24th November 2023

Emotional Development

Emotions and Emotional Regulation

Emotions

Darwin had done early research on emotions and suggested they have been developed with adaptive purpose to signal and communicate vital information to others, ex: perceived threat.

Universal emotions

Paul Ekman identified 6 basic universal emotions – Surprise, fear, sadness, anger, happiness and disgust. He suggested that some of the facial expressions could be recognised across various cultures and hence are universal, innate and ready-wired responses. The physiological changes associated with them help to adapt and survive.

Primary emotions

Robert Plutchik suggested that the wheel of emotions has 8 primary emotions with 4 opposing pairs. A combination of these emotions help to cause distinct emotions. Hence, a variety of emotions can be created based on the combination of these primary emotions, similar to the mixing of primary colours. He agreed that they were biologically determined and were adaptive for survival.

For example, anticipation and happiness → excitement. Disgust and anger → contempt.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons (2023). Plutchik-wheel, Licensed under a creative commons licence. Available for free at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plutchik-wheel.svg (Accessed on: 18 October 2023).

However, there were criticisms that all emotions are not biologically hard wired, but also dependent on social constructs and nurture.

Positive and negative emotions

Emotions can be positive or negative, and they can be either constructive or destructive in nature.

Positive emotions are emotions that we typically find pleasurable to experience. The Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology defines them as ‘pleasant or desirable situational responses… distinct from pleasurable sensation and undifferentiated positive affect’.

For example – Interest, enthusiasm, empathy, cheer, peace, and trust.

Negative emotions are those that we typically do not find pleasurable to experience. Negative emotions can be defined as ‘unpleasant or unhappy emotions which are evoked in individuals to express a negative effect towards an event or person’.

For example – Grief, unhappiness, hatred, anger, worry, jealousy.

Emotional brain

Emotional development is built into multiple areas of the brain. Paul Maclean proposed the ‘triune brain model’. He suggested that the limbic system is mainly linked with the regulation of emotional response and referred to it as the ‘emotional brain’ or the paleomammalian brain. The brain structures linked with it are amygdala, hippocampus, parahippocampal cortex, cingulate gyrus, hypothalamus, and ventral striatum/nucleus accumbens. One of the important roles of this brain is to distinguish between the good and the bad in the environment. This is also involved with the reward circuit, where dopamine is released following a pleasurable experience, thereby reinforcing it. 

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons (2007). Triune brain, Licensed under a creative commons licence. Available for free at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Triune_brain.png (Accessed on: 18 October 2023).

Emotional regulation

One of the important features of emotional development is the ability to develop emotional literacy. Emotional literacy is used to describe one’s ability to understand and express feelings. It involves self-awareness of one’s feelings and knowing how to cope and regulate emotions and behaviour. The core features of emotional development are the ability to identify and understand one’s own feelings, to understand the emotional states of others, to manage and regulate strong emotions and behaviours in a constructive manner, to develop empathy for others and to establish and sustain relationships. Emotional development is due to both maturation and social learning. 

Emotion regulation (ER) can be defined as one’s attempts to monitor and modulate their emotional experience (Gross and Thompson, 2007).

Emotion regulation is developed in the infancy and preschool period, influencing the life course in multiple domains: close friendships, the ability to sustain partner relationships, educational achievement, and occupational success. Thus, one of the central skills in managing close relationships, parenting children, and appropriately dealing with workforce demands is the ability to modulate emotional reactivity. 

References

• National Scientific Council on the Developing Child (2004). Children’s Emotional Development Is Built into the Architecture of Their Brains: Working Paper No. 2.
• Casey BJ, Heller AS, Gee DG, Cohen AO. Development of the emotional brain. Neurosci Lett. 2019 Feb 6;693:29-34. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2017.11.055. Epub 2017 Dec 5. PMID: 29197573; PMCID: PMC5984129.
• Cohn, M. A., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2009). Positive emotions. In S. J. Lopez and C. R. Snyder (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology (2nd ed.).
• Pam, M. S. (2013). Negative emotion. Psychology Dictionary. Available online at https://psychologydictionary.org/negative-emotion/ [Accessed April 2023]
• Bernard J. Baars, Nicole M. Gage, Chapter 13 – Emotion, Editor(s): Bernard J. Baars, Nicole M. Gage, Cognition, Brain, and Consciousness (Second Edition), Academic Press, 2010, Pages 420-442, ISBN 9780123750709, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-375070-9.00013-9.
• R.V. Rial, M.C. Nicolau, A. Gamundí, M. Akaârir, C. Garau, S. Esteban, Chapter 3 – The Evolution of Consciousness in Animals, Editor(s): Hans Liljenström, Peter Århem, Consciousness Transitions, Elsevier Science B.V., 2007, Pages 45-76, ISBN 9780444529770, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-044452977-0/50004-8.
• Susan W. White, Caitlin M. Conner, Brenna B. Maddox, Chapter 9 – Behavioral Treatments for Anxiety in Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Editor(s): Connor M. Kerns, Patricia Renno, Eric A. Storch, Philip C. Kendall, Jeffrey J. Wood, Anxiety in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Academic Press, 2017, Pages 171-192.
• Barbara Fallon, Jennifer Jenkins, Suzanne Conklin Akbari, N. Joh-Carnella, Abuse, Neglect, and Maltreatment of Infants, Editor(s): Janette B. Benson, Encyclopedia of Infant and Early Childhood Development (Second Edition), Elsevier, 2020, Pages 1-11.
• Johannson C. (2021). Emotion learning module. Trainees Online. RCPsych. Available online at: https://elearninghub.rcpsych.ac.uk/product?catalog=50_TRON_Emotion [Accessed April 2023]

Emotional Development

Infancy

Infants have limited emotional regulation, shown by gaze aversion and vocalising (Rothbart et al., 1991; Stifter, 2002.) Around 1 year of age, children develop the ability to unconsciously regulate their emotions. The emotional experiences of newborns and young infants occur most commonly during periods of interaction with a caregiver (such as feeding, comforting, and holding). Infants experience distress when they experience discomfort, like being hungry, cold, or wet, while experiencing positive emotions when comforted, fed or soothed. The links between positive emotions with sensitive caregiving gets strengthened in both behaviour and brain architecture. Hence, the availability of sensitive caregiving helps infants to regulate their emotions.

Childhood

The following information is repurposed from the Edward Zigler Master Lecture ‘Promoting Emotion Regulation In Young Children at Risk For Classroom Behaviour Problems by Pamela M Cole – June 2010. This resource is referenced below and is a valuable source of information and further reading on emotional development in childhood if you are interested!

– Infants have limited emotional regulation ability – Gaze aversion and vocalising (Rothbart et al., 1991; Stifter, 2002).

– Toddlers have more strategies than infants, but effectiveness is still limited (Rothbart et al., 1991; Buss & Goldsmith, 1998).

– Between 2 and 5 years, self-regulation of emotion develops significantly (Calkins, 2007; Kopp, 1989).

– Children exposed to maltreatment, parental psychopathology, unresolved marital conflict, & other stresses do not learn to regulate emotion as well and can often be labelled ‘hard to manage’ (Blandon et al., 2008; Cicchetti & Shields, 2001; Cummings, 2010; Pollak, 2009).

– Age 3 to 4 year olds who are ‘hard to manage’ are one main cause of preschool expulsion (Bryant & White, 2009; Gilliam, 2005).

– Aged 4 to 5 years old, typically developing children tolerate ordinary, brief frustrations and handle minor disappointments (Cole, 1986; Cole et al., 2003; Gilliom et al., 2002).

– Emotional regulation problems at preschool age predict current & continued behaviour problems (Cole et al. 2003; Gilliom et al., 2002).

In a detailed longitudinal study, the Development of Toddlers Study (D.O.T.S.), 120 children from economically strained households in rural Pennsylvania were followed from 18 to 48 months of age. They focused on how emotional regulation changes over time by observing in-home, in spontaneous situations and at a child study centre – Standardised situations at 4 time points (18, 30, 36, 42 months). The findings from the study were as follows:

18 months
– Quick to express anger.

– Slow to distract themselves.

– Might try to distract themselves but only succeed briefly.

30 – 36 months

– Quickly seek support from mother (through words, not tantrums).

– Somewhat quicker to distract.

– Anger was briefer, distractions longer.

42 – 48 months

– Quickly & briefly sought support from mother (through words, not tantrums).

– Quickly distract themselves.

The study concluded that efforts should be focussed on providing developing toddlers with skills to help them:

– Forestall anger.

– Distract themselves.

– Communicate anger using words rather than actions.

–Independently shift their attention away from the source of frustration.

References

• National Scientific Council on the Developing Child (2004). Children’s Emotional Development Is Built into the Architecture of Their Brains: Working Paper No. 2.
• Edward Zigler Master Lecture ‘Promoting Emotion Regulation In Young Children at Risk For Classroom Behaviour Problems by Pamela M Cole – June 2010. Available online at: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/opre/cole.pdf [Accessed April 2023]

Possible Etiological and Maintenance Mechanisms

Some of the previous research gives us an idea for the different mechanisms that might play a role in emotional development and the role between the caregiver and the child.

Imprinting

Imprinting is a special form of learning that occurs in a critical or sensitive period. Konrad Lorenz investigated the mechanisms of imprinting, where some species of animals form an attachment to the first large moving object that they meet.

He took a large clutch of goose eggs and kept them until they were about to hatch out. Half of the eggs were then placed under a goose mother, while Lorenz kept the other half hatched in an incubator, with Lorenz making sure he was the first moving object the newly hatched goslings encountered. When the geese hatched, Lorenz imitated a mother duck’s quacking sound, upon which the young birds regarded him as their mother and followed him accordingly. The other group followed the mother goose. This imprinting process suggests that attachment is innate and programmed genetically.

Attachment

Bowlby’s attachment theory

John Bowlby suggested attachment as a lasting psychological connectedness between human beings. Attachment theory by Bowlby provides us with an understanding of the emotional bond that forms between the infant and their primary caregiver and their influences on their future relationships.

Children who maintain close relationships with their caregivers are more likely to receive comfort and protection, thereby increasing their survival abilities. This suggests attachment is essentially innate and adaptive, which means that every infant is born with a natural tendency to form an attachment with their caregivers as it helps with their survival and hence has an evolutionary advantage. This also influences their attachment abilities in their future relationships.

Stages of attachment

The 4 stages of attachment are:

Pre-attachment phase (Birth to 6 weeks) – In this stage, the baby recognises their mother but hasn’t formed an attachment to the mother and is not afraid of strangers.

Attachment in making phase (6 weeks to 6 / 8 months) – In this stage, the infant responds positively to a familiar caregiver and forms a sense of trust. They don’t protest when separated from their caregiver. 

Clear-cut attachment phase (6 / 8 months – 18 / 24 months) – In this stage, the infant shows preferential attachment to their primary caregiver and shows distress when separated.

Formation of reciprocal making phase (18 / 24 months onwards) – In this stage, the infant is able to understand that caregivers will return. They become less dependent on their caregiver. 

Ainsworth’s strange situation experiment

Mary Ainsworth’s strange situation experiment also threw light into the ways in which emotions and attachment develop in infants. The experiment had 8 pre-determined situations with 2 separation and 2 reunion episodes in the presence or absence of their mother and a stranger. It measured how a child responds to separations and reunions with the parent by their ability and willingness to explore, separation anxiety, stranger anxiety and their reunion behaviour.

The attachment styles identified were insecure avoidant (type A), secure (type B), and insecure ambivalent/resistant (type C). It was concluded that they were formed by the earlier interactions with their mother.

References

• Lorenz, K. (1935). Der Kumpan in der Umwelt des Vogels. Der Artgenosse als auslösendes Moment sozialer Verhaltensweisen. Journal für Ornithologie 83, 137–215.
• Bowlby, J. (1988). Attachment, communication, and the therapeutic process. A secure base: Parent-child attachment and healthy human development, 137-157.
• Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment. Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Loss. New York: Basic Books.
• Bowlby J. Attachment and loss: Retrospect and prospect. Am J Orthopsychiatry. 1982;52(4):664-678. doi:10.1111/j.1939-0025.1982.tb01456
• Mary D. Salter Ainsworth, & Bell, S. M. (1970). Attachment, Exploration, and Separation: Illustrated by the Behavior of One-Year-Olds in a Strange Situation. Child Development, 41(1), 49–67. https://doi.org/10.2307/1127388

Imaginary Companions and Developmental Fears

Imaginary companions

According to Gleason (2017), imaginary companions are characters, sometimes invisible and sometimes embodied in an object such as a stuffed animal or doll, which is animated by a child and treated as real. Up to 65% of children have an imaginary companion at some point prior to the age of 7. Playing with an imaginary companion helps with emotional development as they help the children to practise skills that might be useful in the future for their social, relational and emotional functioning by providing them with a safe space to experience positive and negative emotions.

Developmental fears

Developmental fears are developed as a part of normal childhood. Fear and anxiety during childhood are developed as an adaptive response to situations that are threatening or dangerous. Mark (1987) described the ‘ontogenetic parade’, which refers to the appearance and disappearance of certain fears in a predictable manner as a part of a child’s development.

In a paper regarding normal fears by Gullone, the following fears have been described under different age groups:

Throughout infancy and childhood – Fear of loud noises, fear of loss of support.

1 – 2 years – Fear of strangers, fear of strange objects, fear of heights, fear of separation anxiety.

3 – 4 years – Fear of darkness, fear of being alone, fear of animals, fear of imaginary creatures.

6 – 12 years – Fear of evaluative or social situations, fear of failure, fear of bodily injury, fear of illness, fear of school.

Begins early and persists till late adolescence – Fear of death.

Older adolescence – Fears regarding economic and political concerns, fear of failure.

Although simple fears are learnt based on social situations from other family members or negative childhood experiences, when they persist, they can develop into Phobias and cause avoidance of the unpleasant stimuli or situations, causing reinforcement.

References

• Gleason, T.R. The psychological significance of play with imaginary companions in early childhood. Learn Behav 45, 432–440 (2017). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13420-017-0284-z
• Suzanne, Broeren. (2011). Anxiety in Non‐Clinical Children: Developmental Course and Vulnerability Factors. 
• Gullone, E. The Assessment of Normal Fear in Children and Adolescents. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 2, 91–106 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021895630678