What are the main components of any emotions?
Components
- Neural response
- Physiological factors
- Subjective feelings
- Emotional expression
- Urge to take action
How to create a good fit for a child?
Can foster fit by
- Knowing and understanding a child’s temperament
- Adjusting expectations for them to be more realistic
- Selecting activities more in line with child’s temperament
Why are supportive and sensitive reactions ideal for children?
Supportive/sensitive reactions are ideal because
- Validates child’s emotions
- Helps the child understand their emotions
- Fosters emotional regulation
- Associated with higher self-esteem
- Fosters empathy and social skills
- Associated with better performance in school
What are the 6 innate basic emotions?
Happiness, Fear, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, Surprise
What are the emotions present from birth?
At birth→ 2 general emotional states
- positive/happiness→ approach behaviour
- negative/distress→ crying or withdrawal behaviour
When does each basic emotion appear?
Happiness-> from birth
Anger-> 4months but peak at 24 months because of
Fear-> 7 months
Suprise, sadness and disgust appear within first year
What are the different stage of fear during infancy?
7months-> appears
8months-> separation anxiety and fear of strangers
15months-> decline of separation anxiety
3-5yo-> scared of creatures because symbolic thoughts
7+yo-> scared of everyday situations
Why does anger peak at 24months?
limited language abilities
Which cognitive ability is necessary for sadness to emerge?
object permanence
When do self-conscious emotions emerge?
2yo
What is the difference between guilt and shame?
Guilt→ Feelings of regret about one’s behaviour associated
- desire to “fix” the consequences of that behaviour
- hurting someone
Shame→ self-focused general feeling of personal failure
- desire to hide
—>guilt healthier than shame
—>around 2yo
What are the parental reactions to children’s actions that influence child’s emotional experience of guilt or shame?
- if parents emphasizes badness of action→ guilt
- emphasizes badness of the child→ shame
What is social referencing?
Use of adults’ facial expressions and tone of voice to decide how to deal with novel/ ambiguous situations
ex: visual cliff experiment
What is the timeline for labelling emotions in childhood?
3yo→ able to label happiness, anger, fear and sadness
5yo→ label surprise and disgust
6-8 yo→ label self conscious emotions
—>accuracy improves into adolescence
When does a child understand mixed emotions?
5yo->ex: Little Mermaid
What is the timeline for the development of emotion regulation?
At Birth→ co-regulation
- parents regulate infant’s distress through soothing or distraction
5 months→ rudimentary emotion regulation skills
- self-comforting behaviours→ repetitive actions creating mildly positive sensation
- Self-distraction→ look away from upsetting stimuli
As get older, rely more on self-distraction
- ex: play
6-8 yo→ use cognitive strategies and problem-solving to regulate emotions
- try to think in a different way about the situation
Why does emotion regulation improve?
Motor development→ greater ability to control body
- important for self-soothing and distraction
Increased parental expectation
Cognitive development→ improved executive functions
- able to control attention better to enable self-distraction
- improvement in language skills to discuss rather than emotional outburst
Neurological development→ prefrontal cortex linked with executive functioning
What are the distinct aspect of emotions during adolescence?
Adolescent report more frequent high-intensity emotions (positive AND negative)
Intense moods last less long
Happiness→ reported experiencing happiness 70% of the time but decreased over time
Sadness and anxiety increase especially for girls
Impulsivity increases during early adolescence
What are the reasons for emotional changes in adolescence?
Cognitive changes→ advances in abstract thinking
- interpret ambiguous events in several ways
- anxiety-inducing
Social changes
- school becoming more challenging
- stronger desire for autonomy and can lead to conflict with caregivers
- more time with peers and less with family so new emotional reactions
Neurobiological changes
What are the two brain regions responsible for the emotional changes occuring during adolescence?
Limbic system-> emotional processing
- reaches full potential during adolescence
- “reward more rewarding”
- synaptogenesis of dopamine receptors
PFC-> immature PCF associated with difficulties with inhibition, impulse control
- pruning and myelination until mid-20s
–>mismatch responsible
What are the different type approach to temperament in babies?
Easy babies→ adjust easily
- quickly establish daily routines
- easy to calm
- 40% of babies
Difficult babies→ slow to adjust
- irregular in daily routines
- react negatively and intensely to novel stimuli
- 10% babies
Slow-to-warm-up babies→ difficult at first but easier over time
- 15% of babies
What are the 5 keys dimensions of temperament?
- Positive affectivity→ Degree of positive emotional response to a change in a stimulus, indexed by smiling and laughter
- Distress→ Degree of negative emotional response related to having an ongoing task interrupted or blocked
- Fear→ tendency to experience nervousness to new situations
- Attention span→ Ability to manage and focus attention on a task for an extended period and to inhibit impulsive responses
- Activity level→ Rate and extent of gross motor body movements
What are the two things that parents do to directly influence the emotional development of their child?
Mirroring→ Behaviours in which a parent reflects the emotions of their child back to them
- verbal or non verbal cues
- ex: baby looks upset→ parent also frown
- contingent responding→ timely and appropriate reaction
Emotional coaching→ use of discussion and other forms of instruction to teach children how to cope with, regulate, and appropriately express emotions
What are the four types of reaction from parents?
Supportive/sensitive-> mirroring+coaching
Critical-> no mirroring or coaching
Dismissive->coaching but no mirroring
Over-validating-> mirroring but no coaching
