Lecture Outline

1

• Lecture Outline
• Components of Emotions
• Theories of Emotional Development
• Emotional Milestones
• Identifying Others Emotions and Understanding
  the Causes of Emotion

2

• 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

3

• 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

4

• 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

5

• Emotional Milestones
• Positive emotions
• Social smiles Smiles directed toward people
• Typically emerge between 2-3 months

6

• 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

7

• 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

8

• Separation Anxiety
• Distress due to separation from primary
  caregiver(s)
• Develops around 8 months and continues until
  about 13-15 months, then declines

9

• 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 cant
  control events in their environment
• Anger expressions seem to occur more frequently
  in infants than sadness expressions

10

• Self-conscious emotions
• Embarrassment, pride, guilt, shame
• Emerge between 15-24 months
• Associated with recognition of self (rouge test)

11

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

12

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

13

• 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

14

• 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

15

• 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

16

• Lecture Outline
• Emotion Regulation
• Definition
• Normative Development
• Individual Differences in Emotion and Emotion
  Regulation
• Temperament
• Temperament Dimensions
• Measurement of Temperament
• Temperament and Later Adjustment

17

• Emotion Regulation

18

• 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

19

• 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

20

• 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

21

• Temperament Dimensions
• Fearful distress/Behavioral Inhibition
• Irritable distress
• Attention span/persistence
• Activity level
• Positive affect

22

• Measurement of Temperament
• Parent report
• Structured Observation
• Psychophysiological Methods

23

• Temperament and Later Adjustment
• Difficult temperament may include
• High irritable distress or fearful distress
• Low attention span/persistence
• High activity level
• Low positive affect

24

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

25

• Goodness-of-Fit
• Degree to which a childs 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