emotion development

what is emotion - components of

1. physiological factors - heart rate, breathing rate, hormone levels

2. subjective feelings - linked to the emotional state

3. cognitions and perceptions - that are associated with the emotional state

4. expressive behaviour - an outward expression of the emotional state

5. the desire to take action - ‘fight or flight’ change

emotions tend to serve a purpose, they inform our behaviour/actions

emotion skills

• emotion experiment

• emotion expression

• emotion recognition

• understanding your emotions

basic emotions - Ekman, 1992

positive - happy and surprise

negative - anger, fear, sad, disgust, contempt

basic emotion theory - several criteria for basic emotions:

• these emotions are innate and universal

• distinctive signals e.g. can discern between facial expressions

• differ from feelings/moods are they are fleeting

other emotions are sometimes classed as secondary or complex emotions

emergence of positive emotins

smiles are the first sign on positive emotion infants express

• 0-4 weeks, infants exhibit fleeting smiles primarily during a specific phase of sleep called REM - early smiles tend to be reflexive rather than due to social interaction

• 3-8 weeks, infants begin to smile in reaction to external stimuli

• 3 months - infants exhibit social smiles

social smiles

• 3 months - infants are more likely to smile at people rather than animated puppets (Ellsworth et al,. 1999)

• 7 months - infants smile primarily at familiar people which prolongs positive social interactions

• towards the end of the first year of life, infants start to laugh at surprising or unexpected events e.g. funny noises

emergence of negative emotions

generalised distress is the first sign of negative emotion infants express

• there is no debate about whether infants just experienced generalised distress or whether they can experience specific

• it is hard to test as often infants experience distress

• some researchers have been able to distinguish between anger and sadness vs distress from pain in 2 month olds by examining facial expressions

fear

• 4 months - infants start to become wary of unfamiliar and events but not of people

• 6-7 months - signs of fear can be observed, particularly to strangers

• >2 years - fear of strangers intensifies but depends on temperament

fear

7 months - other fears are evident at this age, including fear of sudden sounds, sudden movement and novel toys

this is probably adaptive - babies do not have the ability to escape from situations on their own and so expressions of fear are powerful for getting help

separation anxiety

8 months - distress at being away from a caregiver emerges. particularly when the primary caregiver walks away

8-15 months - separation anxiety increases and then declines -it has also been found cross-culturally

anger

• 1 year - children begin to clearly express anger, often toward other people (Radke-Yarrow & Kochanska, 1990) and this typically increases up to 16 months of age

• 2 years - toddlers gain more control over their environment, anger is common when control is taken away from them

- toddlers are quicker to respond with anger at 18m rather than 36m (Cole et al., 2011)

- this decline in anger is likely due to better language and self regulation

infants understanding of emotions - Grossmann, 2010

emotion recognition - infants are able to recognise positive and negative early on

• at 3m they can distinguish between happy, surprised and angry faces

• by 7m they can distinguish between fear, sadness and interest

social referencing - Saarni et al., 2006

as well as recognising emotions, even young children are sensitive to others’ reactions and this in turn affects their own emotions

emergence of self-conscious emotions

• 2 years - children begin to show a range of emotions : guilt, pride, shame and embarrassment

• some researchers link the emergence of these emotions to children developing a sense of self

• they are also fostered through the children’s growing awareness of that others expect of them

guilt vs shame + Barrett et al 1993

guilt = remorse and regret about one’s actions and a desire to undo the damage

shame = more focused on oneself - feeling exposed and wanting to hide

Barrett et al. 1993

2 year olds were asked to play with a doll that was rigged so one leg would fall off while the experimenter left the room

• some toddlers showed behaviour indicative of shame -they avoided the experimenter when they returned and avoided telling them about the doll

• other children showed behaviours indicative of guilt - they attempted to repair the doll and told the experimenter when they returned

guilt vs shame + Hoffman 2000

• seems there are individual differences in whether children tend to feel guilt or shame

• this may be related to parenting styles

Hoffman 2000

• children from USA are more likely to show shame when parents emphasise the child is bad and they are more likely to experience guilt when parents emphasise the ‘badness’ of behaviour and the effect it had on others

Are emotions innate? - YES

• Charles Darwin argued that facial expressions for basic emotions are innate to the species, universal and found in very young infants

• Discrete Emotions Theory - each emotion is innately packaged with a specific set of physiological, bodily and facial expressions and so they can be differentiated very early on in life (Izard, 2011)

are emotions innate? - Yes/No

• emotions are not distinct from one another at the beginning of life and the environment plays an important role in the expression of emotions

• for example, some researchers argue that infants experience only excitement and distress in the first few weeks and other emotions emerge later as a function of experience (e.g. shame and guilt)

are emotions innate? - NO

there are thought to be three basic affect systems (Sroufe, 1995)

1. joy/pleasure

2. anger/frustration

3. wariness/fear

• these systems undergo developmental changes from primitive to more advanced during the first few years of life

• e.g. initially, wariness/fear is expressed as a startle reaction, then a few months later infants show wariness and then show fear in novel situations - this is thought to be driven by infants’ expanding social experience

are emotions innate? - NO

Functionalist Approach also advocates for a role of the environment (Campos et al., 1994)

1. a basic function of emotions is to promote action towards achieving a goal in a given context

2. emotional reactions are affected by social goas, including other people involved and values learned. e.g. shame and guilt are associated with standards communicated by caregivers and the relationship the person has with the people in that context