Emotional Development

WEEK 4; psyc2007

Emotional Development Involves…

• production

• recognition

• understanding

• regulation

Discrete/Basic Emotion Perspective of prodcition- (Buss et al 2019)

• Basic Emotions & Comple/Dependent Emotions

• Basic = experienced by all

• Complex = dependent on interactions between affective & cognitive patterns.

Basic Emotions

Experienced/expressed by all humans and each comprises differentiable, distinct features.

• e.g- facial expressions, physiological patterns, and subjective feelings

• (happiness, anger, fear, surprise, sadness, and disgust)

Complex/dependent emotions:

Dependent on interactions between affective and cognitive processes, influenced by experience, learning and socialisation.

• e.g., guilt, shame

Developed from basic emotions over time.

Dynamic systems theory- Emotion production (Neman&Newman)

• Components influence and change each other over time via the process of self-organisation.

• self- organization is a more flexible, efficient way of functioning.

• self-organisation outcomes= attractor states

• (System made up of components

  components influence/change each other over time

  outcome = attractor states)

What is key in the dynamic systems theory?

Self-organization

Ekman & Friesen, 1971

South Fore people in New Guinea- Unexposed to Western media; n= 189 adults, n= 130 children

• Had to identify correct emotional picture from a set of three (adults) or two (children) that matched a story.

Universality of emotion understanding- ekman and friesen 1971

Tribal people (unexposed to western world);

• correct facial expression chosen to match the emotion of story.

Universality of Emotion- Valente, D., Theurel, A., & Gentaz, E. (2017)

Images of blind people reacting to loosing match showed same expression as non-blind.

Facial expressions- blind people

• Congenitally blind people can produce similar spontaneous emotional facial expressions to seeing people.

• have trouble producing voluntary emotional expressions.

Facial expressions in unborn fetuses

• No invariant linkage between emotional expression and emotion

• Produce a variety of facial expressions (I.e.e smiles) and pain expressions during non-painful ultrasound.

• Findings align with a dynamical systems view of emotional development.

EMOTIONS IN 4 M

SMILING DEVELOPMENT

• 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

DST perspective Support

• lack of specificity of emotional expressions in infants

DET Perspective Support

Evidence from different cultures and people who were born blind.

Emotion Recognition/Discrimination in Infants- White, H., et al (2018).

48 5-month-old infants

• eye tracking and picture morphing

• Found- discrimination of four emotion contrasts:

  • sadness/disgust

  • sadness/anger

  • happiness/surprise

  • NOT- anger/disgust

Emotion recognition across ages

• Pons, F., Harris, P. L., & de Rosnay, M. (2004).

100 children ages( 3,5,7,9,11)

• More recognition of emotion with age

• 100% by 9 and 11

At what age can we reach full recognition of emotions

9-11 years

Comparing emotion recognition by faces vs voices

• Faces - got better with age

• Aged 11 as good as adults voices

• Developmental trajectory slower

Social referencing for emotion Understanding:Visual cliff study

• using parents as guide face only condition crossed cliff quicker than voice and face & voice.

9 components of emotion comprehension

• recognition

• external cause

• desire

• belief

• reminder

• regulation

• hiding

• mixed

• morality

Emotion components

• I Recognition: recognizing and naming of emotional expressions

• II External cause: understanding how external causes affect emotions of others

• III Desire: emotional reactions depend on their desire (two people may feel different

emotions in same situation)

• IV Belief: a person’s belief determines their emotional reaction

• V Reminder: relationship between memory and emotion (e.g. intensity of an emotion

decreases with time)

• VI Regulation: behavioural strategies/ psychological strategies (denial, distraction)

• VII Hiding: there can be a discrepancy between expressed and felt emotion

• VIII Mixed: a person may have multiple or even contradictory emotions

• IX Morality: negative feelings from morally reprehensible situation/ positive for

praiseworthy situation

Phase 1 of emotion comprehension

5 Yrs: Public aspects- recognition, reminder, external cause

Phase 2 of emotion comprehension

7 Yrs: Mentalistic aspects—desire, belief, hiding

phase 3 of emotion comprehension

9-11 Yrs: multiple perspectives—mixed, regulation, morality

empathy definition from meta-analysis

Emotional response dependent on interactions automatically elicited shaped by top down processes resulting emotion similar to perception of stimulus.

2 components of empathy

• Cognitive - understanding

• Affective - responsive

Framework for Empathy (stern and cassidy) involves….

• mechanisms

• parenting

• attachment

• moderators

(all on child empathy)

3 emotion regulation strategies

• attention focus

• reappraisal

• suppression

importance of suppression slope of regulation

• lower for older ps

• less use over time

• males more use

emotion regulation strategies in adolescents

12-15- More maladaptive strategies than younger

What age/ stage are emotional regulation strategies more maladaptive than younger ages?

• Adolescents

• 12-15

Cross sectional study development of strategies: suppression

• Significant effect of fear differences but unclear for sadness

Cross sectional study development of emotion strategies: Passivity

• Sadness u shaped relationship

• Anger decline over time

Attachment & 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.