measured in Bennett, Bendersky, & Lewis (2002) study

A total of 150 four-month-old infants were videotaped, and their facial expressions were coded second by second in response to five different eliciting situations

What five situations were used to elicit facial expressions in Bennett, Bendersky, & Lewis (2002) study

Tickle

Sour taste

Jack-in-the-box

Arm restraint

Masked stranger

What was the overall trend in facial expressions across all situations in Bennett, Bendersky, & Lewis (2002) study

Infants showed a variety of expressions, but positive expressions (joy and surprise) were more frequent than negative expressions (anger, disgust, fear, and sadness) in all situations except the sour taste condition.

What were the expressions to joy, Surprise and negative emotions in Bennett, Bendersky, & Lewis (2002) study

Joy - most common in tickling

Surprise - jack-in-the-box, arm restraint and masked-stranger indicating a lack of specificity.

negative emotions - the study found no evidence of predicted specificity for negative emotions.

What did Bennett, Bendersky, & Lewis (2002) say about DET

provided little support for DET's situational specificity and suggested that a synthesis of Differential Emotions Theory and Dynamic Systems Theory should be considered for understanding emotional expression.

Development of smiling Messinger et al., 2019

0-2 months - smiling during sleep

2 months - social smile

2 - 6 months - interactive smiling

6 - 18 months - referential smiling

across childhood - increasingly specific use of Duchenne smiles in contexts of social success

what is a referential smile

smile used by an infant or young child to communicate their positive feelings about an object or experience to a social partner

what is a Duchenne smile

a genuine smile that involves the muscles around the eyes and mouth

What happened in What was the main focus of the study by White et al. (2018)

The study investigated whether infants perceive facial emotions categorically—that is, whether they are better at telling apart facial expressions that cross emotional categories (like happy vs. sad) than those within the same category (like two slightly different happy faces). Researchers used morphed facial images and controlled for physical differences to test if infants found between-category emotional changes more noticeable than within-category ones.

Which categorical boundaries did White et al. (2018) find 5-month-olds sensitive to

Sadness vs. Disgust✔ Happiness vs. Surprise✔ Sadness vs. Anger✘ Anger vs. Disgust (No sensitivity)

Did 9-month-olds show categorical perception for all basic emotions in White et al. (2018) study

No, even at 9 months, infants failed to show a clear boundary between anger and disgust, indicating some emotions lack distinct perceptual separation early in life.

What did White et al. (2018) study findings suggest about emotion representation in infancy?

Infants perceive some but not all emotional boundaries early in life, challenging models that assume clear-cut categories for all basic emotions from birth.

Pons et al. (2004) emotion recognition across development

External (3-5 yrs) - Understands external causes of emotions & facial expressions.

Mental (5-7 yrs) - Recognizes beliefs/desires affect emotions & that emotions can be hidden.

Reflective (8-11 yrs) - Understands mixed emotions & moral/social emotions like guilt & pride.

What where the three phases in Pons et al. study and what ages do they happen

Phase 1: Characterised by understanding of important public aspects of emotion: situational causes, outward expression, reminders that reactivate emotions age 5

Phase 2: Understanding of the mentalistic nature of emotions: connection to desires and beliefs, distinction between expressed and felt emotion age 7

Phase 3: Understanding of how an individual can reflect on a given situation from various perspectives and trigger different feelings either concurrently or successively: conflicting feelings, distress at failure to confess, cognitive regulation of emotion ages 9-11

What did Chronaki et al. (2015) find about the Accuracy for voices and low-intensity expressions follow a slower developmental trajectory.

Facial emotion recognition reached adult levels by 11 years, whereas vocal and emotion recognition continued to develop in late childhood.

What did Vaish & Striano (2004) study?

They examined whether facial or vocal cues are more influential in guiding 12-month-olds' social referencing behaviorin a potentially threatening situation (visual cliff).

How did infants respond to different cues and what does it suggest about social referencing in Vaish & Striano (2004) study

Faster crossing with multimodal (face + voice) or vocal-only cues than facial-only. More looking at mother in the Face + Voice condition than Voice Only. Vocal cues alone were more influential than facial cues alone. This showed vocal cues play a stronger role than facial cues in guiding infant behavior, even without visual reference, highlighting the importance of voice in early social cognition.

Cuff et al. (2016) on empathy

Empathy is an emotional reaction that depends on both a person's traits and the situation. It happens automatically but can also be influenced by our thoughts and control. The emotion we feel is similar to what we think or imagine someone else is feeling, but we know it's their emotion, not ours.

Morris et al. (2007) Tripartite Model of thee Impact of the Family on Children's Emotion Regulation and Adjustment

Firstly, children learn about emotional regulation (ER) through observation. Secondly, specific parenting practices and behaviours related to the socialization of emotion affect ER. Thirdly, ER is affected by the emotional climate of the family, as reflected in the quality of the attachment relationship, styles of parenting, family expressiveness and the emotional quality of the marital relationship.

Cooke et al., 2019 Meta-analytic findingAttachment & emotion regulation

Overall emotion regulation ability: Ability to experience emotion in ways that are not overwhelming (i.e., ability to tolerate frustration).

Securely attached children: Better ability to regulate emotions. Insecurely attached children: Worse at regulating emotions

Gallon et al., 2010 expression suppression

participants aged between 9 and 15 years. Three data collection phases, each one year apart, enabled investigation of developmental patterns in the use of the two strategies.

As predicted, Suppression use was found to be lower for older participants compared to their younger peers, and over time participants reported less use of this strategy. Older participants also scored lower on Reappraisal but stability over time was found. Also as expected, males reported more Suppression use compared to females.

Do adolescents use better emotion regulation strategies? (Cracco et al., 2017)

Use of adaptive strategies (e.g., problem-solving, humor) decreased between ages 12-15, while maladaptive strategies (e.g., rumination, withdrawal) increased. Findings from a study of 1,397 children and adolescents suggest emotional regulation worsens in early adolescence.

Do emotion regulation strategies develop in an emotion specific way Zimmermann & Iwanski (2014)

A study of 1,308 participants measured seven emotion regulation strategies, including adaptive regulation, social support seeking, passivity, avoidance, suppression, rumination, and dysregulation.

Passivity was reported more for sadness than for fear or anger, with the least passivity in fear situations. Age differences emerged for sadness and anger but not fear. Passivity in sadness followed a U-shaped pattern from ages 11 to 25, while passivity in anger gradually decreased from 11 to 22. Passivity in fear declined from adolescence to adulthood.

What could explain temporarily lowered emotion regulation capacity in adolescence? (Reedier & Bellingtier, 2022 and Casey, 2015)

Temporary maturational imbalance between brain regions

•Subcortical system: affective experience

•Prefrontal system: cognitive control

How does empathy develop from infancy to adolescence? (Stern & Cassidy, 2018)

Empathy emerges early and develops through attachment relationships. Secure attachment fosters greater empathy, while insecure attachment can hinder it. Individual differences in empathy arise from caregiver responsiveness, emotion regulation, and social experiences over time.

What do Stern & Cassidy, (2018) suggest moderators are in creating child empathy

Individual: gender, genetics, temperament

Dyadic: target characteristics, target emotional cues, adult & peer socialisation

GroupL gender norms, group norms, target's group membership

Societal culture, broader bioecological context

What do Stern & Cassidy, (2018) suggest mechanisms are in creating child empathy

Internal working models - scripts, parent-child discourse, emotional & self-regulatory capacities and neurobiological programming

What do Stern & Cassidy, (2018) suggest parenting are in creating child empathy

sensitivity, empathy and socialisation

What is the Process Model of Emotion Regulation and what are the key stages of emotion regulation?

A framework describing how emotions are regulated at different stages of an emotional response. the stages are Situation Selection - Avoiding or entering emotional situations.

Situation Modification - Changing the situation to influence emotions.

Attentional Deployment - Directing focus to manage emotions.

Cognitive Change - Reinterpreting the situation's meaning.

Response Modulation - Controlling emotional reactions.

How does Olderbak et al. (2023) expand the Process Model of Emotion Regulation

Individual differences (e.g., personality, culture) affect emotion regulation.

Context matters - strategies work differently in different situations.

Lifespan perspective - emotion regulation evolves over time.

Mental health links - regulation strategies impact well-being.

This updated model emphasizes a more dynamic and personalized approach to emotion regulation.