Emotional Regulation

Emotional Regulation Calkins, S. D. & Perry, N. B. 2016. The development of emotion regulation: Implications for child adjustment. Developmental Psychopathology. Three: 6:1–56.

we view ER processes as those behaviors, skills, and strategies, whether conscious or unconscious, automatic or effortful, that serve to modulate, inhibit, and enhance emotional experiences and expressions reactive (early, biological, genetic) & control dimensions

prior work categorized emotional regulation as adaptive or maladaptive (dysregulation), mapping positive affect onto adaptive. BUT. 

development of attention and its use in the control of emotional reactivity begins to emerge in the  rst year of life and continues throughout the preschool and school years.  Individual differences in the ability to voluntarily sustain focus or shift attention are paramount to the self-control of attention. Attentional orienting skills, in particular, have been identi ed as a critical component of the regulatory process, as orienting has the direct effect of amplifying, at a neural level, the stimuli toward which attention is directed, thus chang- ing the affective experience of the individual

ER as social phenomenon; shifting from dyadic regulation to self-regulation

(Campos et al., 2011) has also articulated a theory of ER that emphasizes the relational (versus intrapersonal) aspect of ER.      -> Useful to my final paper?

dev / context issues

relatively passive and reactive neonate becomes a child capable of self-initiated behaviors that serve an emotion regulatory function. The infant moves from near complete reliance on caregivers for regulation (e.g., via physical soothing provided when the infant is held) to independent ER (e.g., choosing to  nd another toy to play with, rather than throwing a tantrum, when the desired toy is taken by a companion)

This shift is supported by developments in the motor domain, as well as changes in representational ability and the development of language skills. Brain maturation contributes as well, and by the end of toddlerhood, chil- dren have executive control abilities that allow control of arousal, regulation of affective expression, and inhibition and activation of behavior (Bronson, 2000).

I was interested in the connections suggested in this week’s readings between emotional regulation, theory of mind, and language development. Some of the mechanisms described, such as the progress from dyadic emotional regulation to self-soothing (often using linguistic means), verbal and appraisal, feel reminiscent of powerful ways of interacting with literature familiar from my time as an English teacher, such as making connections between stories and one’s own experiences, imagining how a character feels from incomplete information, putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, and considering multiple perspectives. The developmental timeline of emotional regulation—with early emotional regulation starting around 3-4 months, and progressing rapidly through the first three years (Catkins & Perry, 2016, p. 6)—also tracks that of language and theory of mind development. Astington & Jenkins (1999), who we read in Bruce McCandliss’s Cognitive Development class, also found language development implicated in the emergence of theory of mind. 

Astington, J. W., & Jenkins, J. M. (1999). A longitudinal study of the relation between language and theory-of-mind development. Developmental psychology, 35(5), 1311.

children with a secure attachment history have positive expectations of others that may contribute to the use of other-oriented regulation strategies beyond infancy.

Cognitive reappraisal, rumination, suppression