Chapter 10

Emotion

• feeling, or affect, that occurs when a person is in a state or an interaction that is important to him or her, especially to his or her well-being

• important to the self/wellbeing

• important roles in

  • communication with others

  • behavioral organization

Emotions Vary By

emotions vary by strength, arousal. and motivation

Positive Emotions

• enthusiasm

• joy

• love

Negative Emotions

• anxiety

• anger

• guilt

• sadness

Source of Emotions

• neurotransmitters

• brain regions

• your nervous system

Neurotransmitters and Emotions

• positive emotions

  • dopamine - affects motivation and creates a sense of craving/ euphoria towards that thing

  • endorphins - “feel good horomone"

• negative emotions

  • norepinephrine - anxiety and arousal

Brain regions and emotions

• limbic system - regulate emotions, memory behavior, motivation, and memory

• amygdala - negative emotions/fear

Autonomic nervous system and emotion

• sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system

• arousal

• fight or flight response

Negative Cognitive Bias and emotions

• tendency to make negative attributions about situations more often than not

• direct tie to major depressive order

• can be fixed by cognitive reconstructuring

Gene-Environment Interaction on Emotions

• Serotonin transporter gene → increased risk of depression

• stress in the environment

• negative cognitive bias

• experience with emotional regulation can decrease depression

Sociocultural Aspects of Emotion

• some parts of emotion are universal and innate\

  • smiling when happy

  • grimacing when discussed

  • frown when sad

Display Rules

social norms that dictate how we should/ should not express emotions

ex. how men are taught not to display their feelings

Serotonin Transporter Gene (5-HTTLPR)

• linked to increased risk of depression when individuals often experience stressful environments

• an example of how emotional regulation also can influence whether biological and experiential factors are linked to various developmental outcomes

Biological Evolution

has endowed human beings with the capacity to be emotional, but cultural embeddedness and relationships with others provide diversity in emotional experiences

Emotion Coaching

monitor their children’s emotions, view their children’s negative emotions as opportunities for teaching, assist them in labeling emotions, and coach them in how to deal effectively with emotions

heavily related to social competence

these parents:

• interact with their children in a less rejecting manner

• use more scaffolding and praise

• are more nurturant than emotion dismissing parents

the children:

• are better at soothing themselves when they get upset

• more effective in regulating their negative affect

• focus their attention better

• have fewer behavior probelms

Emotion Dismissing Parents

view their role as to deny, ignore, or change negative emotions

their children:

• have poor emotion regulation

• have lower emotional competence

Primary Emotions

• emotions that are present in humans and other animals

• strong biological bias

• appear in the first 6 months

• include:

  • surprise

  • interest

  • joy

  • anger

  • sadness

  • dear

  • disgust

Self-Conscious Emotions

require self-awareness that involves consciousness and a sense of “me”

require self-awareness and valuation

• jealousy

• empathy

• embarrassment

• pride

• shame

• guilt

most of these happen for the first time after 18 months

Happiness

• can smile without meaning from birth

• social smile at 6-10 weeks

• laugh around 3-4 months

  • when surprised

Anger

• distress from birth

• around 4-6 months

Babies’ First Forms of Communication

• crying

• smiling

Crying

• the most important mechanism newborns have for communicating with

  their world

• first cry verifies that the baby’s lungs have filled with air

• also may provide information about the health of the newborn’s central nervous system

• have at least three types:

  • Basic Cry

  • Anger Cry

  • Pain Cry

Basic Cry

A rhythmic pattern that usually consists of a cry, followed by a briefer silence, then a shorter inspiratory whistle that is somewhat higher in pitch than the main cry, then another brief rest before the next cry.

hunger is usually the cause

Anger Cry

• A variation of the basic cry in which more excess air is forced through the vocal cords

• has a loud, harsh sound to it, almost like shouting.

Pain Cry

• A sudden long, initial loud cry followed by breath holding

• n/o preliminary moaning is present

• stimulated by a high-intensity stimulus

Smiling

• critical as a means of developing a new social skill and is a key social signal

• two types:

  • reflexive smile

  • social smile

Reflexive Smile

• a smile that does not occur in response to external stimuli

• appears during the first month after birth, usually during sleep

Social Smile

• A smile that occurs in response to an external stimulus

• typically a face in the case of the young infant

• occurs as early as 4 to 6 weeks of age in response to a caregiver’s voice

Fear

• one of a baby’s earliest emotions

• usually first appears at about 6 months of age and peaks at about 18 months

• abused and neglected infants can show this as early as 3 months

• ex. stranger anxiety

Stranger Anxiety

• infant shows a fear and wariness of strangers

• first appears at 6 months in the form of wary reaction

• by the age of 9 months, the fear is more intense, peaks at the first year of life

• shown less in the presence of familiar figures

Separation Protest

• crying when the caregiver leaves

• initially appears at 7-8 months, peaks at 15 months

Emotions in Infancy

• responses to other’s emotions

• sensitive to face-to-face interactions very early on

  • still face experiment

  • 3-9 months

  • more current research found effect as early as 2.5 years

• social referencing to determine reaction

Emotional Regulation

ability to control our response to emotion

• executed functioning (prefrontal cortex [not fully developed until our 20s])

• impact peer relationships

  • poor regulation leads ro problems with peers

emotional regulation

Emotions in Adolescence

• storm and stress model

• emotions may seem out of proportion to triggers

• moodiness

  • symptoms of depression are often seen as a normal part of adolescence, but it is not

Stom and Stress Model

• emotional turmoil

  • high highs

  • low lows

  • faster emotional changes

5 years

by then, most children can accurately identify emotions that are produced by challenging circumstances and describe strategies they might call on to cope with everyday stress

Developmental Changes in Emotion in Middle/Late Childhood

• Marked Improvements in the ability to suppress or conceal negative emotional reactions

• The use of self-initiated strategies for redirecting feelings

• An increased tendency to take into fuller account the events leading to emotional reactions

• Development of a capacity for genuine empathy

dose-response effects

the more severe the disaster or trauma (dose), the worse the adaptation and adjustment (response) following the disaster or trauma

10 years

most children are able to use these cognitive strategies to cope with stress

Emotional Development in Adolescence

• more emotional highs and lows

• girls are especially vulnerable to depression

• teens get moody, this is a normal part of development

Emotional Development in Adulthood

• emotional well-being related to emotional intelligence

• women are more vulnerable to social stressors like romance, family, and work

• women are more likely to become depressed

• men - fight or flight & women- tend and befriend

Emotional Development in Older Adults

• react less strongly to negative circumstances

• better at ignoring negative info

• remember more positive than negative information

Fight or Flight

• become aggressive, withdraw from social contact, or drink alcohol

Tend and Befriend

• seeking social alliances with others, especially friends

• women experience stress an influx of the hormone oxytocin, which is linked to nurturing in animals, is released

Changing in Aging Brain

Reduced negative emotion in older adults may be associated with decreased physiological arousal of emotion due to aging in the amygdala and autonomic nervous system

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

• older adults become more selective about their activities and social relationships in order to maintain social and emotional well-being.

• According to this theory, older adults systematically condense their social networks so that available social partners satisfy their emotional needsthey place a high value on emotional satisfaction, older adults often spend more time with familiar individuals with whom they have had rewarding relationships

Temperament

• type is present at birth

• individual differences in behavioral styles, emotions, and characteristic ways of responding

• refers to individual differences in how quickly the emotion is shown, how strong it is, how long it lasts, and how soon it fades away

Reactivity

• involves variations in the speed and intensity with which an individual responds to situations with positive or negative emotions.

• children who have high levels of this will get stressed more easily, and have high neuroticism and consciousness

Self-Regulation

variations in the extent or effectiveness of an individual’s control of emotions

Easy Child

• generally in a positive mood, quickly establishes regular routines in infancy, and adapts easily to new experiences.

• likely to be well adjusted as young adults

• 40% of children

Difficult Child

• reacts negatively and cries frequently, engages in irregular daily routines, and is slow to accept change.

• 10% of children

Slow to Warm Up Child

• has a low activity level, is somewhat negative, and displays a low intensity of mood

• 15% of children

Inhibition to the Unfamiliar Temperament

• begins at about 7 to 9 months

• these children react to many aspects of familiarity with initial avoidance, distress, or subdued affect

• linked to shyness

• frequently show less inhibition by age 7

Rothbart and Bates’ Dimensions of Temperament

• Extraversion/surgency

• Negative Affectivity

• Effortful Control

Extraversion/surgency

• includes approach, pleasure, activity, smiling, and laughter

• kagan’s unhiited children fit into this category

Negative Affectivity

• includes “fear, frustration, sadness, and discomfort”

• children are easily distressed; they may fret and cry often

• Kagan’s inhibited children fit this category.

Effortful Control (Self Regulation)

• includes “attentional focusing and shifting, inhibitory control, perceptual sensitivity, and low-intensity pleasure”

• infants who are good at this show an ability to keep their arousal from getting too high and have strategies for soothing themselves

• children w/ lower efforts control at 3 years of age were more likely to have ADHD symptoms

Biological Influences on Temperament

• Physiological Characteristics have been linked with different temperaments

  • children with inhibited temperaments have a high steady heart rate, cortisol levels, and activity in the right frontal lobe of the brain

  • negative reactivity is linked to

• Heredity definitely does influence characteristics

Gender and Temperament

parents may react differently to temperament depending on the gender of the child

Goodness of Fit

• the match between a child’s temperament and the environmental demands the child must cope with.

Differential Susceptibility Model

individuals vary in their sensitivity to environmental influences, meaning that some people are more affected by both positive and negative experiences than others

Biological Sensitivity to Context Theory

an individual’s sensitivity to the environment is shaped by the quality of early life experiences

Attachment

a close emotional bond between two people

Social Orientation in Infantile Attachment

• Young Infants will stare intently at faces and are attuned to the sounds of human voices

• face to face play

• by 2-3 months children start to show more positive emotion to people than inanimate objects

• Still-face paradigm

Face-to-Face Play

• often begins to characterize caregiver-infant interactions when the infant is about 2 to 3 months of age

• may include vocalizations, touch, and gestures

• results in part from many mothers’ motivation to create a positive emotional state in their infants

Still face paradigm

the caregiver alternates between engaging in face-to-face interaction with the infant and remaining still and unresponsive

Locomotion in Infantile Attachment

• the development of this paces the infant and toddler’s push for independence

• also important for its motivational implications: once infants have he ability to move in goal-directed pursuits, the reward from these pursuits leads to further efforts to explore and develop skills

Social Referencing in Infantile Attachment

• the term used to describe “reading” emotional cues in others to help determine how to act in a specific situation

• helps infants to interpret ambigu ous situations more accurately, as when they encounter a stranger and need to know whether or not to fear the person

• ex. by their second year: , they tend to “check” with their mother before they act; they look at her to see if she is happy, angry, or fearful

• 8-10 months

Harry Harlow Attachment Experiment

• Harlow removed infant monkeys from their mothers at 6 months, and replaced them with surrogate mothers:

  • wire mother

  • cloth mother

• regardless of which mother fed then, they spent more time with the cloth mother, (even if they were fed more with the wire mother)

• when they were frightened though, they went to the mother that “raised”

• showed that contact comfort plays a bigger role in attachment than feeding does

Freudian Attachment Theory

infants become attached to the person or object that provides oral satisfac tion

Erikson’s Attachment Theory

• first year of life: the stage of trust v. mistrust - physical comfort and sensitive care

• the infant’s sense of trust, in turn, is the foundation for attachment and sets the stage for a lifelong expectation that the world will be a good and pleasant place to be

John Bowlby

• british psychiatrist

• stresses the importance of attachment in the first year of life and the responsiveness of the caregiver

• both infants and their primary caregivers are biologically predisposed to form attachments

• the newborn is biologically equipped to elicit attachment behavior. The baby cries, clings, coos, and smiles. Later, the infant crawls, walks, and follows the mother.

• The immediate result is to keep the primary caregiver nearby; the long-term effect is to increase the infant’s chances of survival.

Phase 1 of Attachment (Bowlby)

• birth - 2 months

• infants instinctively direct their attachment to human figures

• Strangers, siblings, and parents (all people) are equally likely to elicit smiling or crying from the infant

Phase 2 of Attachment (Bowlby)

• 2-7 months

• Attachment becomes focused on one figure, usu ally the primary caregiver, as the baby gradually learns to distinguish familiar from unfamiliar people

• familiar vs. unfamiliar

Phase 3 of Attachment (Bowlby)

• 7-24 months

• Specific attachments develop

• With increased locomotor skills, babies actively seek contact with regular caregivers such as the mother or father

Phase 4 of Attachment (Bowlby)

• From 24 months on

• Children become aware of others’ feelings, goals, and plans and begin to take these into account in forming their own actions

• children begin to understand their caregivers emotional needs and wishes

Internal Working Model

• Bowlby argued that infants develop this

• a simple mental model of the caregiver, their relationship, and the self as deserving of nurturant care

• attachment emerges from the social cognitive advances that allow infants to develop expectations for the caregiver’s behavior and to determine the affective quality of their relationship

Strange Situation

an observational measure of infant attachment in which the infant experiences a series of introductions, separations, and reunions with the caregiver and an adult stranger in a prescribed order

allows infants to be described as one of the four:

• securely attached

• insecure avoidant

• insecure resistant

• insecure disorganized

Securely Attached Children

• use the caregiver as a secure base from which to explore the environment

• comfortable relying on caregiver and acting independently

• When in the presence of their caregiver, securely attached infants explore the room and examine toys that have been placed in it

• When the caregiver departs, securely attached infants might protest mildly, and when the caregiver returns these infants reestablish positive interaction with her, perhaps by smiling or climbing onto her lap. they then play like normal

Insecure Avoidant Children

• show insecurity by avoiding the caregiver

• uncomfortabel depending on the caregiver; usually prefer independence

• in the strange situation, they don’t really interact w the caregiver, aren’t distressed when they leave the room, don’t reestablish contact when they return

• may even turn their back on the caregiver when contact is established or restablished

Insecure Resistant Children

• often cling to the caregiver, and then resist her by fighting against closeness

• in the strange situation., the babies often cling anxiously to the caregiver and they don’t explore the playroom independently

• when the caregiver leaves, they cry loudly and push they away if they try to conform them when they return. They then want to be held again

Insecure Disorganized Children

• disorganized and disoriented

• often seen in instances of abuse and neglect

• in the strange situation, these babies may seem dazed, confused, and fearful

• to be classified, babies must show strong patterns of avoidance and resistance or display certain specified behaviors, such as extreme fearfulness around the caregiver.

Sensitive Parenting

• love, security, and support

  • responsive to child’s cues

  • available

  • affectionate

The Good Enough Parent

• can’t be perfect 100% of the time

• children may benefit form manageable frustration

• parent used as a “secure base”

Developmental Cascade Model

• involves connections across domains over time that influence developmental pathways and outcomes

• can include connections between a wide range of biological, cognitive, and socioemotional processes (attachment, for example), and also can involve social contexts such as families, peers, schools, and culture

Attachment Theory Criticims

• some think that too much emphasis has been placed on infancy, they’re very resilient and adaptive

• it ignores the diversity of socializing agents and contexts that exists in an infant’s world; a culture’s value system can influence the nature of attachment

Oxytocin

• a mammalian hormone that also acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain

• released in the mother during breast feeding and by contact and warmth

• released in the mother during breast feeding and by contact and warmth

• can also be secreted by fathers

Attachment in Middle and Late Childhood

• attachment becomes more sophisticated

• children’s social worlds expand to include peers, teachers, and others

• start to spend less time w their parents

Stages of Romantic Love

• Entry into romantic attractions and affiliations

• Exploring romantic relationships at approximately 14 to 16 years of age

• Consolidating dyadic romantic bonds at about 17 to 19 years of age.

Entry into romantic attractions and affiliations

• at about 11-13 years of age

• adolescents become intensely interested in romance, and it dominates many conversations with same-sex friends

• Young adolescents may or may not interact with the individual who is the object of their infatuation. When dating occurs, it usually takes place in a group setting.

Exploring romantic relationships

• at roughly 14-16

• two types of romantic involvement occur: casual dating and group dating

  • casual dating - s between individuals who are mutually attracted. These dating experiences are often short-lived, last a few months at best, and usually endure for only a few weeks.

  • dating in groups - common and reflects embeddedness in the peer con text. A friend often acts as a third-party facilitator of a potential dating relationship by communicating their friend’s romantic interest and determining whether this attraction is reciprocated.

Consolidating dyadic romantic bonds

• from like 17-19 years

• At the end of the high school years, more serious romantic relationships develop

• Romantic relationships within this age group are characterized by strong emotional bonds more closely resem bling those in adult romantic relationships

• These bonds often are more stable and enduring than earlier bonds, typically lasting one year or more

Dating and Adjustment

• among adolescent girls but not adolescent males, having an older romantic partner was linked with an increase in depressive symptoms, largely influenced by an increase in substance use

• esearchers also have found that early dating and “going with” someone are linked with adolescent pregnancy and problems at home and school

Sociocultural Cultural Contexts and Dating

• Values and religious beliefs of various cultures often dictate the age at which dating begins, how much freedom in dating is allowed, whether dates must be chaperoned by adults or parents, and the roles of males and females in dating

  • ex. Latino and Asian American cultures have more conservative standards regarding adolescent dating than does the Anglo-American culture

Adult Attachment Styles (Hazan and Shaver)

• Secure Attachment Style

• Avoidant Attachment Style

• Anxious Attachment style

Secure Attachment Style

• Securely attached adults have positive views of relationships, find it easy to get close to others, and are not overly concerned with, or stressed out about, their romantic relationships

• comfortable with intimacy and not concerned with abandonment

• These adults tend to enjoy sexuality in the context of a committed relationship and are less likely than others to have one-night stands

Avoidant attachment style

• these individuals are hesitant about getting involved in romantic relationships and once in a relationship tend to distance themselves from their partner

• uncomfortable with intimacy

• distant partners

Anxious attachment style

These individuals demand closeness, are less trusting, and are more emotional, jealous, and possessive

Benefits of Secure Attachment

• Individuals who are securely attached have a well-integrated sense of self-acceptance, self-esteem, and self-efficacy.

• They have the ability to control their emotions, are optimistic, and are resilient.

• Facing stress and adversity, they activate cognitive representations of security, are mindful of what is happening around them, and mobilize effective coping strategies.

Attachment from Early to Late Attachment

• Older adults have fewer attachment relationships than younger adults

• With increasing age, attachment anxiety decreases

• In late adulthood, attachment security is associated with psychological and physical well-being

• Insecure attachment is linked to more perceived negative caregiver burden in caring for patients with Alzheimer disease