Emotional Development

emotions

combination of physiological and cognitive responses to thoughts or experiences include

• neural responses

• physiological factors

• subjective feelings

• emotional expressions

• desire to take action

discrete/basic emotion perspective

Ekman - emotions are innate, biologically based and universal. Identification of 6 basic emotions

• joy

• sadness

• anger

• disgust

• fear

• surprise

criticisms of the basic emotion perspective

• disagree about basic emotions

• vagueness of biological bases

• problematic cross-linguistic mapping

• rejection on the assumption that emotions are discrete categories

constructive perspective

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

functionalist perspective

emotions biologically evolved responses to promote action toward achieving a goal and respond to environmental challenges for survival and well-being, plays role in social communication and interpersonal relationships.

emotion regulation 

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

why is emotion regulation important

• affects social functioning and relationships

• affects mental health and overall well-being

• affects academic and professional success

regulatory strategies for emotion regulation

co-regulation, self-comforting behaviours, self-distraction, social support, cognitive reappraisal, mindfulness etc. developmental 

temperament

individual differences in emotion, activity level and attention that are exhibited across contexts. influenced by both genes and environment

measuring temperament

questionnaires and physiological measures

Questionnaires 

Rothbart - every child has some level of same set of dimensions. developed to measure temperament from infancy to adulthood in 5 dimensions

• fear, distress/anger, attention span, activity level, smiling and laughter 

ratings tend to be stable over time and predict later behavioural problems, anxiety disorders and social competence 

• adv = parents have extensive knowledge of their child’s behaviour in diff situations

• dis = parents not always objective in observations

physiological measures

emotional reactions to laboratory situations

• heart-rate variability

• electroencephalogram (EEG)

adv = less likely to be biased

dis = may reflect child’s mood or behaviour at given moment in particular context rather than totality of child’s temperament

co-regulation

external control of young infants’ emotional states. caregiver provides the needed comfort or distraction to help a child reduce their distress

self-comforting behaviours

basic emotion regulation in uncertain situations at about 5 months, involves repetitive actions that regulate arousal by providing a mildly positive physical sensation

self-distration

another basic emotion regulation strategy. looking away from an upsetting stimulus in order to regulate one’s level of arousal

social competence

ability to achieve personal goals in social interactions while simultaneously maintaining positive relationships with others. influenced by development of emotion regulation

Thomas and Chess 1977

classified temperament clusters for infants

1. easy - adjust easily to new situations and cheerful

2. difficult - slow to adjust, tend to react negatively and intensely to novel stimuli

3. slow-to-warm-up - somewhat difficult at first but became easier over time as had repeated contact