Lecture 8: Emotional and moral development

Question 1

The emergence of human emotion

Answer 1

Developmental psychologists seek to describe and understand which emotions develop when and how.

• Emotion expression
• Timing of appearance of specific emotions
• Emotion regulation
• Emotion understanding
• Theoretical models date to at least the 1930s.
• Brief review of recent trends: Pollak et al. (2019)

Question 2

Emotion- a by product of cognition

Answer 2

The James-Lange theory

• Emotional experiences are inferred from cognitive appraisal of our own physiological reactions (James 1884; Lange 1885).

Physiological arousal–> perception of one’s bodily state –> Inference of a feeling based on situational clues–> Emotional feeling

Question 3

What is the two factor theory? - Schachter and singer

Answer 3

Our experience of emotions depends on physiological arousal and our cognitive interpretation of the arousal

• Physiological arousal is generalised (the same stress mechanism is mobilised in the body irrespective of specific stressor)
• Specific felt emotions are inferred situational clues (a cognitive process)

Question 4

The computer metaphor of mind 1970-1980

Answer 4

Information-processing models described abstract mental processes from input (stimulus event) leading to output (emotion feeling).

Question 5

Neuroscience

Answer 5

• Research identifies what is happening in the brain when we feel emotions
• Brain imaging reveals a continous interaction between brain systems associated with emotion and what with cognition

Yes but… knowing what happens in the brain cannot tell us:

• What it feels like (qualia - subjective, conscious experience)
• The social functions of emotions.

Question 6

Socialisation into emotional experiences

Answer 6

From infancy onwards, we learn to interpret and label emotional states including our own.

Different cultures may:

• Attach different moral values to feelings
• Have different display rules
• Have emotion labels that other cultures do not

Question 7

Socialisation into emotion- parenting

Answer 7

Halberstadt and Lozada (2011): Parenting practices are embedded within cultural structures, beliefs, and practices about:

• Power distance (vertical versus horizontal family systems)
• Children’s place in the family and culture
• Ways children learn (beliefs about when, whether, who, how to learn what)
• Value of emotional experience and expression
  Halberstadt A. G. and Lozada, F.T. 2011. Emotion development in infancy through the lens of culture. Emotion Review 3, pp. 158–68.

Question 8

Boys don’t cry

Answer 8

• socialisation processes in relation to the display of emotions is gendered

Question 9

Culture, language and emotions

Answer 9

The Ifaluk word fago overlaps Western concepts of compassion, love and sadness. It is used in contexts in which someone confronts another who is in need (the needy person evokes nurturing feelings in others = fago) (Ratner 2000).

Question 10

Basic emotions and their expressions are universal

Answer 10

Ekman, 1960s onward: evidence for the universality of basic emotions

Question 11

Paul Ekman- New Guinea

Answer 11

• Established there was a continuity of emotions
• Found the same basic emotions
• Asked the people of new Guinea questions
• From this he came up with a set of emotions which are universal

Question 12

The view from evolutionary psychology

Answer 12

The basic emotions are…

• Adaptations enabling adequate responses to threats and opportunities in the ancestral environment.
• Strategic (track costs and benefits in given situations).

Discrete systems:

• Each has specialised in processing only certain kinds of information
• Each is associated with innate expressions, neurophysiological and anatomical substrates.

Question 13

The Duchenne Smile

Answer 13

(‘smiling with the eyes’) is not unique to humans

–> chimps

Question 14

Babies smile and laughter

Answer 14

• Birth-1 month: spontaneous reflex smiling.
• By 2 months: smiling in response to faces, bouncing, other forms of attention (an expression of pleasure).
• By 10 months: the Duchenne Smile.

Most of the expression repertoire can be seen in the first few months of months

Question 15

What do babies’ expressions signify?

Answer 15

Camras and Shutter (2010)

• Infants’ facial expressions do not represent discrete emotions
• Infant’ facial expressions cannot easily be matched to the facial expressions of adults

–> Differentiation models

Hoehl and Striano (2010)

• Evidence that infants perceive discrete emotional facial expressions and are sensitive to the social context of the emotional expression

–> discrete systems models

Question 16

Differentiation models

Answer 16

• Rudimentary physiological states present at birth are differentiated first into a few basic emotions and later progressively into self-conscious emotions.

eg. excitement –> birth

distress –> 3 months

• First proposed by Bridges (1932).
• Later elaborated by others with some slight changes.

Question 17

Differential emotions theory (DET)

Answer 17

A discrete system model developed by Izard

• The basic emotions are innate, but their expressions develop during infancy.
• Their timing of appearance in the child’s behaviour is related to cognitive development and social experiences.

Question 18

Silvan Tomkins emotion 1960s onwards

Answer 18

• Developed his theory of emotion 1960s onwards

Nine innate effects

1. Distress-Anguish
2. Interest-Excitement
3. Enjoyment-Joy
4. Surprise-Startle
5. Anger-Rage
6. Fear-Terror
7. Shame-Humiliation
8. Disgust
9. Dissmell (reaction to bad smell/impulse to avoid – similar to distaste)

Question 19

Tomkins’ script theory

Answer 19

• The nine affects combine with life experiences to form ‘scripts’ (tacit rules how to get positive affect and avoid negative affect).
  eg. of script= the baby awakens, feels hunger and begins to cry with distress
• The pattern of scripts that the individual uses to modulate affect constitutes his/her personality.

Current Status

• Contribution to understanding emotional development in infancy.
• Other theorists dispute his list of nine affects.
• Contribution to understanding how emotional experiences influence personality development.

Question 20

Guilt and shame: moral development

Answer 20

Embarrassment, guilt, pride, and shame are a special class of emotions:

• Involve self-evaluation
• Are involved in a sense of oneself as a social-moral agent.
• Guilt, shame, and empathy have a fundamental role in moral action and therefore moral development.

Question 21

Is Newborn smiling really just a reflex?

Answer 21

• Most textbooks still suggest that the first ‘social smile’ occurs only after the second month of life.
• But 957 parents who observed and recorded smiling in their children for a study reported the first ‘social smiles’ of their babies just after four weeks on average
• ‘Babies learn about the power of smiling early. While caregivers often smile at their newborns, this behaviour will be dependent on the baby’s state – they are less likely to smile if the baby is crying. As a result, babies quickly gain a remarkable ability to regulate the behaviour of their parents. If a baby keeps eye contact, blinks and smiles, their parent will likely smile back – making the smile rewarding’

Question 22

1990s guilt

Answer 22

1990s: Increased focus on guilt and shame, their relation to moral development and socialisation.

Guilt in very young children may have a different significance than later in life (notions of responsibility and causality are acquired later).

Gender differences Eisenberg 2000)

• In early childhood, a link between guilt/shame and other negative emotions appears primarily in girls.
• Fear is related to guilt in male but not female toddlers (might reflect mothers’ beliefs about boys/girls).

Question 23

Alessandri and Lewis (1996) : experiment in schools

Answer 23

• An experiment exposing preschool children to success/failure situations (solving a puzzle).
• Maltreated girls were strikingly more likely to display shame.
• Mothers might be more tolerant of sons’ mistakes.

Question 24

Freud’s model of the psyche

Answer 24

Freud (1920s): The superego is formed by age 5 through the child’s internalisation of the parents’ moral code as part of the Oedipus Complex

Question 24

Are we born good or bad?

Answer 24

A centuries-long philosophical debate: are humans fundamentally good or evil?

Hobbes (17th century)
- The life of man is ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.’

Rousseau (18th century)
- We are born good, but society corrupts us.

Freud (20th century)
- Humans are driven by primal sexual and aggressive instincts, which are kept under control by society.

Question 25

Freud: Id- Unconsious

Answer 25

Basic impluses (sex and aggression) seeking immediate gratification; irrational and implusive

Operates at unconscious level

Question 26

Freud: Superego Preconcious

Answer 26

Ideals and morals; striving for perfection incorporated from parents, becoming a person’s conscience.

Operates mostly at a preconsious level

Question 27

Freud- Ego:Conscious level

Answer 27

Executive mediating between id impulses and superego inhibitions; testing reality; rational. Operates mainly at consious level but also at preconsious level

Question 28

Whose is little hans?

Answer 28

A five year old boy who was afraid of horses

• Freud (1909)
  –> Hans transfered his unconcious fear of his father (castration anxiety) to horses
  –> This demonstates the Opedipus Complex

Question 29

What is the Opedius complex

Answer 29

A young child’s unconscious sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex and wish to exclude the same-sex parent. A stage of psychosexual development in 3–5-year-olds, leading to the formation of the superego.

Question 30

Phallic stage (3-5 years)

Answer 30

• Oral and anal stages set up a pattern for solving problems in later life (see Lecture 7)
• Possession and absence of the phallus
• Oedipus complex (Electra complex)
• Identification
• Sex appropriate behaviour is seen as a by-product of identification
• Internalisation the prohibiting voice of the parent
• Super-ego, or conscious derives through the resolution of the Oedipus complex

Question 30

Why developmental scientists are sceptical

Answer 30

• Little scientific support (see Lecture 1)
• Method was critiqued as ‘non-scientific’
  BUT Freud claimed the status of ‘natural science’
• Empirical observation, recognised subjectivity, cautious, changing and evolving understandings - resonant of modern qualitative research
• However, contradictory research evidence
  –> Two-year-olds begin to internalise moral codes, much earlier than Freud believed (age 4-5).

Question 31

Early moral development

Answer 31

Emotions signal moral values to young children.

• Children begin to internalise rules in the second year of life – reflecting the toddler’s increasing ability to recognise anger and displeasure in caregivers’ reactions.
• Moral development builds partly on exposure to social reactions elicited by transgressions.

Question 32

Are we born naturally helpful?

Answer 32

• Evolutionary theory: survival benefits of altruism.
• Tomasello and associates’ comparisons of collaboration among chimps vs. children.

Question 33

Toddlers help without promoting (Warneken and Tomasello)

Answer 33

Are the behaviours shown by toddlers in Warneken and Tomasello’s studies recognisable as moral conduct?

• Not obviously
• Morality is closely related to notions of praise and blame, expectations of reward and punishment, and assumptions about what’s right and wrong.
• Babies and toddlers might not know any of that yet – but you could argue that their actions in helping illustrate empathy
• Traditional theories (Piaget and followers) have focused on age-typical stages in the development of moral reasoning.

Question 34

Kolhberg’s stages (1960s)

Answer 34

1. Pre-conventional level
   Avoid punishment, get reward.
2. Conventional level
   Conform to majority norms.
3. Post-conventional level
   Individual principles of conscience, perception of laws based in a social contract.

Question 34

What is Piaget’s theory

Answer 34

Child’s moral judgements are an aspect of cognitive development (Piaget 1932)

Stage 1: Moral realism - judgements made in view of the act’s consequences.

Stage 2: Moral relativism - judgements made in view of the actor’s intentions.

Question 35

Is Kohlberg’s approach narrowly grounded in Westerm Philosophy?

Answer 35

Kohlberg claimed that the stages are the same across cultures.
Sneary (1985) analysed 45 cross-cultural studies.
Individualistic cultures emphasise personal rights.
Collectivist cultures stress the importance of society and community – moral outlooks that Kohlberg’s theory does not account for.

Knowing right from wrong is not the same as moral action.
Real life situations are often more complex that hypothetical dilemmas.
Moral development involves acquiring a concern for others’ wellbeing (affective empathy).
Hoffman (1970 onward)
Affective empathy and prosocial behaviour are the foundations of morality.
Empathy is evident in emotional contagion as early as 8 months of age.

Question 35

I justice the only aspect of moral reasoning we should consider?

Answer 35

Kohlberg’s theory equates morality with justice.
Compassion, caring and interpersonal feelings play an important part in moral action.
Socialisation matters: typical parenting practices socialise differently boys and girls.
Gilligan (1982) - in Western society, women’s moral judgments are typically made ‘in a different voice’

Question 35

What is emotional contagion

Answer 35

A tendency to ‘pick up’ others’ emotions, evident in automatically mimicking and synchronizing facial expressions, vocalizations, postures, and movements.

Question 36

Summary

Answer 36

• Moral and emotional development are interwoven.
• Together, these reflect the child’s socialisation into a particular sociocultural milieu.
• Terms and ideas you should be able to describe:
  The discrete systems view of emotions
  Differentiation models of emotional development
  Differential Emotions Theory (DET)
  Tomkins’ script theory
  Kohlberg’s theory and criticisms of it.