Psych 324 Chapter 8- Emotional Development PDF

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Chapter 8: Emotional Development The development of emotions over the course of a lifespan Infancy: Crying Distress: Newborns’ undifferentiated protest against anything unpleasant or threatening Crying typically reflects physical pain, discomfort, or response to unexpected loud noise Contagious crying: Crying in response to other newborn cries; decreases within a few months Infancy: Smiling and Laughing • •

Similarly, smiling in newborns typically reflects pleasure (e.g., taste), physical comfort; common during REM sleep Social smiling: Smiling in response to seeing another person smile; begins around 2 months of age

Infancy: Responses to Danger  

Moro Reflex: A sequence in which the infant flings out its arms and spreads its fingers and then contracts quickly into a fetal position with fingers bent Displayed when infant hears a loud noise, seeing a figure moving quickly toward it, feeling like it’s being dropped

Do Infants Display Discrete Emotions? •

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Oster, Hegley, & Nagel (1992) – Participants viewed photos of babies (< 7 months old) expressing emotions, tried to guess emotion – Joy and surprise expressions labeled correctly by > 70% of participants; for negative emotions, accuracy rarely better than chance Camras et al. (2007) – 11 month old infant emotions elicited experimentally by controlled tasks in lab (anger - arm restraint; fear – gorilla mask) – Resulting expressions not clearly differentiated

Do Infants Experience Surprise? Wakeley, Rivera, & Langer (2000)  Participants: 5 month old infants  Procedure: Infant sees two dolls; dolls covered by screen; a hand clearly removed one doll; screen removed to show either one (expected) or two (impossible) dolls

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Results: Infants look longer at “impossible” event, but do not show recognizable surprise expression

When Does Anger Develop? Sternberg & Campos (1990) Participants: 1-, 4-, and 7-month old infants Procedure: Arm restraint by experimenter Results: – 1 months: Brows lowered, cheeks raised in expression somewhat distinct from distress – 4 months: Some anger expression; infant looks at arm being restrained – 7 months: More prototypical anger expression; infant looks at experimenter, or mother Implications: Anger develops from undirected frustration to anger directed at experimenter as infant develops ability to understand situation How do Emotions Develop? – Physical Maturation: Age brings increased sensory and motor capacities that introduce new emotion-eliciting situations – Cognitive Maturation: Ability to cognitively interpret, appraise events develops over time o Example: Sense of self develops around 18-24 months, followed soon by self-conscious emotions – Social Interaction: Infants and children learn about emotions from the social environment...