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Child Development - A Thematic Approach
, Fifth Edition
Danuta Bukatko - College of the Holy Cross
Marvin W. Daehler - University of Massachusetts, Amherst
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| | Chapter Outline
Chapter 11:
Emotion
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What are emotions?
Emotions have three components: a physiological component, involving bodily changes;
an expressive component, including facial expressions; and an experiential
component, the subjective feeling of emotion.-
The functions of emotions
Emotions appear to organize and regulate the child's behavior. Positive emotional states may motivate the child, whereas negative
emotional states may lead to discouragement. Cognitive activity is often reflected in the child's emotional expressions. Conversely, emotional states can influence the cognitive
processes in which the child is engaged. Emotions play a key role in initiating,
maintaining, or terminating social interactions between the child and others. -
Measuring emotions
Physiological measures include heart rate or EEG patterns. Newer technologies
such as PET and fMRI provide insight about brain activity during the expression
of emotions. Measurements of facial expressions and vocalizations include detection
of changes in the muscles of the face and the loudness, duration, and sound
patterns of the child's voice. Self-report measures may be used to assess the child's interpretations of his or her own and others' emotions. These methods are not without problems; different emotions may
lead to similar physiological responses.
Examining Research Methods: Using Structured Observations to Record Infants' Facial Expressions
Measures of emotions, especially in infants, often depend on observations
of facial expressions. AFFEX (System for Identifying Affect Expression by
Holistic Judgment) is an example of a scoring system that permits recording
of ten facial expressions. Using such a system, trained observers can obtain high inter-rater reliability,
that is, agreement on which emotion is being displayed. Construct validity
is evident in that raters agree with the judgments of adults who make global
assessments about which emotion is being expressed. Researchers can help to ensure that potential
observer biases do not exist by providing little information to coders about
the specific hypotheses being tested. |
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Theoretical perspectives on emotional development
Psychologists such as Paul Ekman and Carroll Izard are contemporary supporters
of the biological view of the origin of emotions. In cross-cultural research, Ekman has found that people from many cultures express emotions and interpret
emotional expressions in the same way. Izard found that young infants make
the same facial expressions as adults do in response to external stimuli.
More important, making the facial expression produces a corresponding emotional feeling in the infant. A cognitive-socialization explanation of emotions emphasizes that even the emotions the young child
experiences are a product of the child's experiential history, including information from parents and others regarding the appropriate emotional reactions for
each situation. Cognitive processes thus act as mediators that bridge the gap between environmental stimuli and the emotions they elicit.
For others, emotions are fundamentally linked to the social environment. Rather than viewing emotions as entities,
they are viewed as processes embedded in social interactions. Thus, socialization
and culture are important determinants of the intensity of emotional expression
and whether its tone is negative or positive.
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Expressing, understanding, and regulating emotions
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Early emotional development
Studies have shown that newborn infants are capable of making facial expressions that correspond to the emotions of
interest, distress, disgust, joy, sadness, and surprise. These emotions are
called basic emotions because they appear to be innate and require little, if any, learning. The
basic emotions do appear to undergo modification with experience over the first few
months of life. Smiling in the newborn occurs most likely in response to
a change in physiological state. Later in the first year, smiling and laughing
occur in response to complex stimuli that the child's increasing cognitive maturity allows him or her to understand. Crying,
like smiling, is initially a reflexive response to an aversive physical state
such as hunger or pain. After two months of age, the infant's cry becomes more variable and can be voluntarily produced as a request for a desired object
or a change in stimulation or as a way of communicating distress to the caregiver.
Infants are able to discriminate several facial expressions of adult models.
By the end of the first year, infants begin to show evidence that they understand the meanings of
the facial expressions they discriminate. The phenomenon of social referencing indicates that infants use others' facial expressions to gain information about the appropriate response to an ambiguous situation, such as whether to cross to the deep side of
the visual cliff. Patterns of reciprocal vocalizations and facial expressions
between caregiver and infant, called interactive synchrony, are evident from about two to three months of age. During this period, the infant learns how to take the initiative
in social interactions and how to alter the caregiver's behavior by responding with an appropriate emotional expression. Asynchronous interactions, or uncoordinated infant-caregiver interactions, may help the infant to learn how to repair social interactions.
The nature of the emotional exchanges between caregiver and infant influences
the emotional bond of attachment between them. -
Later emotional development
Beyond two years of age, children begin to show more complex emotions, reflecting their growing understanding of social relationships. Emotions
such as guilt, envy, shame, and pride require self-understanding and understanding
of others' feelings.
As their linguistic skills improve, children demonstrate their increased
understanding of emotions. Children's knowledge of emotions permits them to respond appropriately in many social
situations such as how to react to the emotional expressions of peers; this knowledge has implications for their social development. Display rules are the cultural guidelines for when, how, and to what degree to express
emotions, such as appearing happy to receive a gift. Knowledge about emotions
benefits social development, perhaps because children are more likely to respond appropriately
to the emotions of others. Emotional development appears closely tied to
advancing cognitive skills that allow children to think in more abstract
and complex terms. Knowledge about emotions is also gained from parents, especially when parents discuss
and explain positive emotions.
A further developmental accomplishment is the increasing ability to regulate one's emotions. Even infants display some capacity to control their own affective
state such as by rocking or looking away when emotionally aroused. Toddlers,
too, use strategies to reduce their frustrations, and soon become more effective at using language
to communicate their concerns and desires. Infants and young children who
have trouble regulating their emotions continue to show this difficulty in
later childhood. Inability to regulate emotions also appears to be more prevalent among children who
display conduct disorders. The socialization techniques that parents employ
play an important role in how successfully the child comes to regulate his
or her emotions.
Emotional development continues during adolescence. Although the studies are mixed, several
researchers have found that adolescents report more negative emotions than
younger children.
Atypical Development: Adolescent Depression and Suicide
Approximately 35 percent of adolescents experience a depressed mood, and 7 percent
are classified as clinically depressed. The causes of adolescent depression
are complex. Depressed children often have depressed parents, raising the
possibility that there is a genetic component. However, depressed parents often display less effective
parenting skills and may model negative ways of dealing with emotions. Changes
in self-image and adjustments in peer relationships may contribute to adolescents' vulnerability to depression. Additionally, hormonal changes during adolescence may activate genes
that put individuals at risk for psychological problems. Somewhere between
6 and 13 percent of adolescents attempt suicide. It is among the leading
causes of death for children and young people between ten and twenty-four years of age. Males are more likely
to succeed at completing suicide because of their choice of more lethal methods.
A number of warning signs are summarized and strategies for reducing the
risk are discussed in the text. |
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Variations in emotional development
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Temperament
Although there are strong commonalities in emotional behavior across individuals,
a number of noteworthy differences in individual emotional development are evident.
Infants and children vary in temperament. For example, the "easy" child has positive moods and a positive approach to new situations, whereas
the "difficult" child is often in a negative mood and withdraws from new stimuli. Other distinctions in temperament
are associated with being inhibited or uninhibited, excitability, and ability
to regulate the self. There may be substantial cross-cultural differences
in emotional styles.
Biological factors very likely underlie individual differences in temperament.
For example, a variety of physiological differences exist between children
who are described as inhibited or uninhibited. Irritability in infants is
also associated with distinctive patterns of brain wave activity. Cardiac vagal tone, the degree to which
the heart is influenced by the vagus nerve, may be linked to emotional reactivity
and the ability to soothe oneself in emotionally arousing situations. The
emotional style a particular child displays early in life can affect cognitive and social functioning
later in development. -
Sex differences in emotions
Some differences in emotional expression are reported for boys and girls.
Observations of parents' behavior suggest that sons and daughters are taught to behave differently
with respect to emotional behavior. Mothers are more expressive with their
daughters than with their sons, and parents in general encourage girls to
show affection and maintain close emotional ties, whereas they instruct boys to control
their emotions. These differences in socialization most likely account for
many of the stereotypical differences in male and female emotional behavior. -
Cultural differences in emotions
The tendency of children to express and detect emotions differs as a function
of culture. Parental behaviors likely serve to elaborate and refine children's early emotional tendencies in ways considered culturally appropriate. For instance, shyness and inhibition are less likely
to be valued in Euro-American society than in Chinese society.
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Attachment: emotional relationships with others
Attachment refers to the strong emotional bond that develops between infant and caregiver.-
The origins of attachment: theoretical perspectives
Learning theory explains that primary reinforcers such as food satisfy basic
biological drives. Secondary reinforcers acquire their reinforcing properties by being associated with primary reinforcers.
The mother therefore becomes rewarding for the infant outside of the feeding context.
Harry Harlow's classic experiment indicated that "contact comfort" is a more critical factor than the acquisition of secondary drive characteristics
in the development of the attachment relationship.
Ethological theories view attachment as the result of innate tendencies in
the infant to actively signal the caregiver's attention and the caregiver's innate tendencies to respond to those signals. John Bowlby believed that
attachment progresses in a fixed sequence, beginning with the infant's signaling behaviors, such as crying and smiling. He observed evidence of the strong attachment
bond later in the first year of life in a phenomenon called separation anxiety, the visible upset infants experience upon departure of the mother. A related phenomenon, stranger anxiety, is the infant's wariness at the approach of an unfamiliar person. Finally, at about three
years of age, the attachment relationship becomes more of a partnership, with the child beginning to appreciate the mother's feelings, motives, and goals. -
The developmental course of attachment
Attachment behaviors seem to emerge in a reliable sequence, with infants
showing preferences for familiar persons, followed by separation protest and stranger anxiety
and the formation of multiple attachments in addition to the primary attachment
to the mother. Mary Ainsworth and her associates developed a standardized
laboratory task, called the Strange Situation, to assess the quality of the child's emotional ties to the mother. In this task, Ainsworth found that securely attached infants use their mothers as a secure base for exploration. Avoidant attachment was evident in children who avoided the mother and remained in isolated play when they were reunited with her following
a brief separation. Ambivalent (or resistant) attachment was evident in children who demonstrated tension, excessive clinging, and
anger toward the mother following her return. Disorganized/disoriented attachment is characterized by the infant's fear of the caregiver.
An analysis of the attachment relationship revealed that mothers who accepted
the caregiver role, displayed cooperation with their infants, and were accessible
to them developed secure attachments with their infants. In contrast, mothers
of insecurely attached infants were rigid, unresponsive, and demanding of
them. Mothers of securely attached infants also were more affectionate, more
positive, and less intrusive, and they engaged in interactive synchrony more often.
Research on the father-child relationship has revealed that even though fathers
spend less time interacting with their children than mothers do, children
do form close attachments to their fathers. Such attachments may help to buffer impaired interactions with depressed mothers
where such are found in the caregiving environment. Children who have secure
attachments to both parents exhibit higher self-esteem and greater social
competence than children who do not.
Researchers have reported a link between temperament and subsequent attachment
patterns, but it is unclear whether temperament influences attachment or
parental behavior influences temperament and attachment. Moreover, early
irritability does not necessarily predispose children to insecure attachment.
Secure attachments are related to positive developmental outcomes in both
cognitive and social realms. The effects of early attachment may even carry
over into adolescence where individuals who were securely attached as infants display more positive emotional ties and high
self-esteem.
Even adult parenting behaviors are influenced by the attachment patterns
acquired in infancy. Perhaps an internal working model of relationships is
established during secure attachment in childhood that continues to influence emotional ties
with family, friends, and romantic partners.
Studies of the quality of attachment between infants and caregivers from
cultures other than the United States reveal that patterns of attachment
may differ depending on the maternal behaviors encouraged within a given
culture. For example, cultures that encourage independence in very young children, such as Germany, foster a greater
number of avoidantly attached infants. Israeli infants raised in a kibbutz,
are less likely than other Israeli infants to show secure attachments.
Although the majority of studies show no differences in the quality of attachments for day care versus
home-reared infants, a number of studies conducted in the 1980s have found
day care children to exhibit more avoidant behaviors than home-reared children
during the reunion in the Strange Situation. More recent research indicates that insecure attachments
are more likely to occur when maternal insensitivity co-occurs with poor
quality child care.
Research Applied to Parenting: Promoting Secure Attachment in Irritable Infants
Research carried out in the Netherlands indicates that parents of irritable
infants react less positively to them during their first six months of development
than do parents of infants displaying other temperaments. However, parents
may be trained to be more responsive to their irritable infants. By slowing down the
tempo of mother-infant interactions, mothers can perceive and interpret their
infants' signals more accurately. Some techniques other than cuddling may also be
more effective in soothing irritable infants. Caregivers need to pay attention to the infants' positive signals. Irritable infants who receive these kinds of interventions
show many desirable outcomes even years later. |
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Disruptions in attachment
Premature birth, adoption, and child abuse are three contexts within which
patterns of parent-child attachments may be disrupted. Mothers of premature
infants, for example, appear to provide excessive stimulation for their infants
in an effort to alter the infants' unresponsive behavior. When the quality of attachment at one year of age
is assessed, however, no differences are observed between premature and full-term
infants and their caregivers unless infants are of very low birth weight.
The first few months of life may represent a sensitive period for emotional
development. Infants adopted prior to six months of age show secure patterns
of attachment. In contrast, infants separated from their biological parents
after six to seven months of age show socioemotional problems later on.
Abused infants and children reveal the most profoundly insecure attachments.
Perhaps as many as 80 percent of abused infants fall into a classification
of insecure attachment called disorganized/disoriented attachment, in which they exhibit fear of the caregiver, confused facial expressions,
and avoidant and ambivalent behavior.
Evidence is beginning to accumulate to suggest that socioemotional experiences
during the first three years of life are critical to the establishment of normal brain functioning. Infants who are stressed exhibit
a greater amount of the hormone cortisol than infants who are unstressed.
Insecurely attached infants display substantial increases in cortisol in
fear-provoking situations compared to other children. Excessive exposure to cortisol in animals has been linked
to the death of neurons and the atrophy of dendrites. Other research shows
that depressed levels of norepinephrine are found in emotionally disturbed
children. Further research should soon help to indicate more precisely how early socioemotional relationships
affect brain development.
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