6. Emotional Development

Emotional Development Overview

  • Course: PSYC 304

  • Instructor: Sonia Krol, PhD

  • Date: October 28th, 2024

Development of Emotions

  • High Amplitude Sucking Paradigm and Listening Paradigms

    • 2 months: cooing

    • 7 months: babbling

    • 12 months: first words

    • 18 months: vocabulary spurt

    • 2 years: telegraphic speech

  • Perception of Speech Sounds

    • Children perceive the same category boundaries as adults, but can also make more distinctions.

  • Emotional Development

    • Understanding emotions: perceptual narrowing around 10-12 months to native speech sounds.

    • Emotional regulation develops throughout childhood.

Influences on Language Exposure

  • Bilingualism vs Monolingualism

    • Bilingual children reach language milestones simultaneously with monolinguals.

    • Children’s vocabulary development relies on caregivers and the amount of engagement, with lower SES children facing a 30 million word gap.

    • Use of Infant Directed Speech (IDS) enhances learning.

What are Emotions?

  • Emotions Defined

    • Combination of:

      • Physiological responses

      • Cognitive evaluations

      • Subjective feelings

      • Emotional expressions

      • Urges to take action

Physiological and Neurological Responses

  • Physiological Responses

    • Heart racing, nausea

  • Subjective Feelings

    • Recognition of danger or feelings of fear.

  • Emotional Expressions

    • Eyes widen, mouth pulled back, signaling emotional states.

  • Neurological Basis

    • Amygdala activation, cortisol, and adrenaline release during emotional events.

Discrete Emotions Theory

  • Emotions are innate, biologically-based systems crucial for survival and communication, as seen in basic emotions identified by Ekman et al. (2011).

Basic Emotions

  • Identified core emotions that are universally expressed:

    • Happiness

    • Fear

    • Anger

    • Sadness

    • Disgust

    • Surprise

Beyond Basic Emotions

  • Development of more complex emotions that involve:

    • Variations in intensity (e.g., anger + sadness = betrayal).

    • Not all emotions are culturally universal.

Evidence for Discrete Emotions Theory

  • Basic emotions are present from infancy and demonstrated universally across cultures.

Understanding Baby Emotions

  • Coding Facial Cues

    • Systems to objectively interpret infant emotions through facial expressions linked to basic emotions in adults.

Facial Cues to Basic Emotions in Infants

  • Happiness

    • Smiling, raised cheeks, eyes squinting

  • Anger

    • Furrowed brow, mouth shapes, flared nostrils

  • Overall Development

    • Positive/happiness signifies approach; negative/distress signifies withdrawal or crying.

Emotional Development Stages

Happiness

  • Adaptive behaviors encourage interaction, bonding with caregivers as smiles progressively develop from birth to social smiles at 2-3 months.

Anger

  • Emerges at 4 months, peaks at 24 months, often linked to language limitations leading to tantrums during the “terrible twos.”

Fear

  • Detailed development from 7 months onwards includes fear of strangers and separation anxiety.

Other Emotions

  • Surprise: Indicates unexpectedness, aiding learning.

  • Sadness: Elicits care from others and appears with object permanence.

  • Disgust: Essential for avoiding toxins, growth begins with food interactions.

Self-Conscious Emotions

  • Emergence Timeline

    • Develop around 18 months with a sense of self.

    • Include guilt, shame, embarrassment, pride, and empathy around 2 years.

Guilt vs. Shame

  • Guilt: Connected to behavior, urges rectification.

  • Shame: Generalized sense of failure, often linked to desire to hide from judgment.

Cultural Influence on Self-Conscious Emotions

  • Individualistic cultures favor pride, whereas collectivistic cultures promote guilt and shame expressions.

Summary of Emotional Development

  • Discrete emotions theory establishes basic emotional foundation.

  • All basic emotions present by the end of the first year, self-conscious emotions develop with self-awareness.

Emotional Recognition in Infancy

  • Facial Recognition

    • Infants can recognize emotions in adults’ faces before identifying their own.

    • 3-month-olds distinguish happiness, surprise, and anger.

Social Referencing

  • Important for context-reactive behaviors where children use adult emotional cues to interpret situations, critical for safety evaluations.

Emotional Labeling Timeline

  • Development Milestones

    • Age 3: Label basic emotions

    • Age 5: Begin to identify mixed emotions

    • Age 6-8: Label self-conscious emotions accurately.

Impact of COVID on Emotion Recognition

  • Children’s abilities to recognize emotions remained relatively intact despite masking due to home influence versus peer interactions.

Understanding Mixed and Real vs. Fake Emotions

  • Advancements in understanding complex emotional interactions occur around age 5, recognizing that expressions don’t always match internal feelings, shaped by cultural display rules.

Emotion Regulation

  • Strategies for Regulation

    • Transition from co-regulation with caregivers to self-regulation strategies like self-soothing and cognitive reframing.

Emotional Intelligence Impacts

  • Higher emotional intelligence correlates with positive outcomes in social interactions, academic success, and emotional well-being.

Adolescence Emotional Changes

  • Increased risk-taking and emotional intensity noted during adolescence due to developmental shifts in brain systems.

  • Results indicate heightened emotional responses with increased negativity and struggles for coping with changes, especially among females.