1. A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development 6e
Chapter Ten:
Emotional Development
John W. Santrock

2. Exploring Emotion What are emotions?
Feeling or affect in a state or interaction characterized by
Behavior that reflects pleasure or displeasure
Conscious feelings: specific, intense
Physiological arousal

3. Exploring Emotion What are emotions?
Biological roots…but shaped by culture and relationships
Facial expressions of basic emotions
Biological nature; same across cultures
When, where, and how to express emotions are not culturally universal

4. Exploring Emotion Regulation of emotion A key dimension of development
Effectively managing arousal to adapt and reach a goal
Involves state of alertness or activation
States (e.g. anger) can be too high for effective functioning

5. Exploring Emotion Regulation of emotion
External sources regulate in infancy, childhood
Shift to internal, self-initiated regulation with increasing age
Better at managing situations
Selects more effective ways of coping
Wide variations in children’s abilities; adolescents have difficulty managing emotions

6. Exploring Emotion Regulation of emotion
Parents’ roles in helping children
Emotion-coaching approach
Monitor child’s emotions
Negative emotion is a coaching opportunity
Emotion-dismissing approach
Deny, ignore negative emotions
Linked to poor emotional regulation in child

7. Emotional Competence Skills
Has awareness of own emotional state
Detecting others’ emotions
Using the vocabulary of emotional terms in socially and culturally appropriate terms
Having empathic, sympathetic sensitivity to others
Recognizing inner emotions do not reflect outer ones
Adaptively coping with negatives; self-regulatory
Aware of emotions’ major impact on relationships
Seeing oneself as feeling the way one wants to feel

8. Development of Emotion
Infancy
Primary emotions
Present in humans and animals
Humans: appears in first six months of life: surprise, joy, anger, sadness, fear, and disgust
Self-conscious emotions
Self-awareness; emerges at 18 mos. or earlier
Empathy, jealousy, and embarrassment

9. Development of Emotion
Emotional expression and social relationships
Infants: Two types
Crying – Most important for communication
Basic cry: Rhythmic pattern
Anger cry: Variation of basic cry
Pain cry: Long, sudden initial loud cry
Smiling: has powerful impact on caregivers
Reflexive smile: Innate origins
Social smile: Response to external stimuli

10. Development of Emotion
Emotional expression and social relationships
Fear: First appears about 6 mos.; peaks at 18 mos.
Stranger anxiety: Fear and wariness of strangers; intense between 9 and 12 mos.
Affected by social context, stranger’s characteristics
Individual variations
Separation protest — Crying when caregiver leaves; peaks about 15 months of age

11. Figure 10.4 - Separation Protest in Four Cultures

12. Development of Emotion
Emotional regulation and coping
Infants use self-soothing strategies for coping
Controversy: how caregivers should respond
By age 2: language allows defining of emotions
Contexts influence emotional regulation

13. Development of Emotion
Early childhood
Young children experience many emotions
Self-conscious emotions
Pride, shame, embarrassment, and guilt
First appear about age 18 months
Ability to reflect on emotions increases with age

14. Development of Emotion
Early childhood
Ages 2 to 4: increased number of ways and terms to describe emotions
Learn about causes, consequences of feelings
Ages 4 to 5: increased ability to reflect on emotions
Middle and late childhood
Marked improvement in understanding, managing emotions

15. Developmental Changes In Emotions During Middle and Late Childhood
Improved emotional understanding
Marked improvements in ability to suppress or conceal negative emotional reactions
Use of self-initiated strategies for redirecting feelings
Increased tendency to take into fuller account the events leading to emotional reactions
Development of a capacity for genuine empathy

16. Development of Emotion
Coping with stress
Older children have more coping alternatives and use more cognitive coping strategies
Intentional shifting of thoughts
By age 10, most use cognitive strategies
Unsupportive families, traumatic events may lessen abilities

17. Development of Emotion
Middle and late childhood
Recommendations for helping children cope
Reassure children of safety and security
Allow retelling and discussion of events
Encourage discussion of feelings
Help children make sense of events

18. Development of Emotion
Adolescence
Time of emotional turmoil (“storm and stress”) but not constantly
Emotional changes instantly occur with little provocation
Girls more vulnerable to depression
Adolescent moodiness is normal
Hormonal changes and environmental experiences involved in changing emotions

19. Figure 10.5 - Self-Reported Extremes of Emotions by Adolescents and Their Parents

20. Development of Emotion
Adulthood and aging
Adapt more effectively when emotionally intelligent
Developmental changes in emotion continue through adult years
Older adults have more positive emotions, report better control of emotions
Feelings mellow; fewer highs and lows
Positive connections with friends and family

21. Figure 10.6 - Changes in Positive & Negative Emotion Across the Adult Years

22. Development of Emotion
Adulthood and aging
Socioemotional Selectivity Theory
Older adults become more selective about their social networks
Emotional satisfaction is highly valued, positive emotional experiences maximized
More frequent association with neighbors
More motivated to achieve; gain knowledge

23. Figure 10.7 - Model of Socio-emotional Selectivity

24. Temperament Temperament Describing and classifying temperament
Tendencies reflecting behavioral style and characteristic way of responding
Describing and classifying temperament
Chess and Thomas: three basic types
Easy child — generally positive mood
Difficult child — negative reactions, cries often
Slow-to-warm — low intensity mood and activity levels; somewhat negative

25. Temperament Describing and classifying temperament
Kagan’s behavioral inhibition
Inhibition to unfamiliar
Shy/avoidance, subdued, timid child
Extremely uninhibited
Extraverted, social, bold child
Inhibition shows considerable stability from infancy through early childhood

26. Temperament Describing and classifying temperament
Rothbart and Bates’ Classification
Extraversion/surgency
Positive anticipation, impulsivity
Negative affectivity
Easily distressed, fear and frustration often
Effortful control (self-regulation)
Attentional focusing, more cognition used

27. Temperament Biological Foundations and Experience
Physiological characteristics are associated with different temperaments
Heredity is aspect of temperament’s biological foundations (twin and adoption studies)
Attributes become more stable over time as self-perceptions, behavioral preferences, and social experiences form personality

28. Developmental Connections
Child
Adult
Easy temperament
Usually well adjusted in life
Difficult temperament
Poor adjustment, more likely to have problems socially, in school and marriage
Inhibition
Low assertiveness, less social support, job and school delays
Good emotional control

29. Temperament Developmental contexts
Gender may be important factor that influences fate of temperament
Many aspects of child’s environment encourage or discourage persistence of temperament characteristics
Goodness of Fit
Match between child’s temperament and environmental demands

30. Temperament Goodness of fit and parenting
Some temperament characteristics pose more challenges than others
Management strategies that worked for one child may not work for next one
Be sensitive to individual characteristics of child
Structure environment to be as good a fit as possible
Avoid labeling as “difficult child”

31. Attachment and Love Attachment Social orientation in infants
Close emotional bond between two people
Social orientation in infants
Face-to-face play: infant-caregiver interactions
Still-face paradigm: shows infants react differently to people than objects
Ages 1 to 2: more locomotion, social play with peers, independence, goal-directed motivation

32. Attachment and Love Social referencing
Child reads emotional cues in others, reacts
By second year of age: much better at this
Social sophistication and insight reflected in infant’s perceptions of others
Advanced social cognitive skills are expected to influence attachment awareness

33. Attachment and Love Theories of attachment
Freud: infants attach to person or object providing oral satisfaction
Harlow’s study proved otherwise
Erikson: first year of life is critical time for attachment development
Sense of trust or mistrust sets later expectations
Physical comfort plays a role in development

34. Attachment and Love Theories of attachment
Bowlby: stresses importance of attachment in first year and responsiveness of caregiver
Develops in series of phases
Phase 1: birth to 2 months
Phase 2: 2 to 7 months of age
Phase 3: 7 to 24 months of age
Phase 4: 24 months and older

35. Attachment and Love Individual differences in attachment
Ainsworth and the “strange situation”
Measure of infant attachment to caregiver
Requires infant to move through a series of introductions, separations, and reunions
Securely attached or insecure
Criticisms:
May not reflect real world behavior
Culturally-biased to Western children

36. Ainsworth’s Attachment Categories
Securely attached
Caregiver is secure base to explore environment from
Insecure avoidant
Shows insecurity by avoiding caregiver
Insecure resistant
Clings to caregiver, then resists by fighting against the closeness
Insecure disorganized
Shows insecurity by being disorganized, disoriented

37. Figure 10.11 - Cross-Cultural Comparison of Attachment

38. Attachment and Love Interpreting differences in attachment
Secure attachment important in first year; provides foundation for healthy development
Some developmentalists believe too much emphasis on attachment bond in infancy
Ignores the diversity of socializing agents and contexts that exists in an infant’s world
Ignores highly resilient and adaptive infants

39. Caregiving Styles and Attachment
Baby’s Attachment
Caregiver Behavior
Secure
Sensitive to signals, available
Avoidant
Unavailable or rejecting
Resistant
Inconsistent
Disorganized
Neglect or physically abuse

40. Attachment and Love Mothers and fathers as caregivers
Dramatic increase in stay-at-home fathers
Many have career-focused wives
Fathers have ability to nurture, be as sensitive and responsive as mothers
Maternal interactions: mostly child-care centered
Paternal interactions: more likely to include play, engage in rough-and-tumble acts

41. Attachment and Love Child care
Most U.S. children have multiple caregivers
Parental concerns: reduced emotional attachment to parents, harm to cognitive development, improper socialization
About 2 million children currently receive formal, licensed child care
Types of child care vary extensively in United States

42. Attachment and Love Parental leave
Far more extensive in other countries than United States
Europe led the way: paid fourteen-week maternity leave
Most countries: restrictions as to minimal employment period before leave taken
In the United States: twelve weeks unpaid leave to care for newborns

43. Attachment and Love Parental leave In most European countries:
Working parents get 70% or more of wages and paid leave averages 16 weeks
Gender-equality family leave policies in Nordic countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden)
Sweden: most liberal of all — 18 month leave with benefits for full and part-time workers

44. Attachment and Love Five types of parental leave from work
Maternity leave: before and after birth
Paternity leave: more important if second child born
Parental leave: allows either parent
Child-rearing leave: supplements maternity leave but typically paid at much lower level
Family leave: covers reasons other than birth
United States does not have paid leave policy

45. Attachment and Love Variations in child care
Many factors affect child care:
Age of child
Type of child care
Quality of program — this makes a difference
Number of hours per week the child is in care
High quality may not erase negative effects
SES or families with few resources

46. Attachment and Love Variations in child care
Ongoing national study in U.S. (NICHD)
Patterns of use: infants being placed sooner
Quality of care: lower for low-income families
Amount of child care: extensive time lessened attachment sensitivity to mother, more behavioral issues
Family and parenting influences are important

47. Attachment and Love Variations in child care
Child care strategies for parents
Quality of parenting is key to child development
Make decisions that enhance good parenting
Monitor child’s development
Take time to find the best child care

48. Attachment and Love Adolescence
Secure attachment to both parents positively related to peer and friendship relations
Types of attachment to parents
Dismissing/avoidant: caregiver rejection
Preoccupied/ambivalent: inconsistent parenting
Unresolved/disorganized: high fear due to traumatic experiences

49. Attachment and Love Adolescence Dating and romantic relationships
Spend lots of time dating or thinking about it
Form of recreation
Source of status or achievement
A way to learn about close relationships
Function for mate selection

50. Attachment and Love Adolescence Dating and romantic relationships
Younger adolescents getting involved
Comfort in numbers; youth “hang out” in groups
More time in mixed-gender peer groups
Dating involvement linked to later adjustment
Sociocultural contexts influences dating and role expectations

51. Attachment and Love Adulthood and attachment
Adults count on romantic partners to be a secure base to which they can return and obtain comfort, security in stressful times
Childhood attachment patterns can impact here
Influences choices and behaviors
Secure, avoidant, anxious attachments
Other factors like communication can impact

52. Attachment and Love Adulthood and romantic love
Also called passionate love or eros
Strong components of sexuality and infatuation
Complex intermingling of emotions
Often predominates early part of love relationship
Affectionate love or companionate love
Have deep, caring affection for person

53. Attachment and Love Adulthood Sternberg’s triangular theory of love
Stresses three main components/dimensions
Passion: physical, sexual attraction
Intimacy: warmth, closeness, and sharing
Commitment: intent to remain together
Varying combinations create qualitatively different types of love

54. Figure 10.15 - Sternberg’s Triangle of Love

55. Attachment and Love Adulthood Falling out of love
Collapse of close relationship
Tragic feelings initially
Over time — happiness and personal development may benefit
One-sided relationships are harmful

56. The End