Emotional Development

Dr. Sasmita Mishra

At what age do infants experience
and demonstrate discrete emotions?
 As young as 2months old demonstrate
smiling
 Laughter at 3-4 months old
 Then anger, sadness and surprise
 Read other’s emotion at the age of 3months.
 Emotion and cognitive development happen
simultaneously
Social referencing

 One year old will look at their care givers and

depending on their reactions, will cry or
laugh.
Emotional regulation

 Four year old cover his/her ears or eyes while

watching frightening television show.
 By the age of 10 years they learn different
ways to regulate and express emotions and
draw sympathy and support of others.
 Progress in both these tasks-regulating and
expressing emotions-play a key role in
children’s ability to form increasingly
complex social relationships.
Temperament-emotional style

 Temperament: stable individual differences in

the quality or intensity of emotional
reactions.
Dimensions of temperament
 Positive emotionality
 Distress anger
 Fear
 Activity level
Categories of children based on
temperament
 Easy children (40%)
 Difficult children (10%)
 Slow-to-warm up children (15%)
These temperaments are relatively stable.
Difficult children experience behavioural
problems in later part of life. They face difficulty
in adjusting in schools, making friendship and
get along with others.
Empathy

 Our ability to recognize the emotion of others, to

understand these feelings, and to experience
them ourselves, at least to a degree.
 During first two years of development, our
cognitive development permits us to distinguish
ourselves clearly from others-to form a concept
of self. Then even more sophisticated theory of
mind.
 This allows us to understand that others have
feelings that may differ from our own.
Empathy
 Children of eighteen moths old try to do something
comforting when another child is distressed-for
instance, touching or patting that child.
 At two years they may offer an object or go to seek
adult help.
 At 4 years, most children can understand why others
are upset and have a grasp of the kinds of situations
that can cause people emotionally distress.
 Ultimately, empathy develops to the point where
individuals experience guilt if they view themselves as
the cause of another’s distress.
Attachment

 A long affectional bond between infants and

their caregivers.
 Infants differ in the quality or style of their
attachment to the caregivers.
 Secure attachment
 Insecure/avoidant attachment
 Insecure/ambivalent attachment
 Disorganized attachment
Children of different culture differ in the
attachment style
Factors influencing attachment style

 Maternal sensitivity
 Infant temperament
Effect of attachment in later life

 Secure attachment: more sociable, better in

solving certain kind of problem, more
tolerant of frustration, and more flexible and
persistent in many situations.
 Avoidant attached infant worry constantly
about loosing their romantic partners.
 Ambivalent attachment type show
ambivalent reaction to romantic
relationships.
Contact, comfort and attachment

 Harry Harlow-direct contact with soft objects

 Experiment on monkeys
School and friendships

 Healthy friendship enhances social skills and

helps in healthy emotional development
 Children who have been victims of bullies,
develop anxiety, depression, loneliness and
low self-esteem.
 Close friends protect children from bullies.