Week 9: Emotional Development Flashcards
(38 cards)
Definitions of emotion
Emotion: A rapid appraisal of the personal significance of a situation, which prepares the individual for action (Berk).
- Emotion: Experienced as a feeling that motivates, organises and guides perception, thought and action (White, Hayes, & Livesey, 2013, p. 360).
- Emotion: Feeling, or affect, that occurs when a person is engaged in an interaction that is important to him or her,
especially to his or her well-being
What are primary emotions? What age do they span? How do they develop?
From birth basic emotions like contentment, interest and distress are present.
These start evolving from around 3 months into Joy, surprise (respond to peek a boo games) and a range of negative emotions such as sadness, disgust (at new food), anger and fear.
The stage of ‘primary emotions’ is present till about 1 year
Describes the secondary of self-conscious emotions phase of emotional development
At about 1.5 years (18 months) consciousness as in self-referential behaviour (awareness of self emerges) and this allows for more complex emotions to emerge.
Embarrassment, envy and empathy come at about 2 years
Then embarrassment, pride, shame and guilt further develop after about 2.5 years.
Each of these more complex emotions involves either injury or enhancement to our sense of self. Need input from parents or others to shape their formation.
What is shame linked to?
Shame is linked to feeling of inadequacy -> maladjustment
What is guilt linked to
Guilt for a transgression even when no adult is present -> good adjustment
What is emotional self regulation?
The strategies we use to adjust our emotional state to a
comfortable level of intensity so we can accomplish our
goals
It’s effortful control
What things aid with developing emotional regulation?
-Parental influence: staying clam, giving security blanket or item, establishing routines, responding to needs i.e. tried going to bed. Overall, parents that respond to emotional cures flexibility and compassionately build regulation. Getting mad or impatient is not good.
-Brain development
Examples of ways young children start to regulate emotions
-Sucking thumb or finger
-Rubbing security blanket, or favourite toy
-Calming when they see parent
-Seek assistance
Emotional Self-Regulation: Milestones. Young babies.
Young babies: Rely heavily on parents to help them
regulate their emotions
Emotional Self-Regulation: Milestones. From 4-6 months
From 4–6 months: Babies develop the ability to self sooth.
Emotional Self-Regulation: Milestones. From 1 year
Gains in motor control (crawling & walking)
enable infants to regulate their emotions as they can now
approach and retreat from situations. e.g. they can get to objects and people that will soothe them. Squirm to get away from someone.
Emotional Self-Regulation: Milestones. From 2nd year
Language gains assist with the
regulation of emotion (although initially not sufficiently to
prevent tantrums).
Emotional Self-Regulation: Milestones. From 3-4 years
- By 3–4 years: Children can verbalise a variety of
emotional self-regulation strategies.
Emotional Self-Regulation: Milestones. From 6-8 years
- Between 6–8 years: Children become aware of the
difference between feeling an emotion and expressing it.
Emotional self-regulation: milestones. From 10 years
By 10 years: Most children shift adaptively between
problem-centred and emotion-centred coping strategies
Problem-Centered
Coping
Used when a
situation is seen as
changeable
Involves:
* Identifying the problem
and deciding what to do
about it
Emotion-Centered
Coping
Used when a
situation is seen as
unchangeable
Involves:
* Trying to reduce the
negative emotional
responses associated with
a problematic situation
Social referencing
Relying on another person’s
emotional reaction to appraise an uncertain situation” (Berk,
2013, p. 414).
exampless:
-Visual cliff
-Older children might look for approval or disapproval from caregiver after doing things e.g. climbing high on a playground
Visual cliff experiment… what does it demonstrate?
Emotions are non-verbal communication
Mother poses a smile more likely to cross visual cliff, if mothers face has fear then less likely to cross the cliff
When the baby encounters ambiguity will look to significant person for guidance
When do children start to judge the cause of emotions? WHen do they understand mixed emotions?
-4-5 children can judge causes of emotions, they start soothing people when they sense they are sad before this point.
10-11 = understand mixed emotion
What is temperament?
“A genetically based pattern
of tendencies to respond in
predictable ways that serve
as the building blocks of
personality”
Thomas and Chess study on temperament
- New York Longitudinal Study
- Identified that temperament can:
- Increase a child’s chances of experiencing psychological
problems OR, - Protect a child from the negative effects of a stressful home life
- Be shaped by parenting practices
- Goodness-of-Fit Model
Dimensions of temperament identified by Thomas and Chess
Activity level = Ratio of active periods to inactive ones
Rhythmicity = Regularity of body functions, such as sleep, wakefulness, hunger, and excretion
Distractibility = Degree to which stimulation from the environment alters behaviour
– for example, whether crying stops when a toy is offered
Approach/withdrawal = Response to a new object, food, or person
Adaptability = Ease with which child adapts to changes in the environment, such
as sleeping or eating in a new place
Attention span and persistence =
Amount of time devoted to an activity, such as watching a mobile or playing with a toy
Intensity of reaction= Energy level of response, such as laughing, crying, talking, or gross-motor activity
Threshold of responsiveness = Intensity of stimulation required to evoke a response
Quality of mood= Amount of friendly, joyful behaviour as opposed to unpleasant,
unfriendly behaviour
What are four structures of temperament in children? How are they determined?
The easy child: Quickly establishes regular routines in
infancy, is generally cheerful, and adapts easily to new experiences (40 percent of the sample).
- The difficult child: Has irregular daily routines, is slow to accept new experiences, and tends to react negatively and intensely (10 percent).
- The slow-to-warm-up child: Is inactive, shows mild, lowkey reactions to environmental stimuli, is negative in mood, and adjusts slowly to new experiences (15 percent).
- Unclassified: The remaining 35 percent of the sample.
These are determined based on the makeup of the dimensions of temperament as identified by Thomas and Chess
