Emotion Flashcards
What is emotion?
A strong feeling deriving from one’s circumstances, mood or relationships with others
What is the traditional view of emotion?
It is an internal state is are expressed behaviourally in line with display rules
What is the functionalist perspective of emotion?
Emotions are used to communicate during social interactions and to create changes in the environment
When is emotional behaviour present from?
Birth - the very first feed
Describe a study that shows emotion is present from a very early age.
- Newborns responses to their first feed were videotaped within a double blind setting
- Where they were either given a sweet or sour liquid
- It was found that babies produced 2 distinct facial expressions
- Sweet: slight smile
- Bitter: Mouth corners down, pursed lips
- The observers could judge whether or not the babies like or disliked the liquid
How do the facial expressions of children change as they get older?
They are more easily differentiated and distinguished
Describe a study about how children’s facial expressions become more distinguished and differentiated.
- Longitudinal study was done to examine infants expressions during a vaccination
- Ranged from 2 - 7 months old
- The younger babies showed generalised distress
- Older babies showed a distinctly angry expression
When are children said to show a full range of emotions?
3 years old
When are the primary emotions present within a child?
Within the first 6 months
What are the primary emotions known for/characterised by?
Being biologically based and universal
What are the positive primary emotions?
Joy, happiness, contentment
What are the negative primary emotions?
Sadness, anger, disgust, fear
When do secondary emotions develop and is this the same for everyone?
With cognitive maturity, but they vary across individuals and cultures
What are secondary emotions?
Self-conscious emotions: acing on awareness of others’ attention
What are some examples of earlier secondary emotions?
Bashfulness, coyness
What are some examples of later secondary emotions?
Guilt, pride, shame
What do primary emotions contribute towards?
Cognitive development
What is required for secondary emotions to development?
Basic cognitive development from the primary emotions
What evidence is there that secondary emotions are developed earlier than 2 years?
- Infants were videotaped for 30 mins for 7 - 20 weeks
- All of the infants showed coy smiles which were similar to adults or younger children
- Shows that coyness is promoted by onset of social attention
What evidence is there that infants are able to distinguish and then react appropriately to the emotional expressions given from others?
- 10 week old infants were interacting with their mothers
- Mothers showed either a happy, sad or angry face
- Found babies responded differently to different face. If the mother looked angry they looked angry, same w/ happy etc.
What is social referencing?
Process characterised by the use of one’s perception of another person’s interpretation of the situation to form one’s own understanding of the situation
When can social referencing happen in infants?
If the situation is particularly distressing or ambiguous, the infant may look to caregiver to gauge an emotional reference point
When can social referencing happen in infants?
If the situation is particularly distressing or ambiguous, the infant may look to caregiver to gauge an emotional reference point
Describe a study that shows mothers being a social reference point for their child and the results of it.
- Visual Cliff Experiment
- The visual cliff was created with a glass table top with a checker-board pattern underneath with a deep drop off point.
- Mother stood on opposite side and was told to adopt wither a happy or fearful face
- Found that infants were more likely to cross if mothers looked happy
- Out of 19 infants 14 crossed if mother looked happy
- Out of 17, 0 crossed with fearful face
