ch. 10 emotional development

why is fear important?

• orients you to potential threat

• allocate resources to adapt to environment

• optimizing behaviour for survival

• developmentally: keeps you safe as a vulnerable child

why is digust important?

• disease avoidance mechanism

• prevents ingestion of/engagement with pathogenic substances

• developmentally: reduce risk when immune system developing

why is sadness important?

• if an event/action causes sadness, likely avoid it in the future

• reflection can improve problem solving

• induces empathy and social support

• bring us back to reality

• developmentally: signals distress, facilitates emotion regulation

why is happiness important?

• buffers against stress

• affiliative emotion - promotes social bonding

• helps us survive

• developmentally: strengthens attachment, supports learning

what are the basic emotions?

fundamental: disgust, fear

first order: sadness, anger

primary: happiness, surprise

can babies express basic emotions immediately?

• by 6 months, all basic emotions can be expressed

• amygdala development can influence when emotions emerge

• scientists: very young babies only experience borad positive and negative states

what are positive emotions? 

smiling first clear sign of happiness in infants

• 1 mo: smile in sleep

• 2-3 mo: social smiles appear

  • social smiles can appear as early as 6 weeks

  • meaning of smile changes over time and age

• ~7 mo: smile at familiar people

• 2 yr: children delight in making others laugh

what are negative emotions?

• first negative emotion is generalized distress

• generalized distress → anger

what is anger in infancy?

• 4-6 mo: develops

• increase goal-directed behaviour: infants get frustrated when goal isn’t met

• increased mobility = increased parental contol = increase anger

• increases in toddlerhood, decreases in middle childhood

  • better emotion regulation

  • better communication + negotitaion 

what are disgust reactions?

• parents play large role in identifying stimuli

• 2.5 yr: avoidance of unpleasant stimuli

• 3 yr: sensitivity to contamination, culturally mediated through education

• 7 yr: disgust + avoidance more developed

what are fear reactions?

fear of strangers: not developed immediately 

• first few months of life: smiling less at unfamiliar people

• ~6-9 mo: clear fear of strangers - “stranger wariness“

  • turning away, beginning to fuss

• reliance on amygdala & prefrontal cortex connections

• fear reaction increases over first two years, stabilizes

how is fear adaptive?

• creeping/crawling behaviour emerges

  • wariness emerges at same time

• curious babies prone to exploration

• natural restraint against wandering away from caregivers

certain fears decreases as children differentiate reality from fiction

• fear of dark, monsters (4-6 yo) → concerns about school, harm, health

• occurs during elementary years

  • understand appearance vs. reality

what influences fear reactivity?

• environment

• behaviour of stanger

• temperament

• physiological regulation abiliies

  • poor regulation → stable and high stranger fear

maternal depression study - what does this mean?

both objective and subjective data show that maternal depression is associated with more rapid fear development in infants

• infant fearfulness → behavioural inhibition / internalizing problems throughout childhood → poorer social and health outcomes

when do things get more complex?

self-conscious emotions emerge ~ 18-24 mos

• guilt

• embarrassment

• shame

• pride

what are the basics of understanding emotion?

• 5 yr: unpleasant events make people sad or angry

• 3-10 yrs: minds can trigger emotions, without a specific event

• 6-7 yrs: can conceptualize 2 emotions of same valence (sad, angry)

• 6-8 yrs: emotions should match what someone believes, even if reality is different

• 10+ yrs: appear to understand mixed (happy and sad) emotional states

what are display rules?

culturally-specific “rules“ on emotions are appropriae to displpay based on where/with whom you are

what is emotion recognition?

• interpretation

• labeling

• categorization

when can babies first recognize emotions?

as early as 4 months, certainly by 6

• fearful, neutral, happy faces trigger different electrical activity in the infant brain

• 12-18 mo: use social referencing

  • looking at caregiver for cues to interpret a situation

what is emotion regulation?

• goal-oriented

• modulation

  • intensity, duration, nature

what are emotion regulation and outcomes?

• prosocial behavior

• relationship success

• academic functioning

• internalizing/externalizing

• health and well-being

what are the patterns in developing self-regulation?

1. regulation by others

2. transition from regulation by others to self-regulation

3. transition to using cognitive strategies to control negative emotions

what is ER in infancy and childhood?

• early months: co-regulation is key

• older infants: self-initiated ER

• motor development allows for more intentional and complex regulation, like playing with fingers and toes

• frontol lobe and EF development + increase language ability → better self-regulation

• through childhood, strategies move from behavioural to cognitive

what are the factors that influence ER?

• temperament

• physiological and emotional reactivity

• family context

what are callous-unemotional traits?

• shallow affect (limited emotion)

• lack of guilt + remorse

• low empathy

• uncaring attitude

• chronic offending

• antisocial behaviour

• physical health

what is moral socialization? “violence inhibition mechanism“

• transgression against another child

• other child expresses distress

• trangressing child recognizes and reacts to cues

• harmful behaviours conditioned against

what is emotion recognition in Autism Specturm Conditions?

• social communication difficulties

• experience local processing bias

• poorer recognition when

  • emotions are complex

  • stimulus duration is shorter

  • salience of emotion is lower

  • linguistic strategies may be used

what helps emotion regulation in young autistic children?

• stronger reliance on co-regulation

• more avoidance-based strategies

• may be delay in transition from extrinsic → intrinsic strategies