Early Emotional Development Module 9 Chapter 13 PDF

Module 9 Chapter 13: Early Emotional Development Meta-representations: self-knowledge, the understanding that ‘this is me’. Similar to consciousness ○ Measured by observing whether infants and toddlers recognize themselves in the mirror ○ Emergence of self-knowledge alters old emotions and gives ris...

Module 9 Chapter 13: Early Emotional Development Meta-representations: self-knowledge, the understanding that ‘this is me’. Similar to consciousness ○ Measured by observing whether infants and toddlers recognize themselves in the mirror ○ Emergence of self-knowledge alters old emotions and gives rise to new ones basic/primary emotions: emotions that are most likely present in humans and other animals conscious/evaluative emotions: self-conscious emotions that require elaborate cognitions related to self-awareness ○ Charles Darwin was the first to make this distinction, believing the self was necessary for these later emotions to emerge ○ He believed they emerged around 3 yrs old ○ He said “blushing” was one measure of these emotions A Model of Emotional Development The majority of emotions emerge in the first 3 years Early or Primary Emotions First 6-8 months of life: primary emotions are present ○ Tri division of emotions: 1) general distress marked by crying and irritability, 2) pleasure marked by satiation, attention, and responsivity to the environment, and 3) interest in the environment ○ Pleasure and distress are two ends of the same spectrum, with interest as a separate dimension 3 months: joy emerges ○ Sighted and blind infants dont differ in smiling behaviour in the first 3 months ○ At first smiling is reflective. At 2 months its associated with pleasant things that the infants see or with being played with 0-2 months = reflective, 2-3 months = related to the emotion of joy and happiness 3 months: sadness emerges ○ Esp. around withdrawal or loss of desired objects/actions ○ Still-face paradigm 3 months: disgust emerges in its early form ○ Infants spit out unpleasant tasting or smelling objects when placed in their mouths ○ Defensive reaction; there is little hand-mouth or grasping coordination at this point. Important adaptive response 4-6 months: anger emerges ○ Seen when infants are frustrated, when their arms are pinned down and theyre prevented from moving ○ Can be seen in 2 month olds when a learned instrumental movement is blocked (ex. The pulling the string to turn on the screen experiment) ○ Anger is thought (from Darwin on) to be a set of facial and motor/body responses to overcome an obstacle This definition would imply means-end knowledge in as little as 2 months old 6-8 months, peak at 18 months: fearfulness emerges ○ Peaks as fearfulness at the approach of a stranger; stranger anxiety/fear Requires the infant to compare the approaching face to their internal representation or memory of faces ○ Infants must be capable of comparing the fearful event with some other event Cant emerge until a comparison ability appears 0-6 months: surprise emerges ○ Surprise can reflect insight, like surprise at finding out that an arm pull of a string results in a fun tv image ○ Seen in violation of expectation or “aha!’ moments Cognitive processes underlying early emotions consist of perceptual abilities (including discrimination and short-term memory), and are representative abilities of some sort ○ Likely that many species in the animal kingdom possess these cognitive abilities Rats show anger when a learned path to food is blocked Self-Consciousness Before consciousness emerges, infants may show a state of emotion but not EXPERIENCE it. They dont have the sense of self to perceive the internal state in themselves ○ Theres a dissociation between the emotional state and the the infant’s experience of that state ○ This can be seen in adults as well in certain situations before they come to focus the attention on how theyre actually feeling in a specific situation Self-reflexive behaviour: can be seen in the usage of verbs (ex. Washing oneself vs washing dishes, or knowledge of the self in addition to knowledge that another has knowledge of yourself) 15-24 months: infants touch their own nose during the mirror-rouge task ○ Development of personal pronouns emerges ○ Pretend play where the child pretends one thing is something else (a fork is a person), even though they know its not Self-Conscious Emotions Once consciousness emerges we see at least three new emotions: empathy, jealousy, and exposure embarrassment ○ Requires a sense of self ○ Only after infants were able to recognize themselves in mirrors could they show empathy both on their faces and in their actions Exposure embarrassment: embarrassment due to being seen or attended to by others; having the “spotlight” on them ○ Has to do more with embarrassment from exposure of self than evaluation ○ Doesnt require children to be able to evaluate their behaviour against some standard or rule theyve learned, but rather just requires an awareness of self Self-Conscious Evaluative Emotions Children have to absorb a set of standards, rules, and goals Have to have a sense of self Have to be able to evaluate self with those learned rules First, the child must decide who is responsible for the event ○ Internal attribution = blame on self ○ External attribution = no blame on self ○ Boys tend towards this Girls tend towards this Depends on the situation and the childs own characteristics ○ Inaccurate or unique evaluations might result from: early failures in the system, leading to narcissistic disorders, harsh socialization experiences, high levels of reward for success/punishment Then, child determines whether success/failure is global or specific ○ Global = attributed to the whole self rather than the behaviour The child might be unable to act or driven away from action if negative ○ Specific = attributed to specific actions rather than the whole self ○ This tendency may be a personality style Depressed people are likely to make stable, negative, global attributions, whereas non-depressed people vary in their attributions Shame and Guilt Psychologists now believe that shame is a more appropriate underlying emotion and motivator than guilt ○ Shame = a child judges their actions as a failure according to their standards and makes a global attribution Produced not by the event but by the child’s interpretation of the event Event can be public or private Painful, disrupts ongoing behvaiour, confusion in thought and an inability to speak, body shrinks and crumples up Multiple personality disorder = a person tries to create other selves to bear the shame Can be seen when shame is brought on by abuse or trauma ○ Guilt = arises from a specific attribution Not as intense as shame; usually has a corrective action the child can take to alleviate it Child might move in space vs being hunched over as if trying to repair the action Hubris An exaggerated sense of pride or self-confidence Success with regards to one’s standards is internally attributed to the whole self; global Difficult to sustain because of its globality, generated by a non-specific action Children prone to hubris may tire of the emotion and feel the need to alter their standards or re evaluate what success is Children prone to hubris may have interpersonal troubles and make other children feel shamed; they may be perceived as “puffed up” Pride Success with regards to ones standards is internally attributed to one action; specific Subject and object are separated, like guilt and unlike shame and hubris Pride’s specific focus allows for action, children are able to repeat actions to re-elicit the emotion Embarrassment Embarrassment is less intense than shame and doesnt involve disruption in action and language As a consequence of evaluation of one’s actions = evaluative embarrassment Ambivalent approach and avoidance posture observed ○ Looks at people then looks away, smiling sheepishly Failures associated with less important standards result in embarrassment rather than shame