EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
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Exploring Emotions
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Development of Emotion
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Temperament
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Attachment and Love
Exploring Emotions
WHAT ARE EMOTIONS?
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Feeling or affect in a state or interaction
characterized by:
 Behavioral expression
 Conscious experience
 Physiological arousal
Functionalist View of Emotion:
 Individuals’ attempts to adapt to specific contextual demands
 Relational
 Linked with an individual’s goals
 Nature of goal can affect experience
Exploring Emotions
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.
Development of Emotion
DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTION
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Early emotions:
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Present in humans and other animals
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Appear in first six months of life
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Surprise, joy, anger, sadness, fear, and disgust
Self-conscious emotions:

Appear in first 18 months to 2 years
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Acquire and use society’s standards and rules
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Empathy, jealousy, and embarrassment
Development of Emotion
INFANT CRYING
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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 high-intensity stimulus.
Development of Emotion
INFANT SMILING

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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.
Development of Emotion
FEAR
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First appears about 6 mos.; peaks at 18 mos.
Stranger anxiety — infant’s fear and wariness of strangers;
intense between 9 and 12 mos.
Separation protest — crying when caregiver leaves; peaks
about 15 months of age
Development of Emotion
EARLY CHILDHOOD
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Young children experience many emotions
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Self-Conscious Emotions
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Pride, shame, embarrassment, and guilt
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First appear about age 18 months

Ability to reflect on emotions increases with age
Development of Emotion
DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGES IN EMOTIONS
DURING MIDDLE AND LATE CHILDHOOD
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Increased emotional
understanding
Increased tendency to
take fuller account of
events leading to
emotional reactions
Develops capacity for
genuine empathy

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Marked
improvements in
ability to suppress or
conceal negative
emotional reactions
Use of self-initiated
strategies for
redirecting feelings
Development of Emotion
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
Development of Emotion
CHANGES IN POSITIVE & NEGATIVE
EMOTION ACROSS THE ADULT YEARS
Development of Emotion
SOCIOEMOTIONAL SELECTIVITY
THEORY

Older adults become more selective about their social
networks:
 Place a high value on emotional satisfaction and maximize
positive emotional experiences
 Spend more time with familiar individuals providing
rewarding relationships
 Seek more emotion-related goals than knowledge-related
goals
Development of Emotion
MODEL OF SOCIO-EMOTIONAL
SELECTIVITY
Temperament
TEMPERAMENT
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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.
Temperament
DEVELOPMENTAL CONNECTIONS
Child
Easy temperament
Adult
Good adjustment
Adjustment, school, and
Difficult temperament
marital problems
Low assertiveness, job
Inhibition
and school delays
Good emotional control Good emotional control
Attachment and Love
THEORIES OF ATTACHMENT
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Attachment — close emotional bond between two people
Social orientation and understanding Face-to-face play for infants and caregivers
 Locomotion enables infant independence
 Goal-directed behaviors indicate intentions
 Social referencing for reading emotional cues
Freud — infants attach to person or object providing oral satisfaction
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Erikson — first year of life is key time for attachment development
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Harlow’s study proved otherwise
Sense of trust or mistrust sets later expectations
Bowlby — stresses importance of attachment in first year and responsiveness of
caregiver
Attachment and Love
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES AND THE STRANGE
SITUATION

Ainsworth’s measure of infant attachment to caregiver:
 Requires infant to move through a series of introductions,
separations, and reunions
 Some infants have more positive attachments than others
Baby’s Attachment
Caregiver Behavior
Secure
Sensitive to signals, available
Avoidant
Unavailable or rejecting
Resistant
Inconsistent
Disorganized
Neglect or physically abuse
Attachment and Love
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
Attachment and Love
CHILD CARE
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Many parents worry about child’s care.
About 2 million children currently receive formal, licensed
child care.
More than 5 million children in kindergarten.
Types of child care vary extensively in U.S.
Five types of parental leave from work
 Maternity leave
Paternity leave
 Parental leave

Child-rearing leave
 Family leave

Attachment and Love
VARIATIONS IN CHILD CARE
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Factors influencing effects of child care:
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Age of child

Type of child care

Quality of program

Mother’s employment in first year may have negative effect
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Types vary by ethnicity and social class
National longitudinal study results:
Patterns of use: infants placed sooner
 Quality of care: lower for low-income families
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Amount of child care: extensive time lessened attachment
sensitivity to mother, more behavioral issues
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Family and parenting influences are important
Attachment and Love
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
Attachment and Love
DATING AND ROMANTIC
RELATIONSHIPS
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Dating scripts:
 Cognitive models that guide dating interactions
 Males are proactive, females are reactive
 Males seek physical attraction, females seek
interpersonal qualities
Dating involvement linked to later adjustment
AGE OF ONSET OF ROMANTIC ACTIVITY
Attachment and Love
ROMANTIC LOVE
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Also called passionate love or Eros:
 Complex intermingling of emotions.
 Strong components of sexuality and infatuation.
 Often predominates early part of a love relationship.
Affectionate love or companionate love:
 Have deep, caring affection for person.
Attachment and Love
STERNBERG’S TRIARCHIC THEORY OF LOVE
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Passion: physical, sexual attraction
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Intimacy: warmth, closeness, and sharing
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Commitment: intent to remain together