EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

INFANTS
Emotions can be defined as feeling, or affect, that occurs when a person is in a state or an
interaction that is important to him or her, especially to his or her well-being (Campos, 2009).
Psychologists classify the broad range of emotions in many ways, but almost all
classifications designate an emotion as either positive or negative.
Emotions are influenced both by biological foundations and by a person’s experience.
Biology in the sense, certain regions of the brain that develop early in life (such as the brain
stem, hippocampus, and amygdala) play a role in distress, excitement, and rage, and even
infants display these emotions. But infants only gradually develop the ability to regulate their
emotions, and this ability seems tied to the gradual maturation of the frontal regions of the
cerebral cortex.
Emotions are the first language with which parents and infants communicate. It provides the
foundation for the infant’s developing attachment to the parent. When toddlers hear their
parents quarreling, they often react with distress and inhibit their play.
Culture also affects emotions. Researchers have found that East Asian infants display less
frequent and less positive and negative emotions than non-Latino White infants (Cole & Tan,
2007).
Leading expert on infant emotional development, Michael Lewis (2007, 2008) distinguishes
between primary emotions and self-conscious emotions.
Primary emotions are emotions that are present in humans and other animals; these
emotions appear in the first 6 months of the human infant’s development. It includes surprise,
interest, joy, anger, sadness, fear, and disgust.
self-conscious emotions require self-awareness that involves consciousness and a sense of
“me.” Self-conscious emotions include jealousy, empathy, embarrassment etc. Some experts
also call it “other-conscious emotions”.
A research study in which 6-month-old infants observed their mothers either giving attention
to a life-like baby doll (hugging or gently rocking it, for example) or to a book (Hart &
Carrington, 2002). When mothers directed their attention to the doll, the infants were more
likely to display negative emotions, such as anger and sadness, which may have indicated
their jealousy.
Some researchers also suggest that the structural immaturity of the infant brain make it
unlikely that emotions which require thought—such as guilt, pride, despair, shame, empathy,
and jealousy—can be experienced in the first year.
The ability of infants to communicate emotions permits coordinated interactions with their
caregivers and the beginning of an emotional bond between them (Thompson, 2010).
Cries and smiles are two emotional expressions that infants display when interacting with
parents. These are babies’ first forms of emotional communication.
Crying: Crying is the most important mechanism newborns have for communicating with
their world. The first cry verifies that the baby’s lungs have filled with air. It also indicates
the health of newborn’s central nervous system.
Babies have at least three types of cries:
 Basic cry: A rhythmic pattern that usually consists of a cry, followed by a briefer
silence, then a shorter whistle that is somewhat higher in pitch than the main cry, then
another brief rest before the next cry. Some infancy experts believe that hunger is one
of the conditions that incites the basic cry.
 Anger cry: A variation of the basic cry in which more excess air is forced through the
vocal cords.
 Pain cry: A sudden long, initial loud cry followed by breath holding; no preliminary
moaning is present
Smiling: Smiling is critical as a means of developing a new social skill and is a key social
signal. Two types of smiling can be distinguished in infants.
 Reflexive smile: A smile that does not occur in response to external stimuli and
appears during the first month after birth, usually during sleep.
 Social smile: A smile that occurs in response to an external stimulus, typically a face
in the case of the young infant. Social smiling occurs as early as 2 months of age.
Fear One of a baby’s earliest emotions is fear, which typically fi rst appears at about 6
months of age and peaks at about 18 months. Researchers have found that infant fear is
linked to guilt, empathy, and low aggression. The most frequent expression of an infant’s fear
involves stranger anxiety. In addition to stranger anxiety, infants experience fear of being
separated from their caregivers. The result is separation protest—crying when the caregiver
leaves.
From early in infancy, babies put their thumbs in their mouths to soothe themselves. But at
first, infants mainly depend on caregivers to help them soothe their emotions, as when a
caregiver rocks an infant to sleep, sings lullabyes to the infant, gently strokes the infant, and
so on. By 2 years of age, toddlers can use language to defi ne their feeling states and the
context that is upsetting them (Kopp, 2008).

EARLY CHILDHOOD
The young child’s growing awareness of self is linked to the ability to feel an expanding
range of emotions. Their emotional development in early childhood allows them to try to
make sense of other people’s emotional reactions and to begin to control their own emotions.
Self-conscious emotions do not appear to develop until self-awareness appears around 18
months of age. During the early childhood years, emotions such as pride and guilt become
more common. They are especially influenced by parents’ responses to children’s behavior.
Among the most important changes in emotional development in early childhood is an
increased understanding of emotion.
A recent meta-analysis revealed that emotion knowledge was positively related to 3- to 5-
year-olds’ social competence (eg: showing empathy) and negatively related to their
internalizing (eg: hight level anxiety) and externalizing problems (like aggression).
Between 2 and 4 years of age, children considerably increase the number of terms they use to
describe emotions. Between 2 and 4 years of age, children considerably increase the number
of terms they use to describe emotions. When they are 4 to 5 years of age, children show an
increased ability to reflect on emotions.
Emotional regulation: Parents can play an important role in helping young children regulate
their emotions. Depending on how they talk with their children about emotion, parents can be
described as taking an emotion-coaching or an emotion-dismissing approach (Gottman,
2009).
Emotion-coaching parents monitor their children’s emotions, view their children’s negative
emotions as opportunities for teaching, assist them in labelling emotions, and coach them in
how to deal effectively with emotions.
Emotion-dismissing parents view their role as to deny, ignore, or change negative emotions.
Emotion-coaching parents interact with their children in a less rejecting manner.
Emotions play a strong role in determining the success of a child’s peer relationships.
Specifically, the ability to modulate one’s emotions is an important skill that benefits children
in their relationships with peers.

MIDDLE AND LATE CHILDHOOD

In middle and late childhood, children further develop their understanding and self-regulation
of emotion (Cunningham et al 2006).
Developmental Changes (Denham et al, 2005):
1. Improved emotional understanding: For example, children in elementary school
develop an increased ability to understand such complex emotions as pride and shame.
2. Increased understanding that more than one emotion can be experienced in a
particular situation.
3. Increased tendency to be aware of the events leading to emotional reactions.
4. Ability to suppress or conceal negative emotional reactions
5. The use of self-initiated strategies for redirecting feeling
6. A capacity for genuine empathy.
Coping with stress: As children get older, they more accurately appraise a stressful situation
and determine how much control they have over it.
By 10 years of age, most children are able to use these cognitive strategies to cope with stress
(Saarni, 1999). However, in families that have not been supportive and are characterized by
turmoil or trauma, children may be so overwhelmed by stress that they do not use such
strategies (Klingman, 2006).
Disasters can especially harm children’s development and produce adjustment problems. (can
lead to depression, panic disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder).
Researchers have offered some recommendations for parents, teachers, and other adults
caring for children:
1. Reassure children (numerous times, if necessary) of their safety and security.
2. Allow children to retell events and be patient in listening to them.
3. Encourage children to talk about any disturbing or confusing feelings, reassuring them
that such feelings are normal after a stressful event.

ADOLESCENCE
Adolescent brain development is characterized by an imbalance between the limbic and
reward systems, which mature earlier, and the not yet fully mature prefrontal control system.
This imbalance may be the neural substrate for the typical emotional reactive style of
adolescence, and it may promote risky behavior.
The hormones of puberty affect the further sex-specific restructuring of the adolescent brain.
The reorganization of the adolescent brain renders it particularly susceptible to environmental
influences, both positive and negative.
With adolescence comes an additional struggle for autonomy and increased time spent with
peers and less time spent with the family. Adolescents become less emotionally dependent on
their parents, but this emotional autonomy often emerges after a period of conflict and
increased experience of negative emotions.
Girls often experience a longer period of elevated negative affect than boys. Adolescents tend
to experience more extreme emotions, both negative and positive, than their parents even in
response to the same event.
Identity development is important for adolescents as they approach adulthood. When
adolescents or young adults are exploring many identity options, they often have high levels
of anxiety.
Adolescents often experience emotional distress in response to ambiguous and
imagined romantic exchanges, and their capacity to experience complex and diverse emotions
further promotes the development of abstract thinking.
Positive peer relationships emerge from the recognition of equality and the tendency to
offer emotional support. Adolescents who are not accepted by their peers face numerous
risks, including school dropout and delinquency.
Dating relationships also become prominent during adolescence, but young adolescents may
still have difficulty understanding that one person can evoke different and conflicting
emotional responses. Therefore, dating during adolescence is often characterized by extreme
emotional variability.
Healthy emotional development is marked by a gradually increasing ability to perceive,
assess, and manage emotions.
Hormonal changes, family and peers, self-management, self-esteem, stress, coping
abilities etc plays an important role in the emotional development of the adolescents.

MIDDLE EARLY ADULTHOOD

Early adulthood and middle is an important developmental stage in which individuals gain an
understanding of who they really are. An important aspect of this stage is the development of
relationships with the opposite sex and experiences of love and intimacy.
The experiences of mate selection and love are crucial elements of emotional development in
young adulthood.
The relationship between emotional development during early adulthood and the experiences
of love and mate selection also plays a really important role. Emotional development also
plays an important role in the changes of one’s lifestyle.
Intimacy and love plays a really important role, specially in early adulthood. In middle
adulthood people emotional development is characterized by close relationships and stability
and change.
Both early and middle adulthood come with particular challenges; these challenges are at
times referred to as "quarter-life crises" and "mid-life crises," respectively. A quarter-life
crisis typically occurs between the ages of 25 and 30. It often revolves around the challenges
that arise from young adults newly living life on their own and feeling overwhelmed with
new responsibilities; it can also happen after the birth of a child or if a person graduates from
college and cannot find a job in their chosen field. In this stage of life, young people may
worry about their future, wonder if they've made poor choices, or wonder what life might
hold for them now.
Certain emotional challenges and phases that they go through:
 a search for an undefined dream or goal;
 a deep sense of regret for goals not accomplished;
 a fear of humiliation among more successful colleagues;
 a desire to achieve a feeling of youthfulness;
 a need to spend more time alone or with certain peers.

LATE ADULTHOOD
Depression is very common during late adulthood. During this time a lot of people lose their
loved ones and also separate from their family members. The constant fear of losing their
relationships and loneliness marks the emotional phase people in late adulthood go through.
Some older persons might feel that they are so useless, helpless and at the mercy of their
physical problems, changes in living arrangement or negative events. This sense of
hopelessness and helplessness might be prolonged and lead to the development of depressive
illness or even suicidal attempt.
Regression. Older persons might be going back to their old behaviors or ways of coping with
painful events which might not be practical or relevant.
Some older persons might react to lose and uncertainty by feeling depressed or anxiousness.
It is important to help the older persons to understand that these feeling can be normal and to
get help if the feelings have prolonged and interfered with their daily living. Otherwise, it
might increase the risk of committing suicide in the older person.