Emotional DevelopmentEmotional Development

• Emotions: complex set of behaviors Emotions: complex set of behaviors produced in response to some external or produced in response to some external or internal event.internal event.

• Self-regulation: ability to calm oneself Self-regulation: ability to calm oneself when distressed or excitedwhen distressed or excited

Early Emotional Expressions

• Smiling– Endogenous– Exogenous

Crying

• Basic

• Anger

• Pain

• Colic

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1290105013215957966&q=infant+crying&total=11884&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=5

Other Emotional Expressions

•Anger•Fear

•Separation Anxiety:•http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1175151981122766441&q=social+referencing&total=175&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

•Stranger Anxiety: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=11751519

81122766441&q=social+referencing&total=175&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

Perceiving Emotion

• Imitating Emotions Imitating Emotions http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-

1851846288521201892&q=newborn+imitation&total=5&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=11851846288521201892&q=newborn+imitation&total=5&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1

Temperament

• Tendencies to respond in predictable ways to events.

• Buss & Plomin, 1984– Emotionality, activity, sociability

• Kagan, 1989– Behavioral Inhibition: tendency to be

extremely shy and restrained in response to unfamiliar people and situations.

Thomas & Chess

• 9 Dimensions of Infant Behavior– Typical Mood– Regularity of Biological Functions– Tendency to approach or withdraw– Intensity of emotional reactions– Adaptability– Activity level– Distractibility– Attention span– Threshold of responsiveness

Three Categories of Infant Temperament

• Easy (40%)• Difficult (20%)• Slow-to-warm-up (15%)

• Goodness of fit: extent to which child’s temperament is compatible with demands and expectations of social world to which child must adapt.

Other Aspects of Emotional Development

• Social Referencing: looking to another individual for emotional cues in interpreting a strange/ambiguous event.

• Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1175151981122766441&q=social+referencing&total=175&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

• Complex emotions