emotional development

emotions

combination of physiological and cognitive responses to thoughts or experiences 

• neural responses (eg. Activation of adrenal gland), physiological factors, subjective feelings, emotional expressions, the desire to take action

emergence of emotions - are emotions innate or learned? 

emergence of emotions - are emotions innate or learned? 

discrete/basic emotion perspective

emotions are innate, biologically based and universal (identification of basic emotions) —> can identify them in infancy. 

discrete/basic emotion perspective

paul ekman identified seven basic emotions: joy, sadness, anger, disgust, fear, contempt and surprise 

criticisms of the basic emotion perspective

• disagreement about which emotions are the basic ones 

• vagueness of the biological bases

• problematic cross-linguistic mapping

• rejection of the assumption that emotions are discrete categories 

constructivist perspective

 emotions are learned through individual experiences, cultural context and social interactions. not innate or universal 

functionalist perspective

emotions are biological evolved response that serve adaptive functions, helping individuals navigate and respond to environmental challenges for survival and wellbeing. 

understanding emotions

know how to identify emotions, what emotions mean, their social functions, and what factors affect emotions experience 

understanding emotions - 3-4 months

infants can detect differences in some emotional expressions —> tested through habituation paradigm 

understanding emotions - 6 months

treat other’s emotions as meaningful —> multimodal emotion congruencey task 

understanding emotions - 2 years

engage in social referencing

understanding emotions - 3 years

label facial expressions and understand the situations that causes some emotions 

understanding emotions - preschool years

understand more complex emotions and situations that elicit emotions 

emotional regulation

a set of both conscious and unconscious processes used to both monitor and modulate emotional experiences and expressions 

• importance of emotional regulation

affects mental health and overall well-being, affects social functioning and relationships, affects academic and professional success 

regulatory strategies

with other’s help (co-regulation, social support etc.)

managing on our own (self-comforting behaviours, self-distractions, cognitive reappraisal, mindfulness

adaptive emotional regulation

flexible use of strategies that reduce emotional distress when supporting goal-directed behaviours (eg. Acceptance)

maladaptive emotional regulation

rigid, excessive or context-inappropriate strategies that maintain or intensify distress over time (eg. Self-blame) 

temperament

individual differences in emotion, activity level and attention that are exhibited across contexts (primarily genetically and biologically driven)