EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Emotional development is the
emergence of a child's experience, expression, understanding, and regulation of
emotions from birth through late adolescence. It also comprises how growth and
changes in these processes concerning emotions occur. Emotional development
does not occur in isolation; neural, cognitive, and behavioral development
interact with emotional development and social and cultural influences, and
context also play a role. Various emotional development theories are proposed,
but there is general agreement on age-related milestones in emotional
development.
The word
‘Emotion’ is a derivative of the Latin word ‘emovere’ which mean ‘to shudder’.
Thus, emotion is that state of the individual which deprives him of his
equilibrium. In fear, his teeth are clenching together, his body shudders and
signs of perspiration can be seen upon his forehead. Emotions shake a man
violently. Even when the object of his anger is no longer present, the
person’s arms twitch uncontrollably. Emotions stimulate the energies of the
creature and assist him in dealing with emergencies. In emotional condition, he
performs action which he is incapable of performing in a normal state. But
sometimes, though comparatively infrequently, a person is absolutely stupefied
and fails to perform even the ordinary activities. These mutually contradictory
results bear testimony to the fact that it is difficult to define emotion.
Though psychologists have not differentiated between motive and emotion, everyday
experience shows that there is some difference. Similarly, some psychologists
do not find any difference in physical activities and emotions; everyday
experience shows that there is some difference. Similarly, some psychologists
do not find any difference in physical activities and emotions. But experimefl5
reveal this difference which is, by no means, negligible.
Definition of Emotion
P T. Young-- “Emotion is
acute disturbance of the individual as a whole, psychological in origin,
involving behaviour, conscious experiences and visceral functioning.”
Emotional
Development - Early infancy (birth-six months), Later infancy months) (7-12)
“The process by which
infants and children begin developing the capacity to experience, express, and
interpret emotions.”
The study of the
emotional development of infants and children is relatively new, having been
studied empirically only during the past few decades. Researchers have
approached this area from a variety of theoretical perspectives, including
those of social constructionism, differential emotion theory, and social
learning theory. Each of these approaches explores the way infants and
children develop emotionally, differing mainly on the question of whether
emotions are learned or biologically predetermined, as well as debating the way
infants and children manage their emotional experiences and behavior.
Early infancy
(birth-six months)
Emotional expressiveness
To formulate theories
about the development of human emotions, researchers focus on observable
display of emotion, such as facial expressions and public behavior. A child's
private feelings and experiences cannot be studied by researchers, so
interpretation of emotion must be limited to signs that can be observed.
Although many descriptions of facial patterns appear intuitively to represent
recognizable emotions, psychologists differ on their views on the range of
emotions experienced by infants. It is not clear whether infants actually
experience these emotions, or if adults, using adult facial expressions as the
standard, simply superimpose their own understanding of the meaning of infant
facial expressions.
Between six and ten
weeks, a social smile emerges, usually accompanied by other pleasure-indicative
actions and sounds, including cooing and mouthing. This social smile occurs in
response to adult smiles and interactions. It derives its name from the unique
process by which the infant engages a person in a social act, doing so by
expressing pleasure (a smile), which consequently elicits a positive response.
This cycle brings about a mutually reinforcing pattern in which both the infant
and the other person gain pleasure from the social interaction.
As infants become more
aware of their environment, smiling occurs in response to a wider
variety of contexts. They may smile when they see a toy they have previously
enjoyed. They may smile when receiving praise for accomplishing a difficult
task. Smiles such as these, like the social smile, are considered to serve a
developmental function.
Laughter, which begins
at around three or four months, requires a level of cognitive development
because it demonstrates that the child can recognize incongruity. That is,
laughter is usually elicited by actions that deviate from the norm, such
as being kissed on the abdomen or a caregiver playing peek-a-boo. Because it
fosters reciprocal interactions with others, laughter promotes social
development.
Later infancy months
(7-12)
Emotional expressiveness
During the last half of
the first year, infants begin expressing fear, disgust, and anger
because of the maturation of cognitive abilities. Anger, often expressed by
crying, is a frequent emotion expressed by infants. As is the case with all
emotional expressions, anger serves an adaptive function, signaling to
caregivers of the infant's discomfort or displeasure, letting them know that
something needs to be changed or altered. Although some infants respond to
distressing events with sadness, anger is more common.
Fear also emerges
during this stage as children become able to compare an unfamiliar event with
what they know. Unfamiliar situations or objects often elicit fear responses in
infants. One of the most common is the presence of an adult stranger, a fear
that begins to appear at about seven months. The degree to which a child reacts
with fear to new situations is dependent on a variety of factors. One of the
most significant is the response of its mother or caregiver. Caregivers supply
infants with a secure base from which to explore their world, and accordingly
an exploring infant will generally not move beyond eyesight of the caregiver.
Infants repeatedly check with their caregivers for emotional cues regarding
safety and security of their explorations. If, for instance, they wander too
close to something their caregiver perceives as dangerous, they will detect the
alarm in the caregiver's facial expression, become alarmed themselves, and
retreat from the potentially perilous situation. Infants look to caregivers for
facial cues for the appropriate reaction to unfamiliar adults. If the stranger
is a trusted friend of the caregiver, the infant is more likely to respond
favorably, whereas if the stranger is unknown to the caregiver, the infant may
respond with anxiety and distress. Another factor is the infant's temperament.
A second fear of this
stage is called separation anxiety. Infants seven to twelve months old
may cry in fear if the mother or caregiver leaves them in an unfamiliar place.
Many studies have been
conducted to assess the type and quality of emotional communication between
caregivers and infants. Parents are one of the primary sources that socialize
children to communicate emotional experience in culturally specific ways. That
is, through such processes as modeling, direct instruction, and imitation,
parents teach their children which emotional expressions are appropriate to
express within their specific sub-culture and the broader social context.
Socialization
of emotion begins in infancy. Research indicates that when mothers
interact with their infants they demonstrate emotional displays in an
exaggerated slow motion, and that these types of display are highly interesting
to infants. It is thought that this process is significant in the infant's
acquisition of cultural and social codes for emotional display, teaching them
how to express their emotions, and the degree of acceptability associated with
different types of emotional behaviors.
Another process that
emerges during this stage is social referencing. Infants begin to recognize the
emotions of others, and use this information when reacting to novel situations
and people. As infants explore their world, they generally rely on the
emotional expressions of their mothers or caregivers to determine the safety or
appropriateness of a particular endeavor. Although this process has been
established by several studies, there is some debate about the intentions of
the infant; are infants simply imitating their mother's emotional responses, or
do they actually experience a change in mood purely from the expressive
visual cues of the mother? What is known, however, is that as infants explore
their environment, their immediate emotional responses to what they encounter
are based on cues portrayed by their mother or primary caregiver, to whom they
repeatedly reference as they explore.
Toddler hood years
(1-2)
Emotional expressiveness
During the second year,
infants express emotions of shame or embarrassment and pride. These emotions
mature in all children and adults contribute to their development. However, the
reason for the shame or pride is learned. Different cultures value different
actions. One culture may teach its children to express pride upon winning a
competitive event, whereas another may teach children to dampen their cheer, or
even to feel shame at another person's loss.
Emotional
understanding
During this stage of
development, toddlers acquire language and are learning to verbally express
their feelings. In 1986, Inge Bretherton and colleagues found that 30% of
American 20-month-olds correctly labeled a series of emotional and
physiological states, including sleep-fatigue, pain, distress, disgust,
and affection. This ability, rudimentary as it is during early
toddlerhood, is the first step in the development of emotional self-regulation
skills.
Although there is
debate concerning an acceptable definition of emotion regulation, it is
generally thought to involve the ability to recognize and label emotions, and
to control emotional expression in ways that are consistent with cultural
expectations. In infancy, children largely rely on adults to help them regulate
their emotional states. If they are uncomfortable they may be able to
communicate this state by crying, but have little hope of alleviating the
discomfort on their own. In toddler-hood, however, children begin to develop
skills to regulate their emotions with the emergence of language providing an
important tool to assist in this process. Being able to articulate an emotional
state in itself has a regulatory effect in that it enables children to
communicates their feelings to a person capable of helping them manage their
emotional state. Speech also enables children to self-regulate, using soothing
language to talk themselves through difficult situations.
Empathy,
a complex emotional response to a situation, also appears in toddlerhood,
usually by age two. The development of empathy requires that children read
others' emotional cues, understand that other people are entities distinct from
themselves, and take the perspective of another person (put themselves in the
position of another). These cognitive advances typically are not evident before
the first birthday. The first sign of empathy in children occurs when they try
to alleviate the distress of another using methods that they have observed or
experienced themselves. Toddlers will use comforting language and initiate
physical contact with their mothers if they are distressed, supposedly modeling
their own early experiences when feeling upset.
Preschool years) (3-6)
Emotional expressivity
Children's capacity to regulate their emotional
behavior continues to advance during this stage of development. Parents help
preschoolers acquire skills to cope with negative emotional states by teaching
and modeling use of verbal reasoning and explanation. For example, when
preparing a child for a potentially emotionally evocative event, such as a trip
to the doctor's office or weekend at their grandparents' house, parents will
often offer comforting advice, such as "the doctor only wants to
help" or "grandma and grandpa have all kinds of fun plans for the
weekend." This kind of emotional preparation is crucial for the child if
he or she is to develop the skills necessary to regulate their own negative
emotional states. Children who have trouble learning and/or enacting these
types of coping skills often exhibit acting out types of behavior, or,
conversely, can become withdrawn when confronted with fear or anxiety-provoking
situations.
Beginning at about age four, children acquire the
ability to alter their emotional expressions, a skill of high value in cultures
that require frequent disingenuous social displays. Psychologists call these
skills emotion display rules, culture-specific rules regarding the
appropriateness of expressing in certain situations. As such, one's external
emotional expression need not match one's internal emotional state. For
example, in Western culture, we teach children that they should smile and say
thank-you when receiving a gift, even if they really do not like the present.
The ability to use display rules is complex. It requires that children
understand the need to alter emotional displays, take the perspective of
another, know that external states need not match internal states, have the
muscular control to produce emotional expressions, be sensitive to social
contextual cues that alert them to alter their expressivity, and have the motivation
to enact such discrepant displays in a convincing manner.
It is thought that in the preschool years,
parents are the primary socializing force, teaching appropriate emotional
expression in children. Moreover, children learn at about age three that
expressions of anger and aggression are to be controlled in the presence
of adults. Around peers, however, children are much less likely to suppress
negative emotional behavior. It appears that these differences arise as a
result of the different consequences they have received for expressing negative
emotions in front of adults as opposed to their peers. Further, this
distinction made by children—as a function of social context—demonstrates that
preschoolers have begun to internalize society's rules governing the
appropriate expression of emotions.
Carolyn Saarni, an innovator in the exploration
of emotional development, has identified two types of emotional display rules,
prosocial and self-protective. Prosocial display rules involve altering
emotional displays in order to protect another's feelings. For example, a child
might not like the sweater she received from her aunt, but would appear happy
because she did not want to make her aunt feel badly. On the other hand,
self-protective display rules involve masking emotion in order to save face or
to protect oneself from negative consequences. For instance, a child may feign
toughness when he trips in front of his peers and scrapes his knee, in order to
avoid teasing and further embarrassment. In 1986 research findings were mixed
concerning the order in which prosocial and self-protective display rules are
learned. Some studies demonstrate that knowledge of self-protective display
rules emerges first, whereas other studies show the opposite effect.
There also has been research done examining how
children alter their emotional displays. Researchers Jackie Gnepp and Debra
Hess in 1986 found that there is greater pressure on children to modify their
verbal rather than facial emotional expressions. It is easier for preschoolers
to control their verbal utterances than their facial muscles.
Emotional understanding
Beginning at about age four or five, children
develop a more sophisticated understanding of others' emotional states.
Although it has been demonstrated that empathy emerges at quite a young age,
with rudimentary displays emerging during toddlerhood, increasing cognitive
development enables preschoolers to arrive at a more complex understanding of
emotions. Through repeated experiences, children begin to develop their own
theories of others' emotional states by referring to causes and consequences of
emotions, and by observing and being sensitive to behavioral cues that indicate
emotional distress. For instance, when asked why a playmate is upset, a child
might respond "Because the teacher took his toy" or by reference to
some other external cause, usually one that relates to an occurrence familiar
to them. Children of this age are also beginning to make predictions about
others' experience and expression of emotions, such as predicting that a happy
child will be more likely to share his or her toys.
Middle childhood years) (7-11)
Emotional expressivity
Children ages seven to eleven display a wider
variety of self-regulation skills. Sophistication in understanding and enacting
cultural display rules has increased dramatically by this stage, such that by
now children begin to know when to control emotional expressivity as well as
have a sufficient repertoire of behavioral regulation skills allowing them to
effectively mask emotions in socially appropriate ways. Research has indicated
that children at this age have become sensitive to the social contextual cues
which serve to guide their decisions to express or control negative emotions.
Several factors influence their emotion management decisions, including the
type of emotion experienced, the nature of their relationship with the person
involved in the emotional exchange, child age, and child gender. Moreover, it
appears that children have developed a set of expectations concerning the likely
outcome of expressing emotion to others. In general, children report regulating
anger and sadness more to friends than mothers and fathers because they expect
to receive a negative response—such as teasing or belittling—from friends. With
increasing age, however, older children report expressing negative emotions
more often to their mothers than their fathers, expecting dads to respond
negatively to an emotional display. These emotion regulation skills are
considered to be adaptive and deemed essential to establishing, developing, and
maintaining social relationships.
Children at this age also demonstrate that they
possess rudimentary cognitive and behavioral coping skills that serve to lessen
the impact of an emotional event and in so doing, may in fact alter their
emotional experience. For example, when experiencing a negative emotional
event, children may respond by employing rationalization or minimization
cognitive coping strategies, in which they re-interpret or reconstruct the
scenario to make it seem less threatening or upsetting. Upon having their
bicycle stolen or being deprived of television for a weekend, they might tell
themselves, "It's only a bike, at least I didn't get hurt" or
"Maybe mom and dad will make up something fun to do instead of watching
TV."
Emotional understanding
During middle childhood, children begin to
understand that the emotional states of others are not as simple as they
imagined in earlier years, and that they are often the result of complex
causes, some of which are not externally obvious. They also come to understand
that it is possible to experience more than one emotion at a time, although
this ability is somewhat restricted and evolves slowly. As Susan Harter and
Nancy Whitsell demonstrated, seven-year-old children are able to understand
that a person can feel two emotions simultaneously, even if the emotions are
positive and negative. Children can feel happy and excited that their parents
bought them a bicycle, or angry and sad that a friend had hurt them, but they
deny the possibility of experiencing "mixed feelings." It is not
until age ten that children are capable of understanding that one can
experience two seemingly contradictory emotions, such as feeling happy that
they were chosen for a team but also nervous about their responsibility to play
well.
Displays of empathy also increase in frequency
during this stage. Children from families that regularly discuss the complexity
of feelings will develop empathy more readily than those whose families avoid
such topics. Furthermore, parents who set consistent behavioral limits and who
themselves show high levels of concern for others are more likely to produce
empathic children than parents who are punitive or particularly harsh in
restricting behavior.
Adolescence years) (12-18)
Emotional expressivity
Adolescents have become sophisticated at
regulating their emotions. They have developed a wide vocabulary with which to
discuss, and thus influence, emotional states of themselves and others.
Adolescents are adept at interpreting social situations as part of the process
of managing emotional displays.
It is widely believed that by adolescence
children have developed a set of expectations, referred to as scripts, about
how various people will react to their emotional displays, and regulate their
displays in accordance with these scripts. Research in this area has found that
in early adolescence, children begin breaking the emotionally intimate ties
with their parents and begin forming them with peers. In one study, for instance,
eighth-grade students, particularly boys, reported regulating (hiding) their
emotions to (from) their mothers more than did either fifth-or eleventh-grade
adolescents. This dip in emotional expressivity towards mothers appeared to be
due to the boys' expectations of receiving less emotional support from their
mothers. This particular finding demonstrates the validity of the script
hypothesis of self-regulations; children's expectations of receiving little
emotional support from their mothers, perhaps based on past experience, guide
their decisions to regulate emotions more strictly in their mothers' presence.
Another factor that plays a significant role in
the ways adolescents regulate emotional displays is their heightened
sensitivity to others' evaluations of them, a sensitivity which can result in
acute self-awareness and self-consciousness as they try to blend into the
dominant social structure. David Elkind has described adolescents as
operating as if they were in front of an imaginary audience in which every
action and detail is noted and evaluated by others. As such, adolescents become
very aware of the impact of emotional expressivity on their social interactions
and fundamentally, on obtaining peer approval. Because guidelines concerning
the appropriateness of emotional displays is highly culture-specific,
adolescents have the difficult task of learning when and how to express or
regulate certain emotions.
As expected, gender plays a significant role in
the types of emotions displayed by adolescents. Boys are less likely than girls
to disclose their fearful emotions during times of distress. This reluctance
was similarly supported by boys' belief that they would receive less
understanding and, in fact, probably be belittled, for expressing both aggressive
and vulnerable emotions.
Read more: Emotional Development - Early infancy (birth-six months), Later infancy months) (7-12) - David Elkind, Children, and Emotions - JRank Articles http://psychology.jrank.org/pages/212/Emotional-Development.html#ixzz3f5FchMnc
Needs of Emotional Development:
- Distinct recognition of various emotions
- Manifestation of emotions
- Manage and control emotions / avoid outburst
- Perceive things in their real perspective
- Intellect & emotions balanced while taking decisions
- Take up responsibility – don’t do argue unnecessary
- Adequate self-respect and self-concept
- Persons are not self-centred
- Keen to maintain social-relationshi
- Able to exercise emotions at proper time and place
- Stable state of mind
Need of Emotional Development:
- For distinct recognition of various emotions & ability to express them in such manner, that can be recognise easily.
- To manifest emotions in socially desirable manner
- Person can manage, control their emotions & develop ability to avoid sudden and inappropriate emotional outbursts. He/She can check emotional tide.
- Emotionally developed person can perceive things in their real perspective. And do not run away from reality.
- His intellectual power like thinking & reasoning are properly exercised & facilitate him to make decisions, Can balance intellect & emotions.
- Person develop courage to accept his/her mistake, don’t argue unnecessary. Ready to take up responsibility.
- To possess adequate self-concept & self-respect emotional development is required.
- Rather than becoming self-centred, person can better think about others’ situation and keen to maintain social relationship.
- Person develops ability to exercise emotions at a proper time in a proper place and towards proper person.
- Person becomes emotionally matured and mentally stable state of mind
- Can identify & perceive various types of emotions in others.
- Sense his own feelings and emotions
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