Psikologi Anak
Pertemuan 6
Emotional and Moral Development
Emotional Development
Definition of emotion
• Feeling or affect in a state or interaction
characterized by
– Behavioral expression
– Conscious experience
– Physiological arousal
• Positive and negative expressions
What Are Emotions?
• Facial expressions of basic emotions
– Biological nature; same across cultures
• When, where, and how to express emotions
are not culturally universal
• Biological roots…but shaped by culture and
relationships
• Emotional regulation: Effectively managing
arousal to adapt and reach a goal
– Involves state of alertness or activation
– States can be too high for effective functioning
Developing Emotional Regulation
As one ages or matures:
• Regulation shifts from
external sources to
internal resources
• Develop greater
capacity to modulate
emotional arousal
• Cognitive strategies for
regulation and ability to
shift focus increase
• More adept with age at
selecting and managing
situations, relationships
• Ability to effectively cope
with stress increases
Emotional Competence Skills
• Being aware of own
• Understanding inner
emotional states and those
emotional states and
of others
outer expressions may
not correspond
• Using appropriate
emotional vocabulary
• Adaptively coping with
negative emotions
• Having empathic and
sympathetic sensitivity to • Being aware that
others’ experiences
emotional expression
plays major role in
• Seeing self as feeling like
relationships
one wants to feel
Early Developmental Changes In
Emotions
• Primary emotions
– Present in humans and other animals
– Appear in first six months of life
– Surprise, joy, anger, sadness, fear, and disgust
• Self-conscious emotions
– Appear in first 18 months to 2 years
– Acquire and use society’s standards and rules
– Empathy, jealousy, and embarrassment
Infant crying
• Basic cry
– Rhythmic pattern usually
consisting of cry, briefer
silence, shorter inspiratory
whistle, and brief rest
• Anger cry
– Similar to basic cry, linked to
exasperation or rage, with
more excess air forced
through vocal chords
• Pain cry
– Sudden appearance of loud
crying, no preliminary
moaning; stimulated by highintensity stimulus
Infant smiling
• Reflexive smile
– Does not occur in
response to external
stimuli
– Occurs during first
month after birth,
usually during sleep
• Social smile
– Response to external
stimulus
– Occurs about 2 or 3
months of age
– Typically in response to
a face
Early Childhood
• Young children experience many emotions
• Self-Conscious Emotions
– Pride, shame, and guilt
– First appear about age 2½
– Gender and behavioral differences exist
– Ability to reflect on emotions increases with age
– Emotional regulation affects peer relations
Developmental Changes In Emotions During
Middle and Late Childhood
• Increased ability to
understand pride and
shame
• Increased awareness
that more than one
emotion can be
experienced in a
particular situation
• Increased tendency to
take fuller account of
events leading to
emotional reactions
• Marked improvements
in ability to suppress or
conceal negative
emotional reactions
• Use of self-initiated
strategies for redirecting
feelings
Adolescence
• Time of emotional turmoil but not constantly
• Emotional changes instantly occur with little
provocation
– Girls more vulnerable to depression
– Adolescent moodiness is normal
– Hormonal changes and environmental experiences
involved in changing emotions
Temperament
• Individual’s behavioral style and characteristic
way of emotional response
– Closely linked to personality
• Rothbart and Bates’ Classification
– Extraversion urgency
– Negative affectivity
– Effortful control (self-regulation)
Temperament – Chess and Thomas’
Classification
• Three basic types or clusters
– Easy child: positive mood; quickly establishes
routines; adapts easily to new experiences
– Difficult child: reacts negatively; cries frequently;
has irregular routines; slow to accept new
experiences
– Slow-to-warm-up child: low activity level;
somewhat negative; shows low adaptability;
displays low-intensity mood
Biological Foundations and Experience
• Physiological characteristics are associated with different
temperaments
• Heredity is aspect of temperament’s biological foundations
• Attributes become more stable over time as selfperceptions, behavioral preferences, and social experiences
form personality
• Gender may be important factor that influences fate of
temperament
• Many aspects of child’s environment encourage or
discourage persistence of temperament characteristics
• Goodness of Fit
– Match between child’s temperament and environmental demands
Developmental Contexts
• Gender may be important factor that
influences fate of temperament
• Many aspects of child’s environment
encourage or discourage persistence of
temperament characteristics
• Goodness of Fit
– Match between child’s temperament and
environmental demands
Parenting and Child’s Temperament
• Some temperament characteristics pose more
challenges than others
• Management strategies that worked for one
child may not work for next one
– Be sensitive to individual characteristics of child
– Structure the child’s environment to provide as good
a fit as possible with child’s temperament
– Avoid labeling as “difficult child”
Theories of Attachment
• Attachment — close emotional bond between two
people
• Freud — infants attach to person or object
providing oral satisfaction
– Harlow’s study proved otherwise
• Erikson — first year of life is key time for attachment
development
– Sense of trust or mistrust sets later expectations
• Bowlby — stresses importance of attachment in first
year and responsiveness of caregiver
– Four phases of attachment in first 2 years
Individual Differences and the Strange Situation
Ainsworth’s measure of infant attachment to caregiver
Attachment Categories
Securely attached
Caregiver is secure base to
explore environment from
Insecure avoidant
Shows insecurity by
avoiding the caregiver
Insecure resistant
Clings to caregiver, then
resists by fighting against
the closeness
Insecure disorganized
Shows insecurity by being
disorganized, disoriented
Adolescence
• Attachment to parents
– Secure attachment to both parents positively related to
peer and friendship relations
– Dismissing/avoidant attachment: de-emphasize
importance due to caregiver rejection
– Preoccupied/ambivalent attachment: insecure
adolescent due to inconsistent parenting
– Unresolved/disorganized attachment: insecure
adolescent, high fear due to traumatic experiences
Moral Development
• Changes in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
regarding standards of right and wrong
• An intrapersonal dimension: regulates
activities
• An interpersonal dimension: regulates social
interactions and arbitrates conflict
Piaget’s Theory of Moral Development
Justice and rules are conceived of
Heteronymous as unchangeable properties of the
morality
world, removed from the control of
people (4-7 years)
Autonomous
morality
Immanent
justice
Becomes aware that rules and laws
are created by people; in judging
an action, one should consider
actor’s intentions as well as
consequences (10 years and older)
If a rule is broken, punishment will
be meted out immediately
Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral
Development
• Moral reasoning unfolds in universal stages
– Moral thoughts constructed as one passes through childhood,
adolescence, and adulthood
– Tested by story with moral dilemma
• Theory of 3 levels, two stages in each
– Preconventional reasoning — Good or bad based on external
rewards and punishment
– Conventional reasoning — Individuals abide by certain
standards, but are standards of others
– Postconventional reasoning — Individuals recognize
alternative moral courses, explore options, and decide own
moral code
• 7th stage added: cosmic perspective
Empathy
• Reacting to another’s feelings with emotional
response similar to other’s feelings
• Cognitive component — perspective-taking
• Develops from infant’s global empathy
• Children’s ability depends on awareness that
people have different reactions to situations
Emotion and Moral Development:
The Contemporary Perspective
• When strongly felt, both positive and negative
feelings contribute to moral behavior
– Positive feelings: empathy, sympathy, admiration,
self-esteem
– Negative feelings: anger, outrage, shame, guilt
– Some emotions undergo developmental change
throughout childhood and beyond; interwoven
with cognitive and social aspects of development