Emotional Development

Presentations• 1 article from reputable journal (e.g. see reference

sections of other articles)• Outline it (see sample on class website)• Email me outline and paper the morning before.• 5-7 mins each person + few mins of thought

Qs/discussion• Presentation should roughly follow the outline• Judged for clarity and depth of thought• Final papers can be, but need not be, on the same topic.• Peoples presentations/outlines are fair game for quizzes

• Environment Shapes Evolution

• Evolution Shapes Environment

• Please feel free to respectively disagree, add a different opinion, etc.

A Note on Discussion

•Emotions are not just “feelings”

•Components: Desire to take action Physiological changes Subjective feelings Cognitions

Emotions

Why Emotions are so Important

Emotional Expressions

• Communicative

• Facilitates learning (e.g. social referencing)

Emotional Physiology

• Motivational (makes us want to change our state or keep it the same (i.e. operant learning)

• Strengthens memory for important events

Theories of Emotion• Common Sense View

– Stimuli Emotion Physiological Changes

• James-Lange View– Stimuli Physiological Changes Emotion– Support: Pen in mouth studies

• Interpretive View– Stimuli Physiological Changes Interpretation

Emotion– Support: adrenaline shot studies: known side-effects (no

emotional change), near happy guy (happy) vs. near angry guy (angry)

Emotional Expression

Positive Emotions Smile

First month = reflex responseBy 3rd month = social smiles toward people

LaughingBy 3rd or 4th month = during play activities (e.g bouncing)

Negative Emotions

Newborns: Generalized Distress (facially an undifferentiated distress state? But different cries)

Anger and Sadness

2nd month = visible facial expression matches situation

Fear and Distress

6–7 months to 2 years = stranger anxiety

8 months to 15 months = separation anxiety

~7–12 months = fear of novel toys, noises, sudden movements, heights (e.g. visual cliff)

Emotional Expression in Infancy

• Birth– interest, distress, disgust, contentment

Emotional Expression in Infancy

• 2-7 months

– sadness, joy, surprise and anger

And anger…You think you’ve had a bad day?

Listen, so far today I’ve shit my pants, puked on

myself, and had my temperature taken you

know where…SO COUCHIE-COO THIS!

Self-Conscious EmotionsEmbarrassment, pride, guilt, and shame (~ 2 years of age)

Shame does not include concern for others

Guilt includes empathy for others

• Children show no signs of self conscious emotions until after they pass the mirror self-recognition test (e.g. ~21 months).

These emotions demonstrate self-awareness and consciousness of adult reactions

Phases of Emotional Dev.

1. Basic emotional understanding (~ 7mths - ~18 mths??)2. Mentalistic understanding of emotion3. Utilizing mentalistic understanding in practice

Understanding Affect

• Detection (Perceptual capabilities)

• Discrimination (can tell expressions apart)

• Recognition (understanding the “meaning”)

Discrimination (~3mths) vs. Recognition (~7mths)

Recognition

• Understand meaning (e.g. positive vs. negative)

• 8–12 months = social referencing• 7 months = Matching of face expressions to vocal

indications of emotion . Before 7 months, infants looks equally long at videotapes where happy faces are played with unhappy soundtracks and those where the face matches the sound. (Video!)

Emotions

• Most 2-year-olds know words for the 6 universal basic emotions

Happiness: Santa will be happy if I pee in the pottySadness: You sad, Daddy?Fear: Bees everywhere. Scared me!Anger: Don’t be mad, Mommy!Surprise: Daddy surprised me.Disgust: Tastes yucky, Mom!

EmotionsThey also understand something about the links between events

emotions and actions“I give hug. Baby be happy.”“Grandma mad. I wrote on wall.”They recognize that if someone felt a certain way there must be a

reason for it:“You sad, Mommy? What daddy do?”And they realize that you can tell something about how people

feel by how they look:“Katie not happy face. Katie sad.”

Emotions

• 2-year-olds understand that it is not reality or the outcome per se that leads to an emotion but that the outcome must be consistent with someone’s desire.

• For example, 2-year-olds were able to judge that a boy who was looking for his rabbit would be sad if he found his dog, whereas a boy that was looking for his dog would be happy if he found his dog.

They do not assume that desirability or emotions are a the result of the situation (that everyone would be happy to find a dog).

Emotions

Example, Gross Cracker study (Repacholi & Gopnik, 1997)

– Crackers versus broccoli?

– Experimenter uses her facial expression to suggest that crackers are gross but she likes broccoli

– infants hand the experimenter the food that she likes, the broccoli, even if that doesn’t agree with their own preferences!

• 18-month-olds understand that someone else’s desires don’t have to be consistent with their own AND

• They can use person’s facial expressions to interpret emotions

Video!

Understanding Emotions

Causes• abilities to understand that

memories of past events can causes emotions develops with age.

• 39% of 3-year-olds understood that memories might cause emotions… while all 5-year-olds did.

Understanding Emotions

Real vs. False Feelings

“Michelle is sleeping over at cousin Johnny’s house but she forgot her teddy bear. She is feeling sad inside but she doesn’t want to show it because he will call her a baby”.

3-4 years olds were about 50% correct. 5 year olds were about 80% correct

~10 years = mixed feelings; both positive and negative emotions can exist toward the same source or different source at the same time

Understanding Emotions

• The bottom-line is that the understanding of emotions continues to develop throughout childhood.• Those that understand emotions better also tend to engage in moreprosocial behavior• Those with limited emotional knowledge (e.g. mislabel expressions)tend to be angry, aggressive, and fearful.

• abilities that are key to competent social functioning

• Components:Persistence when frustratedIdentify (and express) one’s own feelingsIdentify other’s feelings (e.g. ability to read non-verbal cues)Empathy (an emotional reaction to another’s emotional state)Secure attachmentImpulse control/Delay gratification Regulate emotionsUnderstanding of display rules

Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

Impulse Control/Delay of Gratification

What’s involved in Delay Gratification?

• Comparison of rewards

• Inhibition

• Strategizing to simplify inhibition (e.g. distraction, imagination)

• A notion of temporally-extended self!!! (e.g. Povinelli’s video-delayed self-ID study)

Masking Guilt

“i’m going out don’t look in the box”

•Lewis and colleagues set up a situation where a child was left alone in a room and told not to peek at a toy in a box…. If they peeked, could they lie and hide their guilt afterwards?

Emotional Display Rules• What is culturally and socially appropriate?• E.g., displaying happiness when you receive a

gift, even if it is very disappointing.

• children were better at generating positive behaviors in reaction to the disappointing gift as they got older.

• girls were better than boys at all ages

Empathy

Display Rules

Quick Time Clip

Early EQ predicts later social functioning

EQ is a better predictor than IQ of how well people do in life (though the 2 are related)!

e.g. single best predictor: early delayed gratification performance? related to later social functioning, academic performance, relationship success, self-esteem, drug-use, criminal behavior etc etc. up to 20 years later

Culture and Emotional Development

• Cultural differences in parenting practices and values contribute to differences in emotional expression.

Culture and Emotional Development

• Parents’ ideas about the usefulness of particular emotions vary within subcultures of the major culture– (e.g. Mothers living in a dangerous

neighborhoods more tolerant of aggression, especially in girls)

How Parents Socialize Their Children

• Parents socialize their children’s emotional development through:– Their expression of emotion with their children and other

people (e.g. Expression of positive related to social competence, low aggression, high self-esteem; Negative expressions related behavioral problems and social and

learning difficulties). Correlational!!!

– Their reactions to their children’s expression of emotion

– Their discussions with their children about emotion and the regulation of emotion

Depression by Gender and Age

Emotional Expression in Adolescence

• Is the gender difference genuine?

• Is it a difference in level of emotionality or expression?

• What factors might be underlying this gender difference?