Lecture 9 - Personality

primary emotions

primary emotions

• Discrete categories that have set features associated with them that show up consistently across people and cultures

what are the six primary emotions

happiness, surprise, fear, anger, disgust and sadness

what are emotions?

• reflect an individual’s attempt to understand, maintain or change their relation with their environment

what physiological changes can occur when emotional?

changes in heart rate and breathing

disgust

goal might be avoiding illness/contamination (might be an actual risk or something your mind thinks is illness),  regard for self cause it might harm me/ protective emotion and action tendency leads to active rejection to the thing that causes disgust

fear

tendency to experience unease, worry or nervousness to novel or potentially threatening situations

• goal might be to maintain physical or mental integrity, stimulus is threatening me, action would be to fight or flight

anger

• indication that some goal we have is being thwarted so we just want to complete that goal, action tendency is whatever allows you to achieve that goal

sadness

getting to the end state that the individual is invested in is the goal, the goal is unattainable so the action leads you to disengage or withdraw from the situation

shame

goal is maintaining the respect of others and affection + preserving self esteem, feel that you are bad in some way and other people are noticing this too, and action tendency is withdrawal + removal from others

guilt

goal is meeting one’s internal values, meaning  to the self is that yo have done something contrary to your values and for others its that someone has been hurt by those actions so you act to repair the situation, inform others and punish yourself

when does happiness emerge?

earliest emotions we see, social smiles at 6-7 weeks of age

when does fear emerge?

see it in the form of separation anxiety (aaah where’s my mom)

when do self conscious emotions emerge?

at age 7, take longer to develop, emotions that relate to our sense of self and our consciousness of others reactions to us 

what emotions are present at birth?

contentment, distress and interest

when do primary emotions emerge?

all emerges at 2.5 to 7 months but disgust comes later

when do secondary emotions emerge?

at a year to a year and 1/2

primary emotions study procedure

String connected to a monitor in babies hand and when he pulls it it turns the tv on and something interesting appears then they detach the string and the monitor stays off

with another baby researchers detach the string from the monitor and it goes off and on randomly no longer controlled by the baby

how do babies react in the primary emotions study?

• At first oblivious to the image and then realises he’s the one controlling the event

• Then suddenly he pulls and nothing happens and this causes him to be distress

• then with the other baby where the detachment causes the monitor to go on and off at random they are confused and baby shows distress and anger showing they can think of the self in some way

what is required in order for secondary emotions to emerge?

you need to have a sense of self

when does embarrassment emerge?

emerges at 15-24 months when the child is the center of attention and they can have some idea of how others perceive them

how do 14 month olds in the embarrassment video behave?

when they get lipstick placed on their nose and are put in front of a mirror they dont recognize themselves and think another baby is in front of them so they look behind the mirror

how do 20-24 month olds in the embarrassment video behave?

• she rubs her nose when placed in front of the mirror showing she is aware of herself showing that this stage of consciousness emerges at 2yrs old

what happens in the second phase of the embarrassment video?

•  researchers point at the 22 month old shira and start saying her name repeatedly in an embarrassing way and she stops what she does and starts fixing her clothes showing she was embarrassed

• shows connection between having a sense of self and being able to experience self conscious emotions

how do 3 yr olds react in the pride and shame video?

• 3yr old alana is abt to do some puzzle, has to finish puzzle before the 2 min bell rings, first time she is allowed to finish the task before the bell rings and she is prideful when she realises she succeeded in the task but in the 2nd trial the research rings the bell before she finishes the puzzle and her expression is downcast showing she is shameful she didn't finish it 

what conclusions can we draw about shame and pride from the video?

• Sometimes refusal to admit failure, reaction is dependent on temperament when it comes to shame and embarrassment and that it emerges between 18-20 months

self 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

why is self referencing especially useful in children?

because they know very little about the world and therefore most situations they are in are novel

identifying people’s emotions (3 months)

• children can distinguish facial expressions of happiness, surprise and anger

identifying people’s emotions (1 and 1/2 year olds)

• they prefer toys that are associated with surprise and happy faces

• Social referencing shows up at 1 year

when does the ability to label emotions occur?

occurs at 2 yrs old

identifying people’s emotions (age 3)

they can identify what makes people happy

identifying people’s emotions (age 4)

they can identify situations that make people sad

identifying people’s emotions (age 5)

they can identify situations that make people angry, fearful or surprised

emotion regulation

set of conscious and unconscious processes used to monitor and modulate emotional experiences and expressions, develops gradually over childhood and paves the way for success in social interactions and academic settings

co regulation

the process where a caregiver helps the child to reduce their distress (external process)

self comforting behaviors

repeating actions that regulate arousal by providing a mildly positive physical sensation

self distraction

looking away from an upsetting stimulus in order to regulate one’s level of arousal

self comforting behaviors

repetitive actions that regulate arousal by providing a mildly positive physical sensation

emotional regulation study

• emotion regulation is needed to convince someone you are feeling something you're not actually feeling (getting a gift you don't like)

• Do children pretend they like the gift or do they show they don't like it?

emotional regulation study (results)

4yr olds are not good at hiding emotions, could be that they aren't able to or they simply don't want to cause they don't understand it makes the giver feel bad

4-8yr olds increase in the amount of happiness they show for a gift they dont like and decrease in disappointment they show for a gift they don't like

how is temperament in babies?

they have individual differences in emotion, activity level and attention

how is temperament within the individual?

its consistent across time and situations as well as present from birth

temperament video

• Jack is first allowed to play with a colourful toy and barriers put between him and the object of his desire

• Sees it but can't reach it 

• Won't give up, frustrated and when he can't do it on his own he tries to charm the researcher into helping him

• Emily: she is more laid back, gives it a few tries then gives up and when researcher tries to encourage her she doesn't engage

what happen in the puppet show portion of the temperament video?

• Emily: likes the puppets and tries to join in on the action

• Jack: he doesn't like the puppets, starts whining and is scared of the puppets, cheers up when puppet is gone

how did the kids in the temperament video react when they made the puppets scary?

• Jack: is shaken by the scary mask, with the clown mask it makes him even more scare

• Emily: she finds the clown funny and thinks its just more fun, with the ominous mask she adopts a wait and see attitude

easy temperament (40%)

predictable, positive and adaptable

difficult temperament (10%)

active, irritable and unpredictable

slow to warm up temperament (15%)

inactive, moody and slow to adopt 

when are we able to predict a child’s temperament?

at 4 months

brain activity in shy vs outgoing kids

show activity on one side of the brain while outgoing children show activity on the other side of the brain 

what is the confound in the temperament video?

 parents may try to make their child more outgoing even if they do so unintentionally so when they come back for the second test 14 months later because they know the predicted temperament in the first lab

what questions would you ask parents about 1 year olds to measure fear?

how often during the last week did the baby startle to a sudden or loud noise?”, rate from 1-7

what questions would you ask parents about 3-7 year olds to measure fear?

• my child is not afraid of large dogs and/or other animals (rate accuracy of statement 1 - 7)

distress at limitations in infant or anger/frustration in childhood

negative emotional response related to having ongoing task interrupted or blocked 

what questions would you ask parents about 1 year olds to measure distress?

“when placed on his/her back, how often did the baby fuss or protest?”

what questions would you ask parents about 3-7 year olds to measure distress?

“my child has temper tantrums when they dont get what they want” (rate statement accuracy)

attention span

attention to an object or task for an extended period of time

what questions would you ask parents about 3-7 year olds to measure attention span?

 “when picking up toys or other jobs, my child usually keeps at the task until it's done” (rate accuracy 1-7)

what questions would you ask parents about 1 year olds to measure attention span?

how often during the last week did the baby stare at a mobile, crib bumper or picture for 5 mins or longer?,

activity level

how much are they moving around vs sitting back and taking things in

what questions would you ask parents about 1 year olds to measure activity level?

when put into the bath water, how often did the baby splash or kick?

what questions would you ask parents about 3-7 year olds to measure activity level?

my child always seems in a hurry to get from one place to another (rate accuracy 1-7)

smiling and laughter

positive emotional response to a change in the intensity, complexity or incongruity of a stimulus

what questions would you ask parents about 1 year olds to measure smiling and laughter?

“how often during the last week did the baby smile or laugh when given a toy?”

what questions would you ask parents about 3-7 year olds to measure smiling and laughter?

my child laughs a lot at jokes and silly happenings (rate accuracy 1-7)

temperament differences in twins

 identical twins more similar in temperament than fraternal twins (shows a strong genetic component for temperament cause their environment is the same)

temperament differences in ethnicity

• chinese american babies are more calm than english - african or irish-american babies

new zealand stability of temperament study

more negative emotionality, less emotion regulation as children correlated with, less well adjusted as adolescents, get along less well roommates at age 21, poorer physical health at age 32, Higher behavioral inhibition as children seems to me correlated with higher likelihood of having anxiety, depression, social withdrawal when older

how does temperament change as we grow up?

• vigor and rate of responding to anticipated rewards becomes stronger in early adolescence (risk taking behavior, reward you are interested in, more motivated by that reward at early adolescence than a later time)

• Reduced self regulation (downstream effect)

• Risk taking in pursuit of rewarding but risky activities

• Reward more enticing so harder to control yourself from pursuing it

how do we deal with children that have difficult temperaments?

they will adjust better if parenting is supportive rather than punitive and inconsistent as they are more likely to be aggressive when exposed to hostile or low positive parentingwh

what factors vary across parents?

supportiveness, warmth and responsiveness vs demandingness and control

Baumrind parenting styles study

looked at the correlation between parenting styles and child characteristics and came up with the 4 basic parenting styles, unsupportive vs supportive and undemanding vs demanding

supportive parents

parenting is accepting and child centered

demanding parents

parents expects much of the child

supportive + demanding

authoritative parents. relationship is reciprocal, responsive and high in bidirectional communication

unsupportive parents

parent is rejecting and parent-centered

Unsupportive + demanding

authoritarian parenting, relationship is controlling, power assertive and high in unidirectional communication

undemanding parents

parent expects little of the child

supportive + undemanding

• permissive parenting, relationship is indulgent and low in control attempts

Undemanding + unsupportive

disengaged parenting, relationship is rejecting or neglecting/uninvolved

what are the typical characteristics of authoritative parents?

set clear standard and limits for their child and firm about reinforcing them, allow children considerable autonomy within those limits and they are attentive and responsive to their child’s concern and needs, respect and consider child’s perspective

what are the typical characteristics of a child with authoritative parents?

competent, self assured, popular, able to control their own behaviour, low in antisocial behaviours in childhood , in adolescence high in social and academic competence and positive behaviour, low in problem behaviour

what are the typical characteristics of authoritarian parents?

non responsive to child’s needs, enforce their demands through exercise of parental power and use of threats, are oriented toward obedience and authority and expect their children to comply without question or explanation

what are the typical characteristics of a child with authoritarian parents?

•  low in social and academic competence in childhood and adolescence, as children they tend to be unhappy and unfriendly with boys affected (misleading cause this is not causal but a correlational finding) more negatively than girls in early childhood

what are the typical characteristics of permissive parents?

responsive to their child’s needs, dont require that children regulate themselves or act in appropriate or mature ways

what are the typical characteristics of a child with permissive parents?

as children they are more impulsive lacking in self control and low in school achievement, as adolescents, they engage in more school misconduct and drug use than do those with authoritative parents

what are the typical characteristics of disengaging parents?

don't set limits for or monitor their children’s behaviour, are not supportive of them and sometimes are rejecting or neglectful, tend to be focused on their own needs rather than their children’s

what are the typical characteristics of a child with disengaging parents?

infants and toddlers show attachment problems and as children poor peer relationships, adolescents tend to show antisocial behaviour, poor self regulation, internalising problems, substance abuse, risky sexual behaviour and low academic and social competence

how does socio economic status affect parenting style?

Lower SES parents are likely to be authoritarian and punitive while higher SES parents are more likely to be accepting and democratic because lower SES parents may be adaptive to protect children in unsafe living conditions as well as they are prone to not having as much time to care for your kids, mental space is limited

what are the risk of high socio-economic status parents

Parents tend to be less vigilant, use more alcohol, less monitoring of online activities and affluenza (child had inability to understand consequences of actions because of financial privilege)

cultural effects on parenting styles video

in the foraging society children were more independent and in the new society independence in children is decreasing as adults tend to micromanage their kids which leads to contributing to a mismatched environment by taking away unstructured play and not letting children make mistakes

child maltreatment

Includes neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse and emotional abuse

what are the risk factors of child maltreatment in parents?

unrealistic expectations abt what its like to raise a child, might misinterpret normal behavior, lack of knowledge in child development, stress management is bad, isolation or partake in substance abuse

what are the risk factors of child maltreatment in children?

prematurity, health challenges and temperament

pollack and sinha study

• looked at children that had been physically abused and their ability to detect emotions in others was tested

• Shown blurred faces and each trial they got less and less blurry until they could identify the emotion

• Happy face blurry condition: no difference in detecting angry faces at a particular point

• Angry face blurry condition: abused children detected anger earlier in the sequence of faces compared to the non-abused/control group

reasoning: might be cause of more exposure to anger so important for them to notice sooner so they can avoid abusive behavior sooner

attachment

An enduring bond between an infant and a caregiver

what is the evolutionary theory on attachment

• Infants are innately prepared to form relationships with caregivers and elicit care ultimately increasing survival

• Evolutionary adaptive to have this relationship

• They have features made to elicit a desire to care in the parents

what is the toolkit of behaviors in babies that makes parents care about them?

• Large eyes, small chins and noses, large heads compared to adults typical in many species

• Crying, grasping , cooing

• Early social smiles

Harlow and Zimmerman attachment in monkeys

• tested infant monkeys with surrogate (shaggy plastic doll) mothers and they were isolated at birth and were fed by the cloth or wire mother for 165 days

• Cloth vs wire mother: from wire mother only food and after feeding goes back to cloth

• The monkeys preferred cloth mother even though no food from her

• When scared the monkey goes to the cloth mother to seek comfort

what did the results of the Harlow and Zimmerman attachment in monkeys study show?

• there is a hardwire evolutionary model of how attachment is formed

• Monkeys showed attachment with cloth mother, but figure not proper so when cloth mother had food spent all their time on the cloth one but when wire one had food time spent with cloth mother is still much higher