Emotions Flashcards
(25 cards)
3 different emotion theories
- Discrete emotion theory.
- Functionalist theory.
- Emotion regulation.
Discrete emotion theory
Humans are born with a small set of universal emotions. Emotions are for adaptive purposes (automatic).
Development of primary emotions in first year of life
- Newborns: happiness vs. distress.
- 6-8 weeks: social smiling.
- 4 months: discriminate sad from happy facial expressions.
- 4-6 months: differentiate anger and fear.
- 9 months: associate emotional valences with specific facial expressions.
- 12 months: all primary emotions distinctly expressed.
Core affect theory
Emotions can be conceptualised along 2 dimensions. Valence (displeasure to pleasure) and arousal (low to high).
2 critiques of discrete emotion theory
- Underestimates function that emotions (eg. guilt and shame) play in regulating children’s interactions with peers.
- Environmental factors remain underspecified.
Functionalist theory
Emotions do not exist in isolation. They emerge between a person and their perceived environment and are tied to goals. Primary function is to communicate/signal.
Infants signal or communicate to caregivers to regulate their emotions and return to self and environment balance.
Social referencing definition
Assessing the current situation on basis of emotional expressions and behaviours of others. Regulate own behaviour accordingly so that own reaction to event is moderated by reference to info gained from actions of others.
Vaish and Striano (2004) visual cliff experiment
12-month-olds. 3 conditions: face+voice (mother smiles and vocalises), face-only (just smiles), voice-only (vocalises with back to cliff).
Results: shortest crossing time for face+voice; longest crossing time for face-only.
Purposes of happiness, fear, and anger in functionalist theory.
- Happiness: maintaining status quo of self and environment.
- Fear: terminate current self and environment relation.
- Anger: overcoming obstacles to change self and environment balance (linked to increased ability to crawl).
When does social smiling occur?
Early smiling around 3 months (when confronted with familiar situations). Smile after 2nd month also seen in context of positive emotions.
Tronick et al. (1978) face-to-face still-face paradigm
- Mother and child interact.
- Mother shows no reaction.
- Return to normal face-to-face interaction.
Striano et al. (2005) still-face paradigm contingent, non-contingent, and imitation conditions
1-month-olds did not distinguish between conditions.
3-month-olds smiled more in normal interaction and followed gaze more in imitation conditions.
Sensitivity to being mirrored and detect contingent responses.
Kartner et al. (2010) cultural variation in face-to-face interactions
Mothers in Western culture maintain face-to-face contact longer than mothers from rural communities. Infants from Western cultures disengage at earlier ages from face-to-face interactions.
Emotion regulation
Qualitative transition from 3 innate affect systems (anger, fear, joy). Instead, infants have a developing sense of agency and adjust interaction with environment to overcome obstacles.
Repacholi et al. (2014) infants regulating actions in response to adult anger
15 months. Longer hesitation and less imitation if adult’s negative emotion toward an object is followed by them attending to child. Children regulate behaviour based on emotional attentional state of adults.
Disappointing gift paradigm
With age, children are better able to display positive emotional reactions after receiving a disappointing gift (regulating facial expressions to appease others). Girls are better at this than boys.
Requires ToM (represent others’ beliefs). Emotional regulation delayed in comparison to cognitive ToM skill development.
Holodynski and Friedlmeier (2006) a coin for candy machine but packet was empty 3 types of behaviour.
- Problem-focussed behaviour increased with age (persist on task).
- Seeking social approval or intervention decreased with age.
- Emotion-focussed responding did not differ across age groups (making fun of activity).
Reduced reliance on others. Coping actions due to disappointing situation.
What does the ability to regulate emotions predict?
Future socioemotional competence. More likely to have healthy relationships.
Empathy vs. sympathy
Empathy: feeling with someone. Basis for prosocial behaviour. Requires self-other differentiation.
Sympathy: feeling for someone.
When do children show concern for others?
10 months. Expression of concern and not mere attention to others which is related to children’s helping behaviour.
Hepach et al. (2024) posture
5-year-old children show greater postural elevation if they were the one who did the helping. 2-year-old children helping others and seeing other being helped was similarly emotionally rewarding.
What is the use of guilt?
Building and repairing relationships. 1-year-olds show early signs of guilt (avoid eye contact) and by 2 years, guilt appears more through body language (hunched shoulders).
Hepach et al. (2017) guilt breaking train track and pupil dilation.
Greatest change in pupil dilation when child themselves caused harm but someone else repaired harm (more aroused/distressed?).
2- and 3-year-old children are intrinsically motivated to repair the harm they caused. Precursor to guilt in early ontogeny.
Forsterling et al. (2024)
Postural expansion related to emotional valence (happiness) but not emotional arousal.
A larger upper body expansion for positive (pride and happiness) compared to negative emotions (for 7+ years).
