PS 214: Emotional and Social Development (II) PDF

Esther Mercado Garrido [email protected] With growing maturity, emotions become more internally managed in increasingly sophisticated ways Consider the following developmental sequence: Newborn infant may cry uncontrollably Toddler will seek reassurance from others...

Esther Mercado Garrido [email protected] With growing maturity, emotions become more internally managed in increasingly sophisticated ways Consider the following developmental sequence: Newborn infant may cry uncontrollably Toddler will seek reassurance from others Preschooler may talk about feelings and their causes School-age child can redirect attention, reconceptualise situation and use other purposeful strategies to manage feelings Adolescent can use personally effective means of regulating emotions (e.g., music) Adult can alter schedules, responsibilities and even relationships to change emotional demands  Emotional self-regulation refers to the strategies we use to adjust our emotional state to a comfortable level of intensity so we can accomplish our goals Earliest forms of emotion regulation – efforts of caregivers to manage emotions of young children – Intervening directly on child’s emotions (e.g., soothing, pacifying) – Regulating emotional demands of environment (e.g., noise level, temperature) – Altering child’s construal of emotionally arousing situations (e.g., acting enthusiastically in novel settings) – Coaching child on expectations and strategies for emotional management (e.g., a kiss to make it better) Opportunities to learn about emotion through everyday conversations with adults Parents elaborate, inquire, interpret and clarify the emotional talk and reactions of their children during interactions Socialise emotional knowledge by conveying expectations about appropriate emotional behaviour, causes and consequences of display Norms and expectations concerning emotion explicitly communicated to children in this way Messages conveyed depend to some degree on: Cultural context Personal attributes of child (especially gender)  Fivush (1994, 1998) – parents’ lessons about emotion differ based on child’s gender – With girls, parents tend to: Discuss more sadness than anger Attribute emotions to social-relational causes Resolve negative emotions through reassurance and reconciliation – With boys, parents tend to: Discuss anger more often than sadness Attribute emotions to autonomous causes Discuss negative emotions less frequently  Cultural beliefs may lead to differences in understanding of antecedent causes and appropriateness of responses to situations Parents influenced by cultural climate – e.g., in conversations about past events, US mothers with 3-year-olds referred to child’s thoughts and feelings twice as often as Korean mothers (Mullen & Yi, 1995) Culture influences whether shame or anger should be revealed (Cole & Tamang, 1998) Display rules-social rules for display of emotion Emotions are not just internal experiences with outward expression – profoundly influenced by social contexts in which they occur Impossible to conceptualise emotional development without reference to social conditions that add meaning to our emotional behaviour Most important feature of social context = close relationships with others Parent-child relationships provide emotional context during early years Shape child’s expectations of support and sensitivity (or lack thereof)  Still face experiment” (Ed Tronick) After a few minutes of normal interaction, the mother poses a neutral or ‘still face’ and stops responding to the baby Implications for maternal mental health problems and the impact on infant development In the still face procedure, infants of depressed mothers do not react the same- they avert their gaze, do not fuss or protest They have learned over time to disengage from stressful, unresponsive interactions