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In this article we will discuss about the beginning of emotional psychology.
A number of thinkers are of view that the infant is capable of emotional experiences, right at birth. Rank, for example, speaks about the birth trauma and believes that the new-born child experiences an emotion of anxiety. Susan Issacs also thinks that the infant shows fears, anger, love and hate from the beginning of life.
Watson experimented on the emotional responses of the neonates, and he found out that they exhibited anger, fear and love. Sherman’s experiments point out that the infant emotions are not as clear-cut as postulated by Watson.
The infant does show a sort of excitement and random activity if the unvoculature to begin with. Other studies also showed the presence of generalised emotional reactions in the infant.
Bridge’s work in the study of emotions is a classic one. She found out that the new born responded with an undifferentiated excitement to any stimulus. As a result of learning and maturation, differentiation emerged by about 3 months. The first emotions are distress and delight.
Distress is gradually differentiated into anger, disgust and jealousy. Delight, similarly, gets differentiated into elation and affection. As the child grows older, these emotional reactions are further differentiated and become increasingly specific.
