Lecture Outline

• Components of Emotions

• Theories of Emotional Development

• Emotional Milestones

• Identifying Others’ Emotions and Understanding the Causes of Emotion

Components of Emotion:

• Motivation to act or goals (e.g., approach or avoidance)

• Physiological reactions (e.g., heart rate, hormone levels)

• Thoughts (cognitions) and feelings

Theories of Emotion

• Discrete Emotions Theory (Izard)

– (Some) emotions are innate

– Distinct emotions emerge very early in life

– Each emotion corresponds to a particular set of facial/bodily expressions

• Functionalist Theories

– Basic function of emotions is to promote action toward a goal

• Ex: Fear– Goal is to avoid physical/psychological harm

– Action: withdrawal

– Emotions are influenced by the social/cultural environment and are not necessarily distinct early in life

Emotional Milestones

• Positive emotions

– Social smiles: Smiles directed toward people

• Typically emerge between 2-3 months

• Negative emotions

– Distress reaction: Present from birth• Occurs in response to multiple stressors (e.g.,

hunger, pain, etc.)

– Disagreement about whether young infants experience distinct negative emotions (e.g., anger, sadness, fear) or if they simply experience distress

• Fear

– Little firm evidence of distinct fear reactions in young infants

– At around 6-7 months, fear of strangers often develops

– Other fears also present at around 7 months

– Separation Anxiety

• Distress due to separation from primary caregiver(s)

– Develops around 8 months and continues until about 13-15 months, then declines

• Other negative emotions (anger, sadness)

– Between 4-8 months, anger expressions become distinct from other negative emotions

– Anger and sadness are often elicited by the same situations

• Exs: after a painful event; when infants can’t control events in their environment

• Anger expressions seem to occur more frequently in infants than sadness expressions

• Self-conscious emotions

– Embarrassment, pride, guilt, shame

• Emerge between 15-24 months

• Associated with recognition of self (rouge test)

Identifying Others’ Emotions

• Between 4 and 7 months, infants can discriminate some emotional expressions

• At about 7 months, infants “match” facial expression of emotion with vocal expression (intermodal perception)

• Between 8 and 12 months, some infants engage in social referencing

– Use parents’ facial or vocal cues to interpret novel or ambiguous situations

• Ex: visual cliff

• By age 3, children can label some facial expressions of emotion

– Can distinguish happiness first

– Learn to distinguish different negative emotions (anger, fear, sadness) in late preschool/early school years

– Learn to identify self-conscious emotions by early to mid-elementary school years

Understanding Causes of Emotion

• Between 2 and 3, children can identify happy situations

• By age 4, can identify sad situations– Fear- and anger-inducing situations are harder,

but children get better at identifying them over time

Lecture Outline

• Emotion Regulation– Definition

– Normative Development

• Individual Differences in Emotion and Emotion Regulation – Temperament

• Temperament Dimensions

• Measurement of Temperament

• Temperament and Later Adjustment

• Emotion Regulation

Normative Development of ER

• Role of Caregivers

– Parents help infants and young children regulate negative emotions

– Over time, infants and young children gradually become better able to regulate emotions independently

• Use of cognitive strategies to regulate negative emotions increases with age

– Ex: mental distraction; focus on positive aspects of a situation

• Use of more effective/appropriate strategies to regulate emotions increases with age

Individual Differences in Emotion and ER

• Temperament: Biologically based individual differences in emotional characteristics and other behaviors

– Show consistency across situations

– Relatively stable over time

Temperament Dimensions:

– Fearful distress/Behavioral Inhibition– Irritable distress– Attention span/persistence– Activity level– Positive affect

Measurement of Temperament

• Parent report

• Structured Observation

• Psychophysiological Methods

Temperament and Later Adjustment

• “Difficult” temperament may include:– High irritable distress or fearful distress– Low attention span/persistence– High activity level– Low positive affect

• Difficult temperament in infancy/preschool period is correlated with adjustment problems later in life (adolescence, adulthood)

• Goodness-of-Fit

– Degree to which a child’s temperament is compatible with the expectations of the social environment (including the family environment)

• Poor goodness-of-fit likely to result in adjustment problems for children