Emotion Development_Jan2025

Developing Emotions

  • Professor: Alice Jones Bartoli

  • Course: Mental Health and Wellbeing I

  • Date: January 2025

  • Contact: a.jones@gold.ac.uk

  • Student ID: 283438

  • Version: Mished V4

  • Module Code: PLASSE

Lecture Schedule

Week 1

  • Lecture 1: What is an emotion?

  • Seminar 1: Role of the environment on emotion processing

  • Lecture 2: Emotion in the body

  • Lecture 3: The emotional brain

  • Seminar 2: Measuring emotion in the body

Week 2

  • Lecture 1: Development of emotion

  • Seminar 1: Emotion development

  • Lecture 2: Interpersonal emotion

  • Lecture 3: Introduction to assessment: Behavioral experiment

  • Seminar 2: Planning your behavioral experiment

Week 3

  • Lecture 1: Emotion regulation

  • Seminar 1: Practicing emotion regulation

  • Lecture 2: Individual differences in emotional experiences

  • Lecture 3: Emotion and motivation

  • Seminar 2: Emotion deception

Overview

  • Examination of how emotion expression and understanding develop in early childhood

  • Focus areas:

    • Babies’ expression of emotion

    • Role of relationships and environment

    • Concepts of attachment and mind-mindedness

    • Impact of early emotional development on later socioemotional functioning

    • Biological and environmental influences

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Describe attachment theory and evaluate its predictive utility.

  • Explain how mind-mindedness fosters emotional understanding through secure attachment.

  • Understand the influence of genetic and environmental factors on a child’s emotional development (e.g., temperament and abuse).

Importance of Emotions in Child Development

  • Emotions crucial for social cohesion and survival:

    • Parent-infant bonds essential for infant survival

    • Learning to interpret social cues through emotions:

      • Facial expressions indicating danger (e.g., fear, disgust)

      • Eye gaze direction signaling points of interest or threats

      • Social referencing where infants look to caregivers for guidance on new objects

Are Babies Born with Emotions?

  • Evidence suggests yes, with newborns showing:

    • Interest, distress, distaste, contentment

    • Question remains whether these are true emotions as understood in adults.

Developing Emotional Understanding

  • Certain brain regions are prewired for processing basic emotions.

  • Learning to understand, label, and regulate emotions occurs through social interactions.

  • Attachment relationships are foundational for this early learning.

Significance of Love

  • Defined as an enduring affectional tie (Ainsworth & Bell, 1970).

  • Provides emotional security and comfort; emphasizes need for proximity and connection.

Attachment Dynamics

  • Characteristics of Attachment:

    • Selective focus on specific individuals

    • Physical proximity seeking

    • Provides comfort and security, causing separation distress

    • Observable behaviors:

      • Preferential attention, touching, clinging, and emotional signals.

Theoretical Perspectives on Attachment

  • Learning Accounts:

    • Attachment to the mother reinforced through basic needs (e.g., food, comfort).

  • Psychoanalytic Theories:

    • Freud's emphasis on oral gratification linked to attachment

    • Harlow challenges this, showing that comfort can be more critical than food.

  • Imprinting:

    • Observed in ducklings (Lorenz); suggests innate attachment processes.

  • Ethological Theory:

    • Bowlby’s idea of biological predisposition for infant-mother attachment.

Case Study: The Young Thieves

  • Bowlby’s 1944 study on children referred for stealing

  • Noted that 14 out of 44 were affectionless due to maternal deprivation before age 5.

  • Criticisms highlighted potential biases and implications for maternal roles post-war.

Assessing Attachment: The Strange Situation

  • Developed by Ainsworth and colleagues to observe infant responses to caregiver separation and reunion.

Classification of Attachment Security

  • Types:

    • A: Secure (60-65%): Uses caregiver as a base; exhibits distress but seeks reunion.

    • B: Insecure-Avoidant (20%): Explores freely; minimal distress during separation.

    • C: Ambivalent-Resistant (14%): Clingy and distressed; shows anger post-reunion.

    • D: Disorganized (~5%): Displays confused behavior upon caregiver return.

Criticisms of the Strange Situation

  • Critiques focus on:

    • Overemphasis on mother figures

    • Variability in attachment behaviors with fathers

    • Cultural differences affecting infant behavior in testing scenarios.

Predictive Nature of Attachment

  • Secure attachment linked to positive developmental outcomes:

    • Curiosity, problem-solving, social confidence, empathy, and reduced behavioral issues in later years.

Continuity in Attachment

  • Complexity exists in the continuity of attachment styles across development.

  • Studies suggest some stability; however, later attachment may differ from earlier experiences.

Overall Criticisms of Attachment Theory

  • Concerns about simplification of attachment categories and resilience narratives.

  • Emphasis on dynamic developmental processes and the individual’s unique trajectory rather than rigid classifications.

Infants as Active Participants

  • Shift from 'blank slate' ideology; infants possess inherent capabilities impacting social relationships.

Mutuality in Early Relationships

  • Infants are responsive to caregivers, establishing mutual connections.

  • Reciprocity observed during interactions termed the 'dance' (Stern, 1971).

Developmental Milestones of Intentionality

  • Around 8-9 months, children show increased intentionality and become active social participants.

Origins of Individual Differences in Attachment

  • Maternal deprivation can lead to insecure attachment; however, confounding variables exist.

  • Mind-mindedness in caregivers enhances responsive interactions with infants.

Understanding Mindmindedness

  • Research by Elizabeth Meins highlights the importance of caregivers' communications about infants' mental states in fostering attachment.

Role of Temperament in Attachment

  • Temperament may influence attachment style development:

    • Defined dimensions include surgency, orienting/regulation, and negative affect

    • Suggests genetic predispositions may impact attachment formation.

Implications of Non-Typical Development

  • Early trauma and abuse can disrupt emotional understanding, leading to individual differences in emotional responses.

Impact of Trauma on Emotion Recognition

  • Research indicates abused children may recognize fear and anger more quickly, showing the impact of parental behavior on emotional perception.

Developmental Cascade Model

  • Addresses interaction of genetic and environmental factors in shaping emotional experiences and skills development over time.

Strategies for Supporting Development

  • Emphasis on responsivity, parental warmth, and informed parenting programs to support healthy emotional development.

Further Reading

  • Key studies and works on impulse, behavior, and attachment literature provide additional context for exploring child emotional development.