Emotion Development

·      Infancy

o   Primary Emotions

§  After 3 months – experience joy and sadness

§  Reflexive vs social smile

§  Between 2-6 months - experience anger

§  Around 6 months – surprise and fear

·      Stranger anxiety (dissipates after 9 months)

o   Anxiety over non-primary caregivers.

·      Separation protest (peak at 15 months)

o   Anxiety over no sight of a parent

·      Infancy/Early Childhood

o   Self-conscious emotions

§  Require self-awareness

§  18+months – empathy, jealousy, embarrassment, pride, shame, guilt

o   Emotional neglect - not giving love

§  Nonorganic failure to thrive – fatal from lack of emotional connection

§  Straight face experiment

§  Social Referencing – reacting to the environment

·      Middle/Late Childhood

o   More internalized emotional understanding

o   Improved emotion regulation and emotional competence/intelligence

o   Coping with stress

§  Increased use of cognitive coping strategies (distracting themselves)

·      Adolescence

o   Emotional turmoil

§  “Storm and Stress”

§  Frontal lobe vs amygdala

o   Environmental experience

o   First sign of depression episode – first break up

·      Adulthood

o   Increased emotional intelligence, competence, and regulation

o   Middle/Older adults – more stable

§  More positive, fewer negative emotions.

o   Socioemotional selectivity theory – more selective in social networks (friends).