Emotion and Self Regulation
Naomi Ekas
9/28/09
Self-Regulation
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Children do not come into this world
with all of the skills necessary to
regulate their behavior
It is around 2 years that we really start
to see children monitoring behavior
Self-Regulation

Ability to comply with a request, initiate and
cease activities according to situational
demands, to modulate the intensity,
frequency, and duration of verbal and motor
acts in social and educational settings, to
postpone acting upon a desired object/goal,
and to generate socially approved behavior in
the absence of external monitors (Kopp,
1982)
Self-Regulation

Neurophysiological modulation
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Birth to 2-3 months
Reflexes
Self-Regulation
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Sensorimotor modulation
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3 months - 9 months +
Engage in voluntary motor acts (reach &
grab, hand to mouth, etc.) and change that
act in response to environmental demands
No awareness of meaning of situation
Self-Regulation
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Control
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9-12 months to 18 + months
Emerging ability of children to show
awareness of social or task demands and
modulate behavior/emotions
E.g. compliance to demands
Self-Regulation

Emergence of self-control and the
progression to self-regulation
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24 + months
Compliance, delay an act on request
Representational thinking and recall
memory
Limited flexibility
Self-Regulation

Self-regulation
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36 + months
Flexibility!!!
Emotion Regulation

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In addition to regulating behaviors,
children must also regulate emotional
experiences
Development of emotion regulation
abilities follows Kopp’s description of
emergence of self-regulation

Reflexes to flexible management
Emotion Regulation

Emotion regulation consists of the
extrinsic and intrinsic processes
responsible for monitoring, evaluating,
and modifying emotional reactions,
especially their intensive and temporal
features, to accomplish one’s goals
Emotion Regulation

Monitoring, evaluating, modifying

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Not only negative emotions
Not only dampening emotions, but also
increasing
Emotion Regulation
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Extrinsic influences
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Parents!!!
Critical in the early months
Intrinsic influences

temperament
Emotion Regulation

Intensive and temporal features
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Intensity - subdue or enhance
Speed or slow onset or recovery
Reduce or increase lability (range)
Limit or enhance persistence over time
Emotion Regulation

Accomplish one’s goals

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Must be regarded functionally
What are regulator’s goals for that
situation?
Emotion Regulation

What is regulated?

Control of underlying arousal processes
through maturing systems of
neurophysiological regulation

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Diffuse excitatory processes decline in lability
during first year
Cortical inhibitory controls emerge gradually
during infancy
Nervous system reactivity
Emotion Regulation
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Attention processes
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Emotion can be regulated by managing the
intake of emotionally arousing information

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Redirecting attention
As they get older can do things like internal
redirection of attention (e.g. thinking of
something pleasant during unpleasant
situation)
Emotion Regulation

Other components of information
processing
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Alter interpretations

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“He didn’t really die, he just got frightened and
ran away”
“It’s just pretend”
Emotion Regulation
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Increase access to coping resources
Regulating emotional demands of
familiar situations
Emotion Regulation
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Importance of social interaction

Others can help regulate our emotions
(e.g. mothers soothing young infant)
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Importance of attachment relationship
Others can help us with our interpretations
of situations
Modeling behavior of those around us
Emotion Regulation
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Individual differences
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Temperament
Attachment
Parenting
Others???
Emotion Regulation
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Problems with the construct and
research area
Self-Regulation Background

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Internally-directed capacity to regulate attention,
affect, and behavior with the goal of responding
effectively to environmental and internal cues
and demands
Rapidly developing in childhood
 Involves managing, modulating, inhibiting, and
enhancing attention behavior and emotions
Related to social and academic success
Needed for successful transition into
kindergarten
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High quality day care may facilitate children’s SR skills
Self-Regulation
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Increased levels of quality day care linked to
increased behavior problems, which may reflect
low levels of self-regulation
Genetic and experiential differences may cause
children to differentially respond to their
experiences (differential susceptibility)
DRD4 7+ allele may moderate the effects of
children’s experiences on developmental
outcomes thought to reflect SR skills
Study Aims
1.
2.
Test the degree to which children’s
early childcare experiences (quality,
quantity, & type) predict SR skills in
prekindergarten
Test the degree to which these
relations are conditional on genotype
(DRD4 7+)

Measures
Continuous Performance Task – computer based task
Self-Regulation:

where children press a key if the stimulus is presented on
the screen
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Day-Night Stroop – card task where children say “day” if
they see a picture of the moon and “night” if presented with
a picture of the sun
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Higher scores indicate more inhibitory control
Delay of Gratification – children asked to wait 7 minutes to
receive a larger prize
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More errors is associated with lower academic achievement and
higher levels of aggression & inattention
Higher errors = higher inattention
Waiting 7 min reflects more “desire based” inhibitory control
Latent measure of inattention – made up of teacher report
forms and observational measures
Measures cont.
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Quantity of childcare - averaged hours in nonmaternal care per week
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Quality of childcare – caregiver-child
interactions at 6, 15, 24, 36, and 54 months
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Collected every 3/4 months until 54 months
Rated on various likert scales at different intervals
Type of childcare – center-based care children
spent more than 50% of time in non-maternal
care
Measures cont.
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Genotype – DNA collected at 15 years
old
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DRD4 7+ was coded if homozygous or
heterozygous for the 7-repeat allele versus
those without a copy of the allele
Childcare, Inhibitory Control &
Inattention: DNS
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DRD4 7+ children who spent
fewer hours in nonmaternal
care showed more effective
performance on the DNS
task than DRD4 7+ children
who spent more hours in
childcare
The beneficial effect was
present for DRD4 7+
children in few hours of
childcare but was not a risk
factor for children with high
number of hours in childcare
Childcare, Inhibitory Control &
Inattention: DOG
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DRD4 7+ children in
few hours of
childcare had better
inhibitory control in
DOG task
Difference was only
present for children
attending few hours
of childcare
Continuous Performance Task
Results
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Inhibitory control –
higher quality care
was associated with
fewer commission
errors on the CPT
Attention – DRD4 7+
allele is associated
with more effective
attention when
children spend fewer
hours in childcare
Inattention & Impulsivity
Results
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DRD4 7+ allele is
associated with lower
levels of
inattention/impulsivity if
children experience few
hours of childcare
Descriptively, DRD4 7+
allele is associated with
higher levels of
inattention/impulsivity if
children experience
high number of hours in
childcare
Discussion
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Overall results somewhat support the
hypothesis that genes moderate the
relationship between childcare
experiences and SR skills
Authors suggest other factors may be
influencing this relationship that were not
measured or hours in day care may
differentially effect children from different
income levels