Chapter 4

Emotion

a motivational construct that is characterized by changes in affect (or feelings), physiological responses, cognitions, and overt behavior.

Mixed emotions

Age differences in children's understanding of mixed emotions is relevant to many areas of social development, including moral development. Consider a situation in which a child kicks his ball into a busy street and then runs to retrieve it, despite having been told that he is never to run into the street. When asked how this child would feel under these circumstances, 4-and 5-year-olds typically say he feels good (his desire to retrieve the ball was fulfilled) rather than bad (about having violated a prohibition). By contrast, 7-year-olds are more inclined to acknowledge the character's experience of mixed emotions, saying that although he might feel good about retrieving the ball, this emotion would likely be overshadowed by negative feelings about having broken a rule and doing something that could have proved harmful (Lagattuta, 2005).

What are the ages for anger and sadness?

Anger and sadness (as distinguished from generalized distress) first appear at about age 2 months and become more recognizable as discrete emotions over the first year. Fear normally appears at 6 to 7 months of age.

What age can infants interpret emotions?

Between ages 3 and 5, children become better and better at correctly identifying and labeling the simple emotions on people's (or puppets') faces (Laible, 2004b; Widen & Russell, 2003). Three-year-olds are likely to correctly label happy expressions but will often use the label "happy" to describe other positive emotions such as surprise. Between ages 3 and 4 children begin to rely on the labels "sad"

What age do children talk about emotions?

By 18-24 months of age, toddlers begin to talk about emotions, and these conversations about the causes and consequences of their own and others' emotions contribute greatly to their emotional understanding and to their emotional self-regulation.

Fear response

Fear is one of the last primary emotions to emerge (Witherington, Campos, & Hertenstein, 2001). Young infants are occasionally startled by loud, unexpected noises or sudden changes in body position, but reactions that clearly indicate that an infant considers a person, object, or situation to be a distinct threat (and thus cause him to be fearful) begin to appear at 6 to 7 months of age.

Basic emotions

Fear, anger, sadness, joy, surprise, disgust

What certain emotions mean?

For example, cries of distress summon close companions. Early suggestions of a smile or expressions of interest may convince caregivers that their babies are willing and even eager to strike up a social relationship with them. Later expressions of fear or sadness may indicate the infant is insecure or feeling blue and needs some attention or comforting. Anger may imply that the infant wishes her companions to cease whatever they are doing that is upsetting her, whereas joy serves as a prompt for caregivers to prolong an ongoing interaction or perhaps signals the baby's willingness to accept new challenges.

How do parents get kids to understand emotions?

For example, mothers may often talk about desires their toddlers express ("I know you want a cookie, Todd") and about the emotions that accompany the thwarting or fulfillment of these desires ("I'm sorry you are sad, but no cookies before dinner"; "You'll be happy later when we have cookies for dessert"), thereby linking the child's goal achievements or blockages with particular emotional consequences. Indeed, 15-month-olds whose mothers often use this kind of "desire" language when conversing with them are, by age 2, already better

TOM

Having a theory of mind allows one to attribute thoughts, desires, and intentions to others, to predict or explain their actions, and to posit their intentions. As originally defined, it enables one to understand that mental states can be the cause of—and thus be used to explain and predict—the behavior of others.[1] Being able to attribute mental states to others and understanding them as causes of behavior implies, in part, that one must be able to conceive of the mind as a "generator of representations".[7][8] If a person does not have a complete theory of mind it may be a sign of cognitive or developmental impairment.

Autism

People with autism have issues with non-verbal communication, a wide range of social interactions, and activities that include an element of play and/or banter....some cases - as a result of frequent practice - empathy does improve, and some of it becomes natural rather than intellectual. Even so, empathy never comes as naturally for a person with autism as it does to others.

Autism symptoms

Symptoms Requires a medical diagnosis The range and severity of symptoms can vary widely. Common symptoms include difficulty with communication, difficulty with social interactions, obsessive interests, and repetitive behaviors. People may experience: Behavioral: aggression, compulsive behavior, crying, excitability, hyperactivity, impulsivity, inappropriate social interaction, involuntary imitation of someone else's movements, irritability, meaningless repetition of own words, nonsense word repetition, poor eye contact, repetitive movements, screaming, self-harm, or persistent repetition of words or actions Cognitive: intense interest in a limited number of things or problem paying attention Speech: abnormal tone of voice, speech impairment, speech loss, or stuttering Developmental: learning disability or speech delay in a child Psychological: depression or unaware of others' emotions Muscular: poor coordination, tic, or clumsiness Also common: anxiety, constantly walking on tip toe, lack of empathy, or sensitivity to sound

emotional self-regulation

The process of adjusting one's emotions to appropriate levels of intensity in order to accomplish one's goals. Appropriate regulation of emotion involves the abilities to manage our feelings, our physiological reactions associated with these feelings, our emotion-_____cognitions....But by the middle of the first year, babies are making some progress at regulating their negative emotions. Six-months-olds, for example, do manage to reduce at least some of their negative arousal by turning their bodies away from unpleasant stimuli or by seeking objects to suck, such as their thumbs or a pacifier (Mangelsdorf, Shapiro, & Marzolf, 1995). These self-initiated actions are particularly effective at reducing distress when mothers notice them and offer their own comforting to draw their babies' attention away from the source of discomfort (Crockenberg & Leerkes, 2004). Interestingly, 6-month-old boys find it harder than 6-month-old girls to regulate unpleasant arousal and are more inclined than girls are to emit negative emotions to elicit regulatory support (soothing) from caregivers (Weinberg et al., 1999).

primary (or basic) emotions

The set of emotions present at birth or emerging early in the first year that some theorists believe to be biologically programmed.

TOM 2

Theory of Mind (often abbreviated ToM) is the ability to attribute mental states — beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc. — to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that are different from one's own.[1] Deficits can occur in people with autism spectrum disorders,

TOM 3

Theory of mind (ToM) is the intuitive understanding of one's own and other people's minds or mental states— including thoughts, beliefs, perceptions, knowledge, intentions, desires, and emotions—and of how those mental states influence behavior. Sometimes called intuitive psychology, folk psychology, or even mind-reading, ToM is an innate human ability. The understanding that others have mental states different from one's own makes it possible to infer what others are thinking and to predict their behavior. This ability to recognize one's own state of mind and those of others is central to human consciousness. The study of ToM and identification of the skills comprising ToM is a rapidly changing field of developmental psychology.

"goodness-of-fit" model

Thomas and Chess's notion that development is likely to be optimized when parents' child-rearing practices are sensitively adapted to the child's temperamental characteristics.....those observations imply that early temperamental profiles are difficult to alter and will largely determine our personalities and social adjustment? No, they do not! Chess and Thomas (1999) find that early temperamental characteristics sometimes do and sometimes do not carry over into later life. In other words, temperamental profiles can change, and one factor that often determines whether they do change is the between the child's temperamental style and patterns of child rearing used by parents. Let's first consider a________between temperament and child rearing. Difficult infants and toddlers who fuss a lot and have trouble adapting to new routines often become less cranky and more adaptable over the long run if parents can remain calm as they insist that their children comply with rules, while also exercising restraint and allowing them to respond to new routines at a more leisurely pace.

What happens when mothers use elaborate speech?

Three-to 5-year-olds whose mothers use a more elaborative style are much better able to recognize and discriminate others' facial expressions of emotion and are better at predicting how a puppet will react emotionally to particular events (for example, going to a movie, being approached by a big, but friendly dog) compared to age-mates whose mothers have been less elaborative when discussing emotions

What are various emotions from birth, 2-7 month old.

Various emotions appear at different times over the first year of life. At birth, babies show facial expressions of interest, distress, disgust, and contentment (as indicated by a rudimentary smile). Other primary (or basic) emotions that emerge between age 2 and 7 months are anger, sadness, joy, surprise, and fear

What are the different stages of emotional display rules?

Yet even under the best of circumstances, simple display rules often take some time to master fully. As we see in Figure 4.5, many 7-to 9-year-olds (especially boys) are still unable to hide all their disappointment and act thrilled about receiving a lousy gift. And many 12-and 13-year-olds will fail to suppress all their anger when taunted by a peer (Underwood et al., 1999) or when their plans are thwarted by a respected adult exercising authority (Underwood, Coie, & Herbsman, 1992). Compliance with culturally specified rules

temperament

a person's characteristic modes of emotional and behavioral responding to environmental events, including such attributes as activity level, irritability, fearful distress, and positive affect...For example, fearful distress does not appear until age 6 to 7 months, and variations in attention span, although certainly apparent early, become more noticeable later in the first year as the frontal lobes of the brain mature and babies become more capable of regulating attention.

behavioral inhibition

a temperamental attribute reflecting the fearful distress children display and their tendency to withdraw from unfamiliar people and situations.

functionalist perspective (on emotions)

a theory specifying the major purpose of an emotion is to establish, maintain, or change one's relationship with the environment to accomplish a goal; emotions are not viewed as discrete early in life but as entities that emerge with age.By contrast, theorists who take a _______ to emotional development believe that newborns and very young infants do not display discrete emotions; their emotional lives may consist mainly of global experiences of positivity (excitement) and negativity (distress) (Campos, Mumme, et al., 1994; Sroufe, 1995). ________ also propose that the most basic purpose of emotions is to influence behavior and promote some action toward achieving a goal

stranger anxiety

a wary or fretful reaction that infants and toddlers often display when approached by an unfamiliar person.Wary reactions to strangers—which are often mixed with signs of interest—peak at 8-10 months of age and gradually decline in intensity over the second year

separation anxiety

a wary or fretful reaction that infants and toddlers often display when separated from persons to whom they are attached....________ normally appears at 6-8 months of age, peaks at 14-18 months, and gradually becomes less frequent and less intense throughout infancy and the preschool period (Kagan, Kearsley, & Zelazo, 1978; Weinraub & Lewis, 1977). However, grade-school children and even adolescents may still show signs of anxiety or sadness when separated for long periods from their loved ones..stem in part from an infant's general apprehension of the unfamiliar (the evolutionary viewpoint) and his inability to explain who a stranger may be or what has become of a familiar companion (the cognitive-developmental viewpoint).

emotional competence

abilities to display predominantly positive (rather than negative) emotions, correctly identify others' emotions and respond appropriately to them, and adjust one's own emotions to appropriate levels of intensity in order to achieve one's goals....has three components: Competent emotional expressivity, which involves frequent expression of more positive emotions and relatively infrequent displays of negative ones; competent emotional knowledge, which involves the abilities to correctly identify other people's feelings and the events responsible for those emotions; and competent emotional regulation, or the ability to adjust one's experience and expression of emotional arousal to an appropriate level of intensity to successfully achieve one's goals

emotional display

rules culturally defined rules specifying which emotions should or should not be expressed under which circumstances.specify the circumstances under which various emotions should or should not be expressed. Children in many cultures, for example, learn that they are supposed to express happiness or gratitude when they receive a gift from grandma and, by all means, to suppress any disappointment they may feel should the gift turn out to be underwear. These emotional "codes of conduct" are rules that children must acquire and use in order to get along with other people and to maintain their approval...By about age 3, children are beginning to show some limited ability to hide their true feelings. Michael Lewis and his associates (Lewis, Stanger, and Sullivan, 1989), for example, found that 3-year-olds who had lied about peeking at a forbidden toy showed subtle signs of anguish (detectable on film played in slow motion); however, they were able to mask their feelings well enough to make it impossible for uninformed adult judges to discriminate them from other children who truthfully reported that they hadn't peeked.

secondary (or complex) emotions

self-conscious or self-evaluative emotions that emerge in the second and third years and depend in part on cognitive development (sometimes called self-conscious emotions).secondary or complex emotions as embarrassment, shame, guilt, envy, and pride.From later in the second year until well into the third, infants begin to display such ________as embarrassment, shame, guilt, envy, and pride. These emotional responses are often called self-conscious emotions because each involves some damage to or enhancement of the sense of self.

Autism

simple terms, autism occurs when a child has trouble communicating and understanding what people think and feel. This makes it very difficult for autistic children to respond to gestures, facial expressions, touch and even language.

social smile

smile directed at people; first appears at 6-10 weeks of age.

discrete emotions theory

specific emotions are biologically programmed, accompanied by distinct sets of bodily and facial cues, and discriminable from early in life.....claims that each human emotion is accompanied by a particular set of facial and bodily reactions; these emotional states are said to be products of our evolutionary history and apparent very early in life.

effortful control

temperamental attribute that reflects one's ability to focus and/ or shift attention as called for by the situation and to suppress dominant or inappropriate responses in favor of those more appropriate for the situation.

slow-to-warm-up temperament

temperamental profile in which the child is inactive and moody and displays mild passive resistance to new routines and experiences....(15 percent of the sample): These children are quite inactive, somewhat moody, and can be slow to adapt to new persons and situations. But, unlike the difficult child, they typically respond to novelty in mildly, rather than intensely, negative ways. For example, they may resist cuddling by looking away rather than by kicking or screaming.

difficult temperament

temperamental profile in which the child is irregular in daily routines and adapts slowly to new experiences, often responding negatively and intensely. slow-to-warm-up

easy temperament

temperamental profile in which the child quickly establishes regular routines, is generally good natured, and adapts easily to novelty.

social competence

the ability to achieve personal goals in social interactions while maintaining positive relationships with others.

social referencing

the use of others' emotional expressions to gain information or infer the meaning of otherwise ambiguous situations.This________becomes more common with age (Walden & Baxter, 1989) and soon extends to people other than parents. By the end of the first year, for example, infants will typically approach and play with unfamiliar toys if a nearby stranger is smiling but are apt to avoid these objects if the stranger displays a fearful expression. Starts 7-10 month