Emotional Development
&
Temperament
Modules 9-2 & 9-3
Emotional Development
 Basic
emotions are universal
 They
include happiness, fear, anger,
surprise, sadness, disgust, interest, etc.
 Facial
expressions (also universal) are the
most reliable cues
What is an emotion?
 Emotions
are responses, including
physiological responses
 Sense
or experience of feeling
 Leads
to expression, behavior; can be a
motive
 Related
to thoughts and beliefs as well as
immediate experience
Functionalist view of Emotion
 What
is their purpose?
 Emotions are means of communicating
and play a role in relationships.
 They are also linked to an individual’s
goals and motivation toward progress and
overcoming obstacles.
 Subjective evaluation of good and bad;
comparable to pain in the physical realm
Emotional Competence - Sarnii

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Awareness of emotional state
Detecting other’s emotions
Using emotional vocabulary appropriately
Empathy and sympathy
Realizing that inner emotional states do not
always correspond to expression
Awareness that emotional expression plays a
large role in relationships
Adaptively coping with negative emotions
What is emotional intelligence (EQ)?
 Gardners
“interpersonal intelligence”
 Salovey & Mayer (1990): ability to
perceive and express emotion accurately

MSCEIT (2002) Mayer-Salovey-Caruso
Emotional Intelligence Test
 Daniel
Goleman (1995) Published a book,
“Emotional Intelligence”
What is emotional intelligence (EQ)?
Salovey & Mayer (1990): ability to perceive
and express emotion accurately, including:
taking perspective
understanding the roles of emotion in
relationships
using feelings to facilitate thought
managing emotions such as anger
Emotions Gone Awry
.
. . Are the basis for some mental
disorders.
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Clinical depression
Bipolar disorder
Anxiety disorders
Intermittent explosive disorder
Antisocial personality disorder
Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory of
Infant & Toddler Personality
 Basic


Trust vs. Mistrust
1st year of life
Quality of the caregiver’s behavior
 Autonomy


vs. Shame & Doubt
2nd year of life
Reasonable expectations for impulse
control
Emotional Development in Infancy
 Primary



emotions
Emerge early in life (first year)
Are culturally universal
Include
• Surprise
• Joy
• Anger
Sadness
Fear
Disgust
Emotional Milestones
Birth
2-3 mos.
3-4 mos.
6-8 mos.
8-12 mos.
18-30 mos.
attraction & withdrawal
Social smile, respond to
facial expression
Laugh at active stimuli
Anger, fear, attachment
Social referencing
Self-conscious emotions
(shame, guilt, pride)
Fear
in the 2nd half of the 1st year
 Intensifies & remains until 18+ months
 Stranger anxiety is the most frequent
expression of fear
 Appears

Stranger & situational characteristics
 Separation
protest also appears
 Partially depends upon temperament
and experiences
Anger
 Appears
about 6-8 months
 Generalized
distress is present in
young infants
 Anger
in older babies may be in
response to frustration
Social Referencing
 Reading
others’ emotional cues to
determine how to respond to a situation
 Infants
become better at this in the second
year of life
 We
still do this as adults, e.g., panic, riots,
looting, helping behavior
Regulation of Emotions
 Key
dimension of development
 Ability increases with age & development
 Shifts from external to internal in infancy
 Individuals develop strategies for this
 With age children develop greater capacity
to:
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Modulate arousal
Select & manage situations
Finding effective ways to cope with stress
Emotional Self-Regulation

Strategies used to adjust one’s own
emotional state to a comfortable level

Young infants turn away, suck, are easily
overwhelmed

Ability to self-regulate increases with brain
development, experience, ability to shift
attention and to move

Older infants distract themselves, leave the
situation
Emotions and the Self
 Self-conscious




emotions:
Do not appear in animals
May not be universal
Require self-awareness
Emerge later (1 ½ - 2 ½ years)
Self-conscious Emotions

Include empathy, embarrassment, envy,
pride, shame, guilt

Involve injury to or enhancement of the
sense of self

Appear as the sense of self emerges

Require adult instruction in when to feel
proud, ashamed or guilty
Self-conscious Emotions
 Shame,



pride & guilt
Pride most often occurs in response to
successful achievement
Shame is a global response to a threat to the
self, also other-directed; reflects inability
Guilt is in response to specific failure, reflects
culpability
 These
emotions serve to regulate the
child’s behavior
Emotional Development
Self-conscious emotions
 By
age 3, these are clearly linked to selfevaluation
 Parents
should give feedback about
performance, not the worth of the child.
This causes intense self-conscious
emotional experience.
Self-conscious emotions
 Beginning
in early childhood, shame is
associated with feelings of personal
inadequacy, withdrawal and depression,
anger and aggression.

Underuse shame in our culture
 Guilt
is related to good adjustment.
 Reasons
for guilt or shame must be
considered.
Emotional Development – Ages 2-4

Emotional vocabulary expands rapidly

Come to understand causes, consequences,
and behavioral signs of emotion

Emphasize external factors

Can predict what people will do based on
emotion
Emotional Development – Ages 2-4

Small children do not deal well with conflicting
cues (mixed emotions).

Securely attached children are advanced in
emotional understanding.

Emotionally negative children experience more
peer rejection.
Maternal Depression & Child Development

Babies of depressed mothers are irritable
and have attachment difficulties

They sometimes withdraw into depression, or
imitate parental anger

They can become impulsive & antisocial

They develop a negative world view, lack
self-confidence, & perceive others as
threatening
Middle & Late Childhood

Increasing

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awareness of the need for emotional management
ability to understand complex emotions
tendency to take events, situation into account

Improved ability to conceal negative emotions

Use self-directed strategies to redirect feelings:
distractions, denial, redirection
Gender Differences – Emotional
Expression
 Elementary


School
Boys hide emotions like sadness more
Girls hide disappointment
 Adolescence


Girls feel more sadness, shame, guilt
Boys deny their emotions
Adolescence
 Moodiness
and extreme, but fleeting
emotions
 5th
to 9th grade, 50% decrease in being
“very happy”
 Environmental
circumstances may be
more important than hormones to this
process
Emotions in Adulthood

Older adults report:

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Fewer negative emotions
Better emotional control
More positive emotions

More selective social relationships

May have to do with the passage of time
Temperament


Stable individual differences in quality and
intensity of emotional reaction, activity level,
attention, and emotional self-regulation
New York Longitudinal Study (1956), Thomas &
Chess, most comprehensive study of
temperament to date
• 141 children followed from infancy into adulthood
Temperament

NYLS findings

Temperament is related to whether a person
will experience psychological problems

Parenting practices can modify children’s
emotional styles considerably
Temperament - Dimensions
 Activity
level
 Rhythmicity
 Distractibility
 Approach/withdrawal
 Adaptability
 Attention span/persistence
 Intensity of reaction
 Threshold of responsiveness
 Quality of mood
Temperament - Types

Easy (40%) – quickly establish regular
routines, generally cheerful, adapts well to
new experiences

Difficult (10%) – irregular, slow to accept new
experiences, reacts negatively and intensely

Slow-to-warm-up (15%) – mild reactions,
adjusts slowly to new experience
• (35% not classified)
Measuring Temperament
 Parental



interviews or questionnaires.
Convenient
Depth of knowledge
Biased & subjective
 Behavior
ratings by pediatricians,
teachers, and others

Observation
Is Temperament Biological?

It is often believed to be biological.

Identical twins have more similar temperaments
than fraternal ones.

There are consistent ethnic and sex differences.

These may be explained by parenting
differences as well as genetic differences.
Is Temperament Biological?
 However,
it only has low to moderate
stability from one developmental period
to the next.
 Temperament
 It
develops with age.
can be modified by experiences, but
not from one extreme to the other.
Temperament: Continuity with Adulthood
 Easy
babies well adjusted in early
adulthood
 Difficult babies have social problems


Men – less education
Women – marital problems
 Patterns
of inhibition & emotional control
also appear to persist
Temperament & Goodness-of-Fit

Creation of child-rearing environments that recognize
temperament and encourage adaptive functioning.

Difficult children are at risk for adjustment problems because
they withdraw and react negatively.

Western parents tend to resort to angry, punitive discipline.
The child responds with defiance/disobedience. Parents
give in and model inconsistency.
Kagan’s Behavioral Inhibition

Shy, subdued, timid child
 Vs.
 Sociable, bold, extraverted child

Inhibition to the unfamiliar

Begins about 7-9 months of age

Shyness is considered a negative in
American culture (social anxiety).
Biological Inhibition Pattern
 High,
stable heartrate
 High
cortisol levels
 High
activity in right frontal lobes