Emotional Development in Children Flashcards
(27 cards)
What are emotions?
Neural responses to a stimuli
They are involuntary bodily responses
Feelings make us aware of our emotions
What method is usually used to identify children’s emotions?
Focus on their facial expressions
-AFFEX is a system for coding emotions in infants, looks at the link between particular facial expressions & facial muscle movements
What are some limitations of relying on focusing on facial expressions to identify children’s emotions, and systems used for this such as AFFEX?
- Often hard to determine exactly which emotions infants are experiencing
- Is particularly difficult to differentiate among negative emotions that young infants express
AFFEX: - Very complex
- Takes hours to understand what muscles move for different facial expressions
What are the four emotions that adults typically discuss?
Happiness, Anger, Fear, Sadness
What is recommended to do when trying to study emotions of babies in order to make it easier (rather than attempt to identify all individual emotions)?
Split emotions into two categories: positive emotions and negative emotions
Outline what happens in each stage of the development of Smile/Happiness?
1-3or4 weeks: smiles are physiological reaction, not representative of any emotions
3or4-8 weeks: children smile as reaction to stimulus
3-4 months onwards: babies laugh as well as smile, social smiles (directed at people)
7-8 months: babies smile at people they know, research suggests babies smile more towards people than objects, smile more when can control event e.g. attach string to child’s arm so string moves when baby moves
1 year onwards: expression of happiness increases to wider objects&events as cognition develops
Why is it difficult to know whether a baby experiences different types of negative emotions?
- The type of cry a baby makes might be determined on position of their head, their respiration & eye fixation
- It’s possible they express mixed emotions rather than differentiated emotions
- The same child in same situation might express different emotions e.g. might show fear one time and anger another time
How old is a baby when they start to show fear?
- At around 4 months there is evidence that children start to experience wariness with unfamiliar people&objects
- 6-7 months: first signs of fear.
- Fear of strangers
intensifies&lasts until
age 2
- Shown by Braungart-
Rieker, J. M., Hill-
Soderlund, A. L., &
Karrass, J. (2010)
What other emotion do infants typically express at the same time as anger?
Sadness
- this is to indicate distress
How old is an infant when they start to clearly express anger?
12 months: clearly express anger
18-24 months: express more anger
3-6 years: express less anger because can express themselves with language
As infants get older, they can demonstrate more sadness. What situation in particular causes the expression of sadness?
When they are separated from their parents/carers & nobody gives them attention.
What are self-conscious emotions?
Guilt, Shame, Jealousy, Empathy, Pride & Embarrassment
At what age do children start to express self-conscious emotions?
2 years old & onwards
- develop at same time as child develops sense of self
What is separation anxiety?
How old are children when it emerges?
The distress of a baby/toddler, experienced if primary caregiver is separated from them.
- Experienced more if caregiver moves away from child rather than child moving away from caregiver
Typically emerges at 8 months old
What happens if separation anxiety persists?
It can become a disorder, starting as early as 3-4 y.o. &continuing into adulthood
- Children can become very tearful when they feel as though they’re alone, can range from subtle crying to extreme tantrums.
- Children are difficult to comfort when they feel anxious due to separation
What are the signs of depression in young children from Luby et al.’s screening test?
Intense sadness, Problems with eating and/or sleeping, Constantly distressed, Irrational fears and worries, Very shy, situations such as carer leaving or stranger arriving causing extreme reactions, Isolate themselves/withdraw, Low self-confidence, Unable to partake in activities crucial to development.
What makes up emotional competence?
Emotion expression
Emotion regulation
Emotion understanding
What difficulties do people with autism and asbergers face in regards to emotions?
- they struggle to understand their own and other people’s emotions
- however they can learn to recognise emotions through facial expressions & general body language
What are the 6 basic universal emotions?
Happiness Fear Anger Sadness Surprise Disgust
What does Discrete Emotions Theory say?
Does it support nature or nurture?
- Each emotion is packaged with specific & distinct bodily & facial reactions
- Basic emotions such as joy, anger&sadness can be found in every human - independent of where they are
- Children express emotions well before they have a chance to learn them from their environment
- Supports innateness of emotions (nature).
What does the Functionalist Approach say (in regards to emotions)?
Does it support nature or nurture?
- Emphasises the role of the environment in emotional development
- Proposes basic function of emotions is to promote action towards achieving a goal
- Maintains emotions are not discrete from one another
- Nurture
What is emotion regulation?
Is the ability to manage your own emotions so you function successfully in any given situation
- works as a set of conscious & unconscious processes
- monitors and modulates emotional experiences & expressions
- develops gradually over childhood
- paves way for success in social interactions & academic settings
Outline the development of emotion regulation.
5 months: demonstrate rudimentary signs of emotion regulation
9-12 months: begin to regulate emotions according to parents demands
What is Self-comforting behaviour and Self-distraction behaviour?
(Emotion regulation)
Self-comforting: used by infants to help regulate their emotions
Self-distracting: children might look away or use other means to distract themselves from upsetting situation/stimulus
- infants usually start with self-comforting then move into self-distracting
