Summaries per article with Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology at Leiden University 21/22

Preface

An emotion consists of various components, namely physical arousal, motor expressions, action tendencies and subjective feelings. These components have an effect on social cognitions, attitudes and social interactions. That is why it is important that emotions are signaled during a conversation. This is about the emotion that is being emitted, so the non-verbal communication. Emotions play a role in forming and breaking social relationships. People also like to talk to others about emotions. One of the most important areas of social psychology where emotions are important is within group dynamics. This concerns the effects of 'contagious emotions'; passing a felt emotion over to others. Examples of contagious emotions are laughter and yawning.

What is an emotion?

The James-Lange theory

The James-Lange theory takes a peripheral position (which means that it focuses more on the somatic and autonomous rather than the central nervous system). In addition, it is suggested that someone first perceives an event, after which a physical reaction occurs. Then, only after the sensation of that physical reaction, an emotion occours. The difference between the James-Lange theory and the theories before, was that in the James-Lange theory it was thought that an emotion would come only after the physical reaction and in the theories before the main idea was that that an emotion would come before a physical reaction.

Emotion as a social-psychological construct

Nowadays there is a growing consensus that 'emotion' should not be used as a synonym for 'feeling'. Instead, researchers suggest that feelings are one of the three components in the emotion construct. Other components are the neurophysiological responses and motor expressions. These 3 components together are called the 'emotional reaction triad'. Another component that belongs to this emotion construct is the action tendency, although this is also seen as a behavioral consequence rather than a component of emotion. In addition, the emotion construct includes a cognitive component, because there is always evaluative information processing when it comes to emotion-generating events. The cognitive interpretation of an event is also called an appraisal. An emotion is described as a fierce, dynamic and short process with a clear beginning and an end. This involves as a crisis response, in which the physiological and psychological components interact with each other during an emotion episode. Systems that were previously independent suddenly start working together in synchronization to ensure survival.

Why do we have emotions?

Emotions cost a lot of energy, so why do they exist?

The evolutionary significance of emotions

According to Darwin, emotions exist because they are adaptive and help regulate interactions within social living species (for example, raising eyebrows provides better vision).

Emotions as a social signaling system

Another explanation for the existence of emotions is that, because one person can express emotions, another person can respond to this more easily and this can also lead to a certain tendency towards action.

Emotions provide behavioral flexibility

Emotions are almost automatic, but are more flexible than normal stimulus-response responses. Emotions ensure 'latency time' between stimulus and action, which ensures that people are better at evaluating the situation. During that period, the chance of success and the seriousness of the consequences are examined, after which an optimal response can be chosen. If there is a negative consequence, the motivation to take action will be great. Therefore, emotions have a strong influence on motivation.

Information processing

Information processing which is done people, especially in the social field, usually consists of 'hot cognition'. These are emotional responses that help to evaluate relevant and irrelevant stimuli. The criteria used in the evaluation of stimuli are learned during conversations and are influenced by needs, preferences, goals and values.

Regulation and control

Our feelings are a constant monitor of what is happening, and thus serve as the evaluation and appraisal of the environment, physical changes in the central nervous system and action tendencies. This is a requirement when controlling or manipulating the emotion process.

So, an emotion:

• decouples stimulus and response
• ensures the (correct) action trends through a 'latency time'
• provides signals for the outside world (others)
• feelings can regulate emotional behav, which can be strateic in social interactions

How are emotions elicited and how are they distinguished?

Philosophical notions

It is clear to most philosophers that a certain situation is reacted with a certain type of emotion.

The Schachter-Singer theory of emotion

According to Schachter, two factors are important in eliciting and distinguishing emotions, namely the perception of arousal and cognitions. Arousal is always the same (non-specific) and cognition leads to a label of the emotion (for example fear). In an experiment, arousal was generated in participants by means of an adrenaline injection. This showed that cognitions labeled this arousal for events that were taking place in their environment at that time. Emotions are thus formed by felt arousal and by the cognitive interpretation of the situations that are based on the behavioral model of expression. The results have not been replicated.

Appraisal theory

The appraisal theory of Lazarus consists of primary appraisal (fun / dislike, helps / hinders achievement of the goal) and secondary appraisal (to what extent can the person deal with the consequences of an event, given his or her competences, resources and strength). Lazarus calls this model a transactional model, because the outcome of the event is not only influenced by the nature of the event, but also by the needs, goals and resources of the person. It is different for each person and often leads to a mix of emotions (emotion blend).

Cultural and individual differences in appraisal at events

Culture causes differences in appraisal, for example socialism versus individualism. In a collectivist culture, guilt and shame are seen as the result of immoral things. In an individualistic culture this only applies to guilt and this emotion also lasts longer than in collectivist cultures. So the socio-cultural value can influence someone's emotional life. Individual differences in appraisal also cause different emotional responses.

Are there specific response patterns for different types of emotions?

There is agreement about the differentiation of the emotional component of emotions, but not about the reaction patterns of the peripheral system. James uses proprioceptive feedback (sensory information from organs about physical changes) to differentiate between emotions. Schachter and Singer, on the other hand, believe that non-specific physiological arousal combined with situational factors ensure that emotions can be differentiated. Tomkins spoke about discrete emotions, where he talked about neural programs that can control a certain emotion and the associated facial expression and motor skills.

Wat are motoric expressions?

Facial expressions

Evidence has shown found that facial expressions are universal, even though small differences have been found between cultures due to cultural desirability (display rules). 

Vocal expressions

Emotions are not only recognizable by facial expressions, but also by vocal expressions. Here too there are differences between people and cultures. Emotions in voice are partly universal, even though there are language differences between cultures. This is proof of a partial biological basis of emotions.

Control and strategic manipulation of an expression

Cultural norms about appropriate expression of an emotion are called display rules. It concerns the regulation of 'congenital' systems. In addition to the fact that it is appropriate to control your emotion expression because of cultural norms, it is also important from a strategic point of view. This would allow someone to manipulate someone else. Emotion expression often only comes into being when we see other people and that is why it is seen as a communication tool. But the more an emotion overwhelms us, the harder it is to regulate it.

Physiological changes

Physiological activity is not communicative, but it provides energy. This can ensure that someone is prepared for a specific action. Studies show specific patterns for the emotions fear and anger. These are functional: in case of fear, blood flows to the heart and brain to prevent blood loss. In the case of anger, the blood flows to the muscles for action.

Subjective feelings

This involves someone's conscious experience about the processes that take place in his or her body.

Dimensions of feeling

Wundt made a three-dimensional system to display the precise nature of all complex emotional states. The three dimensions are: excitement - depression, tension - relaxation, pleasant - unpleasant. There is only evidence for the first and third dimensions and therefore, in other studies, they often use a two-dimensional model of emotions. 

Verbal labeling of feelings

Emotions are socially structured (which means that the social and cultural factors create a reality for an individual). Cultural differences in value judgment systems, social structures, communication habits and other factors influence the emotion experiences and are reflected in culturally specified states of feeling. Feelings that are verbally expressed are influenced more quickly by sociocultural variations than other components of the emotion process. This makes sense because the subjective state of feeling represents the cultural and situational context and the other components of the emotion process.

How can emotion components interact?

Research has shown that the components of emotions are all strongly interconnected.

Catharsis

Catharsis revolves around the interaction of three components of emotion, namely expression, physiology and feeling. Through an expression, a person can calm himself down, reduce his arousal and at the same time change his state of feeling.

Proprioceptive feedback

Proprioceptive feedback (or the facial feedback hypothesis) states the opposite of the catharsis hypothesis. In this case, inhibition of facial expression reduces the intensity of an emotion and emphatic facial expressions can enhance the intensity of an emotion. In an experiment, participants had to hold a pen between their lips or teeth. The participants who used their laughing muscles to hold their pen rated the cartoons they saw as funnier. The effects were even stronger when the participants saw themselves in the mirror and the effects were also stronger with participants with high self-awareness. This has the opposite effect when someone has to smile kindly, while the person is actually furious, because this only reinforces the anger.

Preface

Emotions arise as a person consciously or unconsciously evaluates an event which is relevant to his or her goals. Emotions come about, are maintained, and change or end the relationship between the person and the environment, depending on the interpretation of the meaning of the emotion for the person. In this study, two aspects of emotions and social goals are studied, namely the social goals that are expressed by the emotion and the associated social consequences that the emotion expression causes. The reason these two topics are related is that every person can react differently to different emotions because they interpret the emotion as the expression of a social goal or intention, which is different for each individual.

How emotions are distinguished from each other 

The study looked at whether children thought that anger would have a different effect on social interaction compared to fear and sadness, and whether children thought that the person who expressed the emotion had goals in social interaction that are associated with the expression of one emotion but not with another emotion. Research suggests that the appraisal (assessment) of the event determines why one particular negative emotion is experienced instead of another negative emotion. These appraisals include an analysis of our goals in relation to the event. But, the reason that one emotion is expressed faster than another can also include another aspect of goals, namely the goals of one person towards another person (the social goals). Knowledge of the effects of emotion expression on interaction can lead to revision of our expression.

Our experience of emotion may also be influenced by our analysis of our social context. For example, it is not only that someone who is regularly sad interprets the negative events in the world as his own fault (internally) and that it is impossible to change anything (stable), but also that he wants protection and comfort from other people.

Two categories of social regulation: dominance and prosocial behavior

The social-regulatory aspects of emotions have been studied through two categories, namely dominance within relationships and prosocial behavior. Children are expected to be able to distinguish between anger, sadness and anxiety.

Dominance

Anger is generated more often when a person thinks that a negative event is deliberately triggered. The cause for the event is therefore sought outside the person (external) and can be changed. Anger is associated with dominance (power) and fear and sadness with submission (powerlessness). A number of researchers have suggested that anger is an emotion that signals strength or dominance and triggers a reaction from others that reflects an attempt to deal with the dominance of the expressor. It may be that when the recipient of anger experiences the authority or dominance of the other person, the recipient can respond with his own counter-offer for dominance.

Studies also shows that aggressive behavior is more likely to be answered with anger and hostility than with depressive behavior. However, if the person against whom the aggression is being expressed feels submissive towards the other person, there is a high risk of a fearful or sad reaction. So, this depends on the person to whom the aggression is expressed (women are more likely to react anxiously or sadly than men), his or her appraisal of the event and the feelings he or she has in relation to the other person.

Prosocial behavior

In prosocial behavior, a person acts to facilitate or co-operate with another person's goals. Literature shows that even very young children offer comfort and help when they see another person in despair. Sadness and fear evoke more prosocial behavior compared to aggressive behavior. Pro-social behavior is expressed by getting closer to someone, putting them at ease and helping the other person and apologizing. However, it is interesting that respondents think that it is their own fault if they get a furious reaction compared to when the person expresses sad or fearful reactions.

Developmental changes in children's understanding of the social-regulatory aspects of emotion

Another goal of the study was to understand how the understanding of the social-regulatory aspects of emotion in children changes with age. When children become older, they become better at distinguishing between real and apparent emotions. They are also better able to mask their feelings and to show more socially acceptable emotions, even when their internal experience is negative. Research also shows that children make a distinction between the effects of positive and negative emotions on their social interactions.

Method

A total of 108 children participated in the study, with ages between 6 and 12 years. The children were randomly attributed to one of the three emotion conditions, namely sadness, fear or anger. They were read the same three vignettes in each condition, with only the words that had to do with emotion, changed. Girls were told stories in which girls played the lead and boys were told stories in which boys played the lead. The three stories include interpersonal events. In the 'Broken Toy' story, the emotion expressor shows an emotion when his or her borrowed toy is broken by the recipient (the person receiving the emotion). In the story 'Rejection', the emotion expressor shows an emotion when the receiver does not let him or her participate in a game. In the 'Harm' story, the emotion expressor shows an emotion when he / she is pushed too hard on the swing by the receiver (brother or sister) and therefore falls off the swing. The children were then asked per vignette what the receiver would feel, what action the receiver would take, how powerful or powerless the emotion expresser felt towards the receiver and what the goals of the emotion expressor were when expressing of emotion. The three vignettes were each accompanied by a cartoon illustration. The same illustration was used for every emotion condition and no facial expressions, emotional gestures, or emotional postures were used in the illustration. However, while reading the story, the experimenter pointed to the child who was the emotion expressor and asked the child about the effects of this emotion on the other child.

Results

Feelings of the recipient

The research showed that the hypothesis that the anger condition would cause more anger at the recipients than the sadness or anxiety conditions was only supported in the 'Harm' story. However, the effect was relatively weak.

The resulting measures of the recipient

In addition, it became clear that the anxiety and sadness conditions caused goal relocation and comfort rather than the anger condition. In response to anger, the recipient was more likely to respond by turning away from the emotion expressor. Results also indicate that anger, in contrast to sadness and anxiety, caused more aggression.

Dominance

Fifty percent of the children who were exposed to the anger condition therefore thought that the emotion expressor would feel stronger than the recipient, while only zero to twenty percent of the children thought that the emotion expressor would feel stronger after showing of fear or sorrow. With all stories, sadness and anxiety differ significantly from anger, but sadness and anxiety do not differ significantly from each other.

Purpose of the expressor

In showing the anger, children were also more likely to think that the goal was to let the recipient go away than when grief or fear were expressed. When showing fear or sadness, children were more likely to think that the emotion expressor was looking for comfort compared to when anger was shown.

Age differences in the concept of emotion 

The last finding was that younger children differentiated less between anger and the other two emotions than the older children.

Discussion

So, children of six years old think there are other consequences for social interaction when anger is expressed than when anxiety and sadness are expressed. They also think that the social goals of someone expressing anger are different from the social goals of someone who is expressing sadness or fear. However, even children in the age of six sometimes will not or will not express their negative emotions to avoid social consequences.

Differences in emotions on the social-regulatory aspects of emotion

It is possible that a focus on social goals and social consequences of emotional expressions will contribute to understanding the development and preservation of individual differences in emotional expressions.

Age changes in children's understanding of the social-regulatory aspects of emotion

Children between the ages of six and nine have been shown to differ in anger, sadness and fear in terms of social goals and social consequences associated with these emotions. Older children are better able to  differentiate between emotions of anger, sadness and anxiety compared to younger children.

Human psychology or real behavior

In conclusion it can be said that children think that anger, compared to sadness and fear, announces different relational goals and this results in different interpersonal consequences.

Preface

Coping is an important mediator for experiences that shape personal development. In addition, coping influences adaptability and resilience in difficult situations. Coping consists of constantly changing, behavioral and cognitive attempts to meet external and internal requirements that seem to go beyond the resources of the individual. Children may be limited in their coping strategies compared to adults due to cognitive, affective, expressive, social factors, development and differences in experience. Children are also limited by realistic limitations, such as the ability to avoid stress factors, and by their personal and financial dependence on their parents. While adult coping strategies are relatively more based on daily struggles and large (long-term) events in life compared to children, children's coping strategies are more focused on the situational context.

How to classify stress factors?

Coping is directly related to stress factors. A distinction is made between controllable and uncontrollable stress factors. These different stress factors require different coping strategies. The impact of a stress factor on a child can be smaller compared to the effect on an adult, because it is partly taken care of by family and because children are not familiar with the way events are connected to each other. In addition, the impact of stress factors on children can also be greater compared to that on adults due to a lack of knowledge and lack of experience to guide their responses. It is therefore difficult for them to assess in a situation to what extent they have control over the situation.   

How to operationalize "coping"?

It is best to look at coping with a process model, in which the measurement of coping is sensitive to situational and changes over time, rather than employing a trait model, which states that coping is consistent over time and situations. 

What are conceptual models of coping among children and adolescents?

Problem and emotion-focused coping model

Coping strategies can be classified into problem and emotion-oriented strategies. The first strategy focuses on adjusting the stress factor or the problem, while the second focuses on the regulation of emotional states associated which are associated with the stress factor. Moos and Billings (1983) made a similar classification, but they named it practically-oriented attempts (the goal of avoiding or solving problems), emotion-oriented attempts (the goal of dampening or counteracting negative feelings) and cognition-oriented attempts (changing or minimizing the assessment of a threat).          

Primary and secondary control model

Another format of coping is primary and secondary control. In primary control, an attempt is made to make the environment meet its own wishes as much as possible. With secondary control, an attempt is made to adapt the self as well as possible to the existing situation. Primary control is better if you want to tackle a situation that you actually control and can therefore change. In secondary control the situation cannot be changed and therefore it is better to accept the situation as it is. Primary control is influenced by your internal state, while secondary control only takes place when you have learned about your environment. Therefore, it takes longer before secondary control is obtained compared to primary control.

The approach and avoidance model

Another classification of coping is a distinction between approach and avoidance. Approach or active coping is characterized by monitoring, attempts to actively seek information, show concern and make plans when confronted with problems. Avoidance coping is characterized by avoidance, blunting, passive coping, repression and distraction when confronted with a problem. Avoidance coping is often associated with poor functioning. Approach coping seems related to better functioning.

The convergence of models

There seems to be an overarching relationship between the multiple classification models. The first group of coping strategies can be described as tackling the stress factor directly, and attempts to change or control some aspects of the individual, environment or relationship between them to reduce stress. This includes a problem-oriented approach to the problem. The second group of coping strategies involve the regulation of negative emotions associated with a stressful event. This involves emotion-focused coping and avoidance of the stress factor or problem.

Which material errors can occur?

Descriptive studies: coping strategies used by specific age groups

Toddlers and preschoolers (2-7)

Medical stress factors

When people are confronted with medical stress factors, they often employ avoidance techniques such as behavioral distractions and problem-oriented avoidance techniques and less often use cognitive distraction and emotion-oriented avoidance techniques. 

Social stress factors

When people are confronted with social stress factors they more often use problem-oriented strategies compared to emotion-focused strategies. Examples of these strategies are: problem solving, problem-oriented support and active resistance. 

Academic stress factors

For academic stress factors, more problem-oriented than emotion-oriented strategies were used, such as: problem- oriented avoidance, direct problem-solving and problem- oriented aggression.     

Primary school children (7-12)

Medical stress factors

With medical stress factors, primary school children make more use of avoidance techniques compared to approach techniques. In comparison with younger children, older children make more use of cognitive avoidance and make less use of problem-oriented avoidance. They are also more emotion-oriented and less problem-oriented. As children grow older, they make more use of emotion-oriented techniques compared to problem-oriented techniques. 

Social stress factors

Social stress factors are mainly tackled by problem-oriented strategies, such as: problem solving, problem- oriented aggression, interventions for quarreling with the parents and reassurance to the parents.     

Academic stress factors

The academic stress factors are usually tackled with the help of problem-oriented strategies, such as direct problem solving and problem-oriented avoidance. Older children reported using positive self-talk as an emotion-focused coping technique, while younger almost never make use of positive self-talk. 

Self-identified stress factors

Emotion-focused coping is often employed when the focus is on anxiety, self-calming, and positive self-expression. 10-year-olds are more aware of emotion regulation as a coping mechanism compared to 7-year-olds, but they are not yet able to use the strategies properly. Social support also seems to be important. Toddlers and preschoolers make more use of avoidance techniques compared to primary school children.

Adolescents (13-20)

Medical stress factors

Medical stress factors are addressed by means of emotion-oriented strategies such as positive self-speech and distraction. Adolescents deal with medical stress factors with a more approach-oriented strategy compared to younger children.

Social stress factors

Adolescents, in contrast to younger children, use more emotion-focused strategies with an emphasis on active cognitive coping in social stress factors. Adolescents also often make use of direct problem solving and seeking support.

Academic stress factors

Adolescents make extensive use of emotion-oriented and problem-oriented strategies. Emotion-oriented strategies include anxious expectations, positive self-determination, a focus on the task, seeking support, reducing tension and wishful thinking.

Self-identified stress factors

Relationship problems are the most important stress factors among 14 to 16 year olds. As children get older they will use a wider range of coping strategies. The preference for one of the two categories becomes less strong and they make better use of cognitive strategies when confronted with emotional situations.

How do age differences play a role in the use of coping strategies?

Studies that compare preschool to primary school

Attending primary school means employing of emotion-focused and cognitive coping strategies a lot more than attending preschool. So, the use of problem-oriented strategies is decreasing. Less use is made of the support of the caregiver and of the support of peers. There appears to be a reduction in the use of avoidance techniques. Finally, children are making more use of stress factor-specific strategies as they get older.

Comparisons between the different age groups in primary school

Children will use a greater variety of cognitive strategies during primary school. Less social support is sought, although the preference of support from peers is slowly shifting towards the parents. This can mean that children get to know how other children see them during primary school and are therefore less inclined to show their weaknesses. In addition, it seems that children are getting better at choosing the appropriate coping strategy for a specific stress factor. This may be because they are better at conceptualizing the stress factor but also because they are better at operational thinking.

Comparisons between primary school children and adolescents

From primary to secondary school, children seem to start using fewer different strategies, but the use of cognitive strategies seems to be increasing. This is probably due to an increase in cognitive capacities. Less problem-oriented strategies are used.

Comparisons between the different age groups of adolescents

During adolescence, the use of behavioral avoidance strategies appears to be declining and the use of cognitive distraction techniques is increasing. Young adolescents use more emotion-oriented strategies than problem-oriented strategies. This is the other way around for older adolescents.

How do different age group apply coping strategies and adjustment?

Toddlers and preschool children (3-7)

Strategies such as aggression, revenge and outbursts of anger are not socially acceptable when experiencing conflicts with peers. There is a small indication that expressing dissatisfaction and problem-solving ability do have positive consequences. Seeking support appears to be positive for sociometric status and approach strategies are adaptive in dealing with medical stress factors.

Primary school children (8-12)

Active coping or solving a problem immediately reduces internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Cognitive strategies such as self-criticizing, negative affect and escape-thoughts are associated with more fear. Conversely, cognitive distraction, calming oneself and solving a problem immediately leads to reduced anxiety. Seeking support and responding to parental conflicts are positively related to internalizing symptoms and behavioral problems. Emotion-focused coping and reduced problem-focused coping are associated with aggression, delinquency, and thinking disorders. Avoidance strategies are related to more depression, anxiety and behavioral problems.

Adolescents (13-18)

Distraction, coping, parental support, problem solving, and social entertainment are associated with less internalizing symptoms. Conversely, self-destruction and aggression cause more internalizing symptoms. Emotion and problem-oriented coping, avoidance and parental support, heavy physical activity and relaxation are related to less substance abuse. This also applies to support of peers, distractions, aggression and feelings of ventilation. Emotional discharge, acceptance, cognitive and behavioral avoidance techniques are related to more externalizing and internalizing problems. Conversely, there is a better adaptation to the internalizing and externalizing symptoms of cognitive coping, practical coping, searching for alternative rewards, social support approach techniques, problem solving and positive re-evaluation.

Discussion

Obtaining coping strategies

Social development factors influence the acquisition of coping in children. This includes the observed social acceptance, social comparisons and perspective. Young children experience feelings of support through the activities of their parents. Relationships with peers become increasingly important as the child grows older. Social development ensures the use of social support and social interactions which are crucial for the development of cognitive skills that affect emotion-focused coping strategies.

Adaptation and coping from a development perspective

A number of similarities are visible between different age groups. Expressing anger, emotional discharge and aggression are positively related to externalizing symptoms. Problem solving, rewarding and demanding activities are related to better adjustments. More use of approach strategies was associated with better functioning, but with more internalizing problems among toddlers and preschoolers. Escape-thoughts, cognitive and behavioral avoidance are related to poorer functioning. Conversely, general cognitive strategies lead to better functioning.

Adaptation and coping from a situational perspective

Situational stress factors

The use of approach strategies is related to seeking support, positive cognitive restructuring, making cognitive decisions and solving problems directly. Avoidance behavior in conflict situations is associated with fewer externalizing symptoms.

Medical stress factors

A strong relationship has been found between an approach technique and the speed of recovery from a medical event or problem.

Academic stress factors

Approach techniques are associated with higher self-esteem, social acceptance, school competence and performance than is the case with self-blame techniques. High school students seek help more often when they experience problems with peers than when they experience school and family problems. There is also more problem solving when confronted with age-related and school problems compared to with family problems.

What is emotion socialization?

Emotion socialization refers to the idea that children learn to understand, express and self-regulate emotions in social contexts. This process already starts in the first days of life. Experiencing a lower quantity and quality of social interaction with meaningful others during early childhood can negatively affect children's emotion socialization. For children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH), a vicious cycle can be created in which poor emotion socialization leads to less social participation, which hinders even more their emotion socialization.

What is the social information processing model?

This model proposes that, when people enter a social situation, they rely on past experiences and process social information in six steps:

• People encode emotional information by focusing their attention on relevant cues.

• People interpret emotional information according to the cues that are encoded.

• People formulate goals that they want to achieve in the situation.

• People generate response alternatives to the situation.

• People evaluate the alternatives to make a decision.

• People enact the most favorable response.

How can hearing status influence emotion understanding in social situations?

The skill of emotion understanding cannot develop without access to the social context in which emotions occur. In a social environment that features spoken communication, children that are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) don´t access the social environment in the same way as the typically hearing children. Especially the encoding stage functions as a filter through which people collect the most relevant emotional cues for subsequent processing. Not being able to hear the sound or tone of the social environment may lead to incorrect interpretations of people's intentions and feelings. It is possible that DHH children experience difficulties with emotion understanding as a result of a different encoding pattern.

Why do Tsou et. al. (2021) also use eye-tracking to study emotion understanding in DHH children?

The head region of others is an important cue to which people most often direct their attention when processing social situations. Even when facial expressions can´t be seen clearly, the head region is important because its angle, orientation, and movement provide information about the emotions and attention of other people. As a strategy to compensate for limited auditory input, DHH children may collect visual cues in a different way from typically hearing children. By using eye-tracking the researchers are able to see if perhaps the DHH children give more weight to body cues than to the head itself, or if they distribute their attention equally to the eye and mouth regions (whereas typically hearing individuals look mostly to the eyes).

How did DHH children differ from typically hearing children when trying to understand nonverbal emotional cues in dynamic social situations?

In the dynamic social situations, an interaction partner elicited an emotion in a target person. The DHH children spent less time looking at the target person's head and more time looking at the target person's body and at the partner´s head. The DHH children scored lower than the typically hearing children when interpreting emotions, and these lower scores were associated with their distinctive encoding pattern of spending less time looking at the target person's head and more time looking at the target person's body. With increased age, children attended to the relevant emotional cues longer and interpreted situations with the emotion intended more often.

What do the authors think may be the reason that DHH children spent less time looking at the head regions?

The DHH children may have found the head region less informative when facial cues were missing and so they reduced their attention to the head region and increased their attention to other cues that could give more information about the situation. Other visually observable cues may be able to compensate for ambiguous information. For example, a movement backwards could indicate fear, or moving forward could indicate anger.

Introduction

Within a few years, children show incredible growth in their emotional development. They learn to deal with different emotional situations between their fifth and twelfth year of life. In the past, most research has viewed this emotional growth as single or intrapsychic processes. Few studies have taken a transactional or interpersonal perspective when it comes to emotional developments while all people are born as social beings who cannot survive or develop without significant relationships with other people. There are several theories that emphasize the importance of an interpersonal perspective on emotions. However, most of these theories focus on one or a few components of emotions, namely the development of cognition, subjective experiences or the expression of emotions. It is important to view these separately because these components each follow a different and independent development path.

Current research looks at theoretical formulations and empirical findings with regard to emotional development in the three interpersonal relationships that are most important to primary school children. These are their relationship with their parents, their peers and their friends. The purpose of this review is to show the challenges that children face within emotional development in relation to these individuals. Challenges are tasks that confront children in their emotional life in a certain relationship at a certain moment of their development. These emotional challenges can cause problems and difficulties, but can lead to development and adaptation in the long term.

Emotional development: parents and children

Previous theories emphasize the importance of fathers and mothers on the emotional development of their children through the reciprocal investment that takes place over a longer period of time. This relationship is asymmetrical because for a long time the parent has more to say in the interaction than the child. Two important aspects of the relationship between children and their parents are the support that children receive and the learning that occurs.

For a long time, parents are the primary caregivers to children when they experience pain, anxiety or stress. They help children with their emotion regulation. Until adolescence, and sometimes longer, parents play a major role in the psychological functioning of their children at difficult moments. Parents teach their children basic lessons on how to regulate emotions. This is influenced by, for example, the responsiveness of parents and the form of attachment of the children to the parents. Parents are also the emotional coaches of children. By talking about feelings, they learn their child how to regulate these emotions. They also transfer culturally prescribed and valued rules with regard to experience and showing emotions (display rules). A limitation on the help that parents can offer is that they are further developed cognitively and emotionally than their children. For example, if their children are afraid of a ghost, this will not scare the parent. In addition, they will sometimes limit children in their emotions, for example if their emotions are culturally inappropriate at a certain moment. The extent to which parents influence their children and the emotion regulation and the way in which, differs per parent and depends on individual differences between parents. Individual parents differ in their willingness and capacity to respond empathically to their children if they show signs of stress.

Emotional development: peers

The relationship between children and their parents is symmetrical because both partners have about the same amount of social power. Relationships with peers, such as classmates, are often involuntary and many are not close, meaning that they do not share intimate thoughts or activities with each other. Yet peers seem to have an important influence on the emotional development of children. First of all, peers seem to be in a better position to understand each other's emotional lives than parents or children of other ages by the same age. Secondly, peers form a group. Being together with a group can reinforce some children's emotions, such as laughter at school and joint activities and or fears. As a group, children and adolescents create a culture with their own norms and values.

In groups of peers, the norm now seems to be to reduce the expression of emotions in many situations. Empirical research shows that children indicate that they only report anxiety and pain to their peers if it occurred to an extreme extent or if it was visible from the outside, such as a wound or bleeding. Primary school children expect more negative reactions if they show fear or sadness in their peers than in their parents. These rules appear to occur not only in fear and sadness but also in anger. This standard appears to be particularly strict with boys.

There are two possible ways in which peers can ensure that a culture is created and preserved in which the expression of emotions is muted. One method is teasing and bullying, a method that occurs in children who go to school. The other mechanism is more indirect: through gossip. Peers tend to reject children who do not fit their rules about showing emotions.

Emotional development: friendship

Friendship is often only distinguished from relationships with 'normal peers' in the pre-adolescence phase, because friendship then reaches a new level of intimacy. A difference between friends and peers is that friends choose each other. Friendships are therefore voluntary relationships that are generally based on mutual sympathy. Friends who are close can help each other to see which feelings are 'appropriate' and which are not. They also learn what expectations go with a friendship, such as 'being there for your friend when he or she needs you'. In addition, close friends also learn how to deal with disagreements. Also, children learn to deal with feelings of competition in friendship. Friendships are vulnerable because we voluntarily choose our friends. Anger, jealousy and other negative emotions can cause a friendship to change or end.

Conclusion

Many of the studies have been conducted in Western industrialized countries. This limits the generalizability of the results. A further limitation is that many studies have used self-reporting. These self-reports are not objective and the reports may be biased because, for example, social desirability. In the last ten years there has been a large number of studies on emotional development. It is now time to delve deeper into these studies and the material studied. It is time to make a distinction between the various components of emotions and to look into the development of attention and physiological components of emotions in future research.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is common among the population, 7.3-12.1%. The first characteristics appear in late childhood and adolescence.

A period of an age-related increase in social anxiety and fear

Adolescent changes are characterized by hormonal changes. Typical neurological developments that increase 'emotionality' during development are varied. The amygdala and the striatum are mentioned, which are involved in the basic processing of threat and reward. FMRI research revealed the differences in medial and lateral functional subdivisions of the prefrontal cortex. This is due to the response to emotionally provocative stimuli between adolescents and adults.

The involvement of the prefrontal area together with an increased reactivity of the limbic systems to threatening and rewarding stimuli may be responsible for increased emotional responses in adolescence. Typical neurological developments that increase 'sociability' during development are less divergent. A relative decrease in the anterior dorsal medial prefrontal cortex area and an increase in the posterior temporal areas when adolescents are compared with adults is found.

Changes in the brain network due to social-affective stimuli during adolescence can result in greater affective responses and greater involvement and understanding of interpersonal situations. This makes the adolescent flexible in the choice of behavior, and also makes him or her more susceptible to social fears and and anxiety.

A period of declining individual differences in social anxiety

Where the above confirms that adolescence increases the risk of social anxiety and fear, there is a small proportion of adolescents in who these symptoms are very severe and persistent. How does this type of adolescent differ from a normative developing adolescent? The answer is, there are developmental changes in both the emotional brain and the social brain. An emphasis is placed on biases during information processing (including attention bias, interpretation bias and expectation bias). Recent fMRI studies show that cognitive biases are associated with individual differences in brain activity.

Young people with an existing tendency to pay attention to (or expect) negative aspects of social cues or situations appear to experience these experiences more often and may start to behave in a mal-adaptive way, such as avoidance to avoid this situation. Because adolescents are better able to mentalize, there is an increase in the complexity and ambiguity of situations. One can explain these situations in several ways, but also with a greater chance of a negative interpretation. In future studies, it is important to look at what neurocognitive factors play a role per age group.

Dynamics of affective experience and behavior in depressed adolescents

Unipolar depression disorders are an example of emotion regulation disorders. This disregulation is caused by two systems, namely the appetitive system and the aversive system. These systems determine the valence of affective states. Depression is associated with more activity and sensitivity to aversive emotional systems. These cause the appetitive emotional system to become less active and less sensitive. A person will experience more negative affect and reduced positive affect. Three factors that influence this experience are intensity, duration and frequency. Duration is associated with depression, especially when looking at maintaining positive affect and disruptive negative affect.

Depression is also associated with less activity in the left PFC. Targeted behavior is motivated by this area and this causes positive affect. The amygdala is more active in depressed adults and children. Reward related neural structures are less active.

Depressed people experience negative affect more intensely and positive affect less intensely. Depression is also associated with less intense immediate responses to positive and negative stimuli.

Adolescents are undergoing changes in affective competence and contextual challenges. This is why it is important to study development during this period. Literature focuses on disturbances in negative affect, but not on the dysregulation of positive affect. The hypothesis in this study is that depressed adolescents experience dysphoria and anger more frequently, more intensely and for a longer period of time. They will also experience less frequent, less intense and less long-term happiness. Various instruments and behavioral observations have been used to investigate this.

Methods

Participants and Measurements

Participants were 152 adolescents who do not take antidepressants, with ages between 14-18 and their parents. Participants were recruited through a school screening (CES-D) and an in-home diagnostic interview (K-SADS). Families who met the research criteria after the diagnostic interview were invited to participate in a lab assessment. During this assessment, use was made of questionnaires (AIM, PANAS-X, MEI / Child-MEI) and family interaction tasks (LIFE) that evoke happiness, anger or dysphoria.

Results

Experience

Depressed participants experience anger for longer. Depressed women experience dysphoria longer than healthy women. Depressed men experience dysphoria longer than healthy men. Healthy participants experience happiness for longer than depressed participants, according to the MEI, but not according to the observation data.

Frequency

Depressive participants experience anger more often than healthy participants. The difference between depressed and healthy adolescents is greater for women. Depressive participants experience dysphoria more often from healthy participants. Depressive participants experience happiness less often than healthy participants.

Intensity

Depressive participants experience anger more intensively than healthy participants. Depressive participants experience sadness more intensely compared to healthy participants.

Discussion

Various abnormalities were found in terms of duration, frequency and intensity of affect. Depressed participants experience anger longer. Depressed women experience dysphoria longer than healthy women. Data about happiness varies with different methods. These results are consistent with earlier work, because it is shown that depressed adolescents have difficulty retaining positive affect. Data about intensity is less solid, because observations are unreliable. Depressed women mainly experience more anger. In general, depressed adolescents experience more negative and sad affect. Experiencing less positive affect is not supported by the data found. The lack of observation data may reflect task limitations or self-report data may differ in how people remember and summarize their experiences, rather than the actual affective experience. This can cause the difference in data from observations and self-report measurements. In the future, studying the interpersonal context is also important because the family environment of depressed adolescents differs from the environment of healthy adolescents.

A limitation in this study is that relapse and recovery are not included. Affective disregulation has been studied, but this is a very broad term. The generalizability of this study is questionable because there is a lack of diversity in terms of race and ethnicity. Finally, the relationship between adolescents' responses and affective experience can be studied.

Abstract

The high degree of comorbidity among mental disorders has led research to focus on finding factors associated with the development of different types of psychopathology, called transdiagnostic factors. Ruminating is involved in the etiology and maintenance of a depressive disorder and recent evidence implies that ruminating also appears to be involved in the development of anxiety disorders. Two longitudinal studies investigated whether ruminating could explain the competing and prospective associations for the above mentioned disorders. One study involves adolescents and one study involves adults. It was found that ruminating was a mediator of the unequal association between symptoms of depression and anxiety among adolescents and a shared mediator of this association among adults. In prospective analyzes among adolescents, it appeared that the baseline of depression predicted an increase in anxiety and ruminating led to a complete mediation of this association. The same was found in adults, plus that baseline anxiety was a predictor of an ncrease in depression. This study shines light on the important trans-diagnostic factor ruminating within emotional disorders.

Introduction

Various transdiagnostic factors for depression and anxiety disorders are now known: elements of affect, attention, memory, reasoning, (repeated negative) thoughts and behavior. Repeatedly negative thinking is seen as thoughts that come back, are passive or relatively uncontrolled and have a focus on negative content. A specific type of this is ruminating. A pattern of the reaction to distress in which an individual passively and pervasively thinks about the annoying symptoms and the causes and consequences of these symptoms, in which active problem-solving strategies are not given room.

Ruminating appears to be a predictor for later depressive symptoms and their future onset, number of depressive episodes and their duration. Rumination is also often reported by clients as a symptom of an anxiety disorder, PTSD and social anxiety. Rumination can lead to anxiety and depression symptoms through various mechanisms. Experimental induction of ruminating in stressed individuals leads to: more mal-adaptive, negative thoughts, less effective problem solving, uncertainty and immobility in the implementation of solutions and less willingness to participate in distracting, mood lifting activities. In addition, ruminant people experience less social support and more social friction than non-ruminant people and are considered less favored by non-ruminant people.

Within this study, the prediction is tested whether ruminating is statically responsible for the relationship between symptoms of anxiety and depression, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. By means of two samples; adolescents (11-14 years) and adults (25-75 years). If ruminating appears to be a transdiagnostic factor, there is expected to be evidence of the role of ruminating in the overlap of such symptoms at a random moment, over time, and in individuals at different points in their lives.

Method

Adolescent participants

The participants come from two high schools. The baseline sample consisted of 51.2% boys (total N = 1065). On measurement 2, 20.8% did not participate, on measurement 3, 20.4% of the baseline sample did not participate.

Adolescent measuring instruments

Depressive symptoms: Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), based on self-report. Anxiety symptoms: Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC), based on self-report. Ruminating: Children's Response Styles Questionnaire (CRSQ), based on self-reporting.

Adolescents procedure

Questionnaires were filled in during mentoring, the CDI and the CRSQ were taken on T1 and T3. All three lists were taken on T2. T1 plus 4 months = T2 plus 3 months = T3.

Adult participants

Called from random phone numbers in a specific part of the US. N = 1317 participated in baseline interview, with different age groups (25-35, 45-55, 65-75). T1 plus 1 year = T2 (14.1% of T1 did not participate in T2). Participants who completed both measurement moments took part in the study (N = 1132).

Adult measuring instruments

• Depressive symptoms: Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), based on self-report and the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD), filled in by interviewer. The interviewer also had to pay attention to non-verbal behavior.

• Anxiety symptoms: Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), based on self-report.

• Ruminate: Response Styles Questionnaire (RSQ), based on self-reporting.

Adult procedure

Trained interviewers conducted the self-reports and HRSD, usually at participants' homes.

Results

Cross-sectional analyzes: Within the adolescent sample, depression was significantly associated with anxiety. A significant mediation effect was found for ruminating between the symptoms of depression and anxiety. The same was found within the adult sample, although the mediation effect there was only partial. Longitudinal analyzes: Within the adolescent sample it was found that depression on T1 predicted an increase in lumination from T1 to T2 and that this increase in turn predicted an increase in anxiety from T1 to T3. Within the adult sample a significant indirect effect was found from anxiety on T1 to depression on T3 by means of ruminating. A significant indirect effect of depression on anxiety symptoms through ruminating was found.

Discussion

Transdiagnostic factors are relevant for improving theoretical models and clinical interventions. In doing this, broad and combined treatments can be set up, with little or no taking into account specific disorders. Rumination is responsible for a significant proportion of the overlap between depression and anxiety in both adolescents and adults (more visible in adolescents). This shows that rumination is actually a trans-diagnostic factor, and certainly needs to be involved in the combined treatments. This factor is more visible in adolescents, because internalizing problems are less differentiated in adolescents than in adults. Rumination can also play a greater role in the development of anxiety symptoms in adolescents compared to in adults.

Cross-sectional findings show that rumination plays an important role in explaining the competing symptoms of depression and anxiety, but does not provide information on whether ruminating is involved in the temporal progression from depression to anxiety and vice versa. The longitudinal findings show that rumination is a complete mediator between depression and later anxiety among adolescents. This shows that depressive symptoms predict an increase in ruminating over time and that this increase in ruminating is responsible for the development in anxiety symptoms. Moreover, this shows an increased risk of anxiety disorders among adolescents with depressive symptoms. Among adults, rumination is a significant mediator in the prospective associations of anxiety and subsequent depression and vice versa. This shows that ruminative responses to negative affect are associated with increased risks of developing co-morbid symptoms of emotional disorders over time.

Shortcomings: research largely based on self-report instead of DSM diagnoses, only looking at symptoms of anxiety and depression and no other comorbid symptomatology, different measurement methods between the two sample participants and finally it cannot be demonstrated that the associations found are causal know the connection.