Summaries per article with Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology at Leiden University 22/23

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.

Introduction

Children with autism experience difficulties when moving around others. It is also suggested that they do not have a properly functioning Theory of Mind (ToM). This ToM is needed to be aware of your own mental states and to understand your own functioning. Children with autism who do not have a properly functioning ToM will not be able to evaluate themselves.

How do autistic children show emotional awareness?

Children with autism appear to show more emotions when viewing non-living objects compared to children without this disorder. This is striking, because they react less emotionally in social situations. They do not make sufficient or even no use of the communicative values ​​of emotional expressions. There is no further reason to believe that they are less emotional than others. An emotional state does not directly involve emotional awareness. Controlling one's own emotional processes is a capacity that children must learn.

To label emotions, one needs introspective information, his or her own behavioral observations, and the verbal information provided by others. Normally developing children do not yet have a good introspective capacity. Due to the lack of self-reflection, they cannot properly explain what they feel. Adults have better introspection and are better able to explain how they feel and why. However, it is hardly possible to explain what it is that they feel.

According to cognitive emotion theorists, we become aware of a primitive action tendency. For example, fear comes to the fore due to the tendency to run away. The question is whether is the same in children with autism who do not have a fully functioning ToM. Earlier research has shown that autistic children understand the link between the four basic emotions (fear, anger, joy and sorrow) and their causal events. However, only through introspection or through the careful observation of others will anyone be able to find out that there are always exceptions to the rules. Children with autism are known to ignore the emotional expressions of others. Especially in exceptional situations, an austistic child will not notice the emotion. For example, fear is linked to a large dog. If someone is then afraid of small downy hamsters, a child with autism will not notice the fear of the person in question. Research has shown that they are able to give descriptions and give examples of various emotions, but their examples refer less often to social interactions.

Multiple emotions

It is important to note that in addition to a few prototypical situations, almost all situations can be viewed from different perspectives.
When young children have discovered one of the perspectives, they tend to stop analyzing. Around nine years old, children generally begin to recognize the existence of simultaneous emotion perspectives. First they discover that it is possible to have two similar emotions at the same time. These are emotions of the same valence (two positive or two negative), for example angry and sad. A little later they discover that it is possible to feel two equal emotions of different valence at the same time, such as happy and sad.

The possibility of looking at one and the same situation from different perspectives is a possibility that is also closely related to the Theory of Mind. To have a Theory of Mind, it is necessary to understand that someone can have a different perspective on things. Different emotions in the same situation also reflect different action trends.

What are the objectives of this study?

The first goal of this study is to investigate the ability of high functioning children with autism to produce concrete examples of emotion-provoking situations from their own experiences. As a hypothesis it was expected that there will be no differences between normally developing children and children with autism in terms of their ability of possible situations in which they experience one of the basic emotions. They could therefore come up with about as many possible situations. The reactions of the children were analyzed in two ways. First, the extent to which the children use their own experiences as a frame of reference was studied. Then it was studied whether the examples are social or non-social examples.

The second goal was to study whether highly functioning children with autism are aware of the multiple emotional impressions of situations that contain different emotional perspectives. The hypothesis was that children with autism would score worse than normally developed children.

Which research method was applied?

Participants

22 children with autism (20 boys, 2 girls) and 22 normally developing children (20 boys, 2 girls). The average age was 10 years and 2 months. The autistic children were all diagnosed with Classic Autism or Asperger's syndrome according to the DSM-IV criteria.

Emotion identification

As an introduction, the children were asked to identify 'pride'. The emotion served as a useful introductory question, which also provided a better balance between negative and positive emotions. The four basic emotions (fear, anger, joy, and sadness) that followed to identify were presented in a random order. To see to what extent the children recognized their own emotional experiences, the children were asked questions.

Scoring

The reactions of the children were classified as social (explicit references to another person) or non-social. In addition, references to a specific situation or event were interpreted as an indication that children used their own experiences as a frame of reference, rather than using prescribed knowledge about emotion-provoking events.

Multiple emotions

To start with, the children were asked to imagine that the event in the story happened to them. The Multiple Emotions task consists of an example story (accompanied by drawings) and the instruction to inform the children about the possibility of experiencing more than one emotion at a time. Children viewed drawings of social expressions, which correspond to the four emotions in the story. They were asked what emotions the child would feel and how intense these emotions are. Afterwards, four stories were offered to the children. Two of these stories were designed to provoke both positive and negative emotions (joy and sadness). The other two stories were designed to provoke multiple negative emotions (anger and sadness). To avoid too many stories with a negative impression, two stories were added that were designed to only provoke joy.

What are the results?

Some emotions

In comparison with the control group, children with autism were more likely to deny that they had ever experienced one or more of the four emotions when asked about some emotions. In addition, they reported fewer negative emotions. These results were only significant for anger. The children with autism made fewer references to specific situations and gave fewer social examples than the group with normally developed children. The intensity of the emotions showed that joy was experienced more strongly than the three negative emotions. This was the same for the experimental and control group.

Multiple emotions

Among the multiple emotions, it turned out that autistic children named fewer different emotional perspectives per story. This result does not directly suggest that these children recognize multiple emotional perspectives less often, because it is possible to attribute more than two emotional perspectives to the same multiple emotion scenario. Furthermore, it was found that children from both autistic and normally developing groups more often recognized the multiple perspective when it involved two negative emotions. The average intensity experienced with the emotions joy and anxiety also did not differ between the two groups. Finally, it turned out that if the autistic children recognized the other two emotions (anger and sadness), they reported these emotions as being less intense. 

Discussion

Children with autism would feel less to no emotions, they could report fewer emotional situations from their own experience and recognize fewer different emotional perspectives in the multiple emotion scenarios. Children with autism are similar to the control group when detecting emotions from an opposite domain in a scenario. They are not the same when detecting emotions from the same domain. This suggests that we cannot attribute their problems to delays in development. The recognition of simultaneous emotions from the same domain normally precedes the recognition of the simultaneous appearance of opposing emotions. The research also shows that autistic children find it difficult to identify their own emotions. This means that it is difficult for them to state how they feel. The experimental group of children would not have a well-developed knowledge of their own emotions, which can be indicated by the finding that they also use fewer coping strategies to deal with the negative emotions. The results of this study seem to point to a simpler, single-emotion perspective in the negative domain with a more important position of anxiety in children with autism than in the control group, rather than using multiple emotion perspectives.

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.

What is the background of this study?

People with SAD (social anxiety disorder) fear being negatively evaluated in social settings. The characteristics of SAD include an onset during early adolescence, often a lifelong course and a great risk of comorbid disorders. While SAD has severe effects on one’s personal life and society, current treatment is not optimal. In order to improve interventions, the risk factors of developing SAD need to become more clear.

A patient with SAD fears acting in a way that will be humiliating or embarrassing in social situations. The behavioral and neurobiological correlates of that fear can be examined by using the Social Norm Processing Task. This task involves reading and evaluating stories describing (un)intentional violations of social norms. Studies using this Task found that people with social anxiety are more sensitive to unintentional violations of social norms. One study showed increased activation in the medial prefrontal cortex in the participants with SAD. In comparison to the control group, they also considered the stories more embarrassing and inappropriate, especially the story describing unintentional violations. Thus, social anxiety affects the embarrassment ratings for unintentional violations of social norms. Another study showed that participants with greater social anxiety levels rated the unintentional violations just as embarrassing as the intentional violations. Experiencing embarrassment underlies the development and maintenance of social anxiety.

However, no study examined whether the correlates of altered processing of unintentional social norm violations could be SAD endophenotypes. Endophenotypes are heritable and measurable components indicative of genetic vulnerability to disorders. These endophenotypes could improve our knowledge regarding the pathways leading to severe psychopathology, help identifying vulnerable individuals and improve the current intervention programs. Endophenotypes need to be related to the disorder, independent and already present in a preclinical state, heritable and they should cosegregate with the disorder in families of probands.

Hypothesis: brain activation and behavioral ratings are associated with processing unintentional violations of social norms.

Who participated and what materials were used?

Participants were recruited through the LFLSAD: Leiden Family Lab study on Social Anxiety Disorder (a multigenerational and multiplex family study). Eight families participated, including two generations of families carrying the gene linked to SAD. The inclusion of the families was based on the combination of a ‘proband’ parent (diagnosed with SAD) and a child who met criteria for SAD. Used were MRI scans and various measurements such as diagnostic interviews.

The Revised Social Norm Processing Task (R-SNPT) consisted of story reading, getting into the MRI scanner and rating the MRI scan. The stories described a neutral social situation and a situation in which a social norm was unintentionally or intentionally violated (baking a pie with friends: using the right amount of sugar, accidentally using salt, using salt as a prank). Participants had to imagine themselves in these social situations. After the MRI scan, they were asked to rate the stories’ inappropriateness and embarrassment.

What were the results?

No gender and age differences were observed between family members with and without SAD. Family members with SAD displayed higher levels of social anxiety.

Self-reported social anxiety was positively linked to brain activation in two brain clusters. One cluster was located in the occipital pole, the other in the frontal pole. No clusters showed negative associations with social anxiety. Heritability assessments suggest that brain activation in those clusters is heritable.

The R-SNPT ratings showed a significant relation between embarrassment and social anxiety, but none between inappropriateness and social anxiety. Follow-up analyses suggest positive associations between social anxiety and embarrassment regarding all three stories. Sensitivity analyses suggest that these findings were not driven by SAD. Embarrassment ratings in the intentional stories showed low heritability. Embarrassment scores for neutral and unintentional stories showed no heritability.

What is the conclusion of this study?

This study proves that brain activation associated with processing unintentional violations of social norms is a neurobiological candidate endophenotype of social anxiety disorder. These findings provide new insights in the neurological pathways leading to social anxiety disorder.