Lecture 6 Flashcards
(22 cards)
What are the 5 basic emotions? Are they consistent across culture?
1) Happiness
2) Fear
3) Anger
4) Sadness
5) Disgust
6) yes, universal
How does babies smiling behavior change over time?
- smile during rEM or after meal, but only related to physiological states
- at 6 weeks, first social smile (psychological states)
- at first smile indiscriminately, by 3 or 4 months smile more at familiar people
What is baby’s fear generally related to? How does it develop over the first year of life?
1) disruption in the baby/caregiver connection
2) stranger anxiety around 6-7 months
separation anxiety around 8 months
What are the 4 complex emotions? Are they consistent across culture? When do they emerge?
1) embarrassment
2) pride
3) guilt
4) shame
5) no - more cross-cultural variation.
6) emerge following self awareness at 18 months
What strategies do children develop to regulate their internal emotional state and emotional expression? How do these manifest over time?
1) Attention shifting and inhibition
2) By 6 months babies shift attention and seek proximity to the caregiver. By 2 years they are able to talk about feelings and deal with them that way. As they develop adults are able to offer strategies for dealing with emotions.
How does a child’s understanding of other’s emotions develop over time?
1) emotional contagion in first few months - matching emotions of other babies/adults without understanding
2) between 4-7 months they can distinguish facial expressions
3) between 8-12 months they start social referencing, i.e. using other’s emotions as cues for how to act.
4) at 3-5 year they understand the causes of emotion - she’s sad cause I took her toy. also ask a lot of questions about other’s emotions.
5) by school age they recognize “mixed feelings”, experience these before understanding. this includes both feeling two things at once, and occasions where there’s a different display emotion and felt emotion.
What can a parent do to facilitate a child’s understanding of emotions?
Talking about emotions! Labeling, explaining, and using emotional terms in language, leads to earlier understanding of emotions of other people.
What are some consequences of good or bad emotional understanding?
better understanding of others’ emotions is related to prosocial behavior and peer acceptance, they get along better with others.
What is temperament?
Individual difference in mood or behavior style. These differences are stable across situations and time, and are constitutionally based. Include characteristics of emotion, attention, and activity level. Partly genetic.
What are two ways to study temperament, and what are the pitfalls of these methods?
1) Interview parents about specific behaviors. Pitfall is the bias of parents responses, try to avoid by asking specific behavior questions like “how often during the last week did the baby startle to a sudden or loud noise?”
2) Observe behavior, like Jerome Kagan’s lab work on behavior. Pitfalls …?
What was the initial methodology of temperament research and what categories did it come up with?
1) longitudinal study of many children, naturalistic observation nd parent interviews.
2) Traits were cheerful and happy, easy to calm, adapts easily, and establishes regular routines. three categories
- easy child (40%)
- difficult child (10%)
-slow to warm up child (15%)
(adapts somewhat slowly, inactive, somewhat negative
How did Mary Rothbart study temperament? How old were her subjects? What behaviors did she ask about?
1) Infant behavior questionnaire for 1 year and younger, child behavior questionnaire for 3-7 year olds
2) fear, distress/anger, attention span, activity level, and positive affect
How did Jerome kagan study temperament? how old were his subjects? What were the categories he came up with?
- Put them in a carseat in a lab with a mobile above them and observed how they reacted.
- Looked at 4 month old and measured again at 21 months and 4 years.
- “High reactive” babies (20%) would be active and distressed by the mobile, more likely to be highly fearful and shy later on
- “Low reactive” babies (40%) would be relaxed and calm with the mobile, more likely to be minimally fearful and more outgoing later on.
- 20% of children maintain their extreme profile, Babies could move towards the center as a result of parental nurturing but don’t shift profiles entirely
How do nature and nurture influence temperament?
- Genetic influences - twin studies show significant heritability, high reactive children tend to have a narrower facial structure because brain and facial skeleton originate from same set of cells
- Parenting can draw a child to areas where they might no t normally gravitate (shown with experiment with monkeys adopted by a calm mother)
How would you describe Attachment?
emotional tie between infanta nd caregiver, enduring, reciprocal,, expressed in behaviors that promote proximity and contact
How did John bowlby (1940s) describe the evolutionary value of attachment?
- Attachment balances the need for proximity with the need to explore
- Infant dependent on caregiver
- Protection from “predators”
- Model for later relationships
- Allows for learning, freedom to explore environment with the freedom/safety comfort of having their caregiver close by
How does attachment develop in the first years of life? What are the stages and when?
- pre-attachment (0-2 months): indiscriminate social responsiveness
- attachment-in-the-making (2-7 months): discriminating sociability, don’t get too distressed by strangers, but preference for familiar people
- clear-cut attachment (7-18 months): separation anxiety, proximity seeking, stranger anxiety, and secure base behavior
How old were the infants in the strange situation and what were the categories of attachment observed?
12-18 months
Secure (60%)
o When caregiver is present, eager to explore
o May/may not be upset when caregiver leaves
o Wants to be near caregiver when they return, and will be easily soothed
Insecure/Avoidant (15%)
o Indifferent to presence of caregiver
o Not likely to be upset when they leave
o Stranger just as likely to comfort as caregiver when under distress
o Avoid contact with caregiver during reunion
Insecure/Resistant (10%)
o Very reluctant to explore the room even with just mom
o Very distraught when caregiver leaves
o Stranger unable to sooth them
o Caregiver can’t sooth either, seek and resist contact at reunion
Disorganized/disoriented (15%)
o Confused about whole situation
o Confused when the leave, confused at reunion
o Might approach the mom, but with flat affect
o Might be held but look away
What are two things that influence attachment quality?
- Caregiver sensitivity/quality of care over first year of life. If caregiver is inconsistent in responsiveness and provides the wrong type of help when they’re distressed, they’ll be insecure
- Infant temperaments: more difficult babies have greater distress, also temperament may influence responsiveness in mothers, if a baby is difficult to sooth the mother is less likely to consistently respond in a sensitive way
What are some positive outcomes linked to secure attachment in infants, shown at ages 2, 4, and 11?
Age 2 - more elaborate pretend play - greater flexibility/persistence in problem solving Age 4 - socially competent, cooperative (pro social behaviors) - high self esteem Age 11 - closer friendships - better social skills
What are display rules?
social or cultural group’s informal normas about when, where, and how much one should show emotions, or whether emotions should be masked with other displays of emotions
What is co-regulation?
: the process by which a caregiver provides the needed comfort or distraction to help a child reduce his or her distress
