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In this article we will discuss about:- 1. Emotional Development in Infants 2. Emotional Development during Childhood 3. Emotional Development in Adolescence.
Emotional Development in Infants:
The emotional element is present in the child from his birth, as is evident from his crying and vigorous movement of body parts. These movements bear adequate evidence to the presence of emotion at birth in the child, but it is difficult to determine the emotion that is related to a particular form or pattern of the child’s conduct. Generally, before any emotional can be indulged in, the child should be able to interpret the stimulus. Hindrance in the fulfillment of some desire in a child leads to emotional excitation.
In infancy, the child is unable to transfer his emotional reactions from one situation to another. The studies that Bridges conducted concerning infant emotional states revealed that the child’s emotions increase with experience, but they are very changeable and unstable. Anger and fear in infancy are indicative of general obstruction or pain.
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As the child develops and passes to a higher stage of life, his emotional pattern can be determined with increasing precision and accuracy. In order to study the child’s emotions during this age, some scientists took photographs of many children depositing such emotions as pain, anger and fear, under normal conditions.
In one cinematic study, in which a movie camera was employed, it was revealed that the individual child’s conduct during the first few days after his birth does not show any determinate emotions, but within a year, emotions of his nature become more specific and definite. Most observers of photograph of a ten month old child could determine the emotions with such accuracy and similitude that the concurrence could not be attributed to coincidence.
By the time a child reaches his first six months, his first expressions and other bodily positions are specific enough to make it possible to distinguish between such emotions as anger and fear. There is continuous variation in the manifestation of emotions during infancy. For some time after birth, the infant smiles when it sees a human face and later on it also laughs audibly. In studying children of four weeks, Gesell distinguished between expression of hunger, anger and pain.
Even though it differs from child to child, yet the expression of these emotions is so specific that the mother can always determine the cause of the child’s crying while another’s child’s crying may not convey any meaning to her. Similar expressions of fear, pleasure and affection can be seen in the child’s first year of life.
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In the process of this emotional development, the child gradually evolves definite pattern of reaction to stimuli that cause emotional reaction. In the beginning, the child’s activity, on becoming angry, is no definite and neither is there any solution of the situation that gives rise to anger. As the child grows older, he exhibits a more patterned effort in solving the problem that arouses anger in him.
Nevertheless, some inconsistent activities are always to be seen in an individual’s emotional behaviour. Besides emotional expression, the intensity of emotion can also be used as a criterion of distinguishing between emotional states. Emotional expression is intense at times, while at others it is comparatively calm and weak.
The child who literally becomes mad when deprived of his is feeding bottle, at the age of seven months, shows much more composure and less violence when he has occasion to be angry at seven years. In this manner the gradual development of emotional states is accompanied by variations in emotional intensity as well, although even in adult life, some people behave with almost lunatic violence when emotionally disturbed. As the infant approaches childhood, his crying and yelling becomes considerably less than during earlier infancy.
This condition is more particularly noticeable in the child’s behaviour outside the house. This change is the result of many factors. By the time he enters childhood, the infant is in a position to express the feelings through language. He can substitute abusive language for crying when incensed at something. He also realizes that it may not be desirable or proper for him to show his anger at all times.
Even if he has cause to be angry with someone older than himself, he can indiscreetly express his displeasure as he is likely to be beaten for his trouble. Another reason is that his friends tease him if he cries, and this injures his self-respect, with the result that he chooses other alternatives for expressing his feelings of resentment.
In the later stages on infancy, the child moreover reacts less violently to emotionally disturbing situations. Nevertheless, novel situations that he comes across provide him with emotional experiences, but the result that any situation will have upon him depends on his learning and maturity. In the first six or seven months, a child runs shy of a strange face and runs from it, because by then it achieves enough maturity to distinguish between familiar and strange faces. It is very essential that in one’s dealings with children, one should understand their emotion.
In this connection parents and teachers must exercise proper restraint and caution, since this is the age in which the child can be moulded as desired, and emotional development is an important aspect of his development. The child’s emotionality is completely bound up to his hopes and ambitions. An important element in the child’s emotional development is the affection that others give him as well as the affection that he himself harbours for others.
Any loss of his affection can lead to very strong feelings of jealousy, resulting in serious adjustment problems in the family. As the child starts taking interest in new things that come within his sphere, the occasions that bring him pleasure and satisfaction also change. He finds much pleasure in learning and finds occasion for exercising the knowledge of climbing stairs, riding cycles, etc. The scope of a child’s activities widens along with the increase and development in his abilities, a corollary of which is an increase in opportunities for greater and more diversified emotional experience.
In this manner, a child’s emotional development moves parallel to his physical and mental development. One also sees emotional reactions in children to some imaginary situations, because in his infancy the child is very sensitively imaginative. Experience of emotions and feelings from novel things increase as his objective, purposes, desires and plans increase. Watson believed that a new born infant has three fundamental emotions—fear, anger and love.
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Sherman and Bridges have criticised Watson’s contention on the basis of considerable experimentation. Nevertheless, most other psychologists also accept Watson’s enumeration of three emotions in the infant, and that he develops his other emotions by the mixture of these basic emotions. Hatred for example, is the result of a mixture of anger, fear and indifference. As the age of the infant increases, the feelings and expressions of these emotions also change. Experiments have indicated that while a two year old child is not afraid of a snake, one of four year is. One important element in these changes is the imitation of the elder’s behaviour.
The parents and teachers should be careful that no particular emotion in the child reaches a stage of excessive or extreme intensity as this sometimes leads to serious physical damage or impoverishment. Extreme fear can even lead to death. Most of the things of which a child is afraid, create fear in him only because he has learned to fear them.
Parents and other near relatives are capable of making a child a hero, a coward, and angry or placid individual, irritable or forbearing. Concrete behavioural examples are most effective and influential than lectures. If the parents set the child good example, he is more likely to learn to control his emotional expression.
Along similar lines, various circumstances can be stimulated in the family whereby the development of undesirable emotions in the child is obviated, while the expression of desirables ones is encouraged. For example, if the parents meet out fair and equal love to all the children, there is no jealousy among them on this account. Secondly, if the parents are intimate with children, many emotional tensions are avoided. Emotional development of a child is further open to such influences as the behaviour of other children neighbourhood because when the child is two or three, he goes out to play with children of his own age, and takes part in all kinds of activities.
The parents should also try to keep an eye on the child’s companions and game programmes as bad company is almost certain to have undesirable emotional development. It is said that many of the world’s bravest people become brave because they heard their parents talking of the bravery of bygone heroes. Hence, emotional development depends in the main upon the education given by parents and teachers.
Emotional Development during Childhood:
Emotional development during childhood is more susceptible to the influence of friend circle than of the family. The friends can either belong to the neighbourhood or to the school. It is in this age that the child first goes to school. Hence, his emotional development is now also open to such influences as the teacher’s behaviour and the atmosphere within the school and classroom. The proper emotions can be willfully created in the child by the teachers setting the appropriate examples, the same measure also being effective negatively in blocking and preventing the development of undesirable emotions. Creating a proper atmosphere for the child is equally important.
He must be encouraged to take interest while at the same time the child should have a sense of belonging and should not feel a stranger in school. These are the methods by means of which ideal character can be developed in the child. In childhood, the manifestation of emotions becomes more specific and precise but the child is devoid of the impetuosity of infancy. At the same time, the child shows no reaction many things that in infancy him to react violently. He does not show anger at being bathed or dressed, neither does he show any fear of strangers.
In this age, the child is almost invariably the member of some one or the other group, in the activities of which he participates actively. Sometimes, undesirable and harmful tensions and hatred develop among different groups, in which case it is necessary for the teachers and well-wishers to intervene tension generated, as such tensions can lead to the development of undesirable emotions and complexes.
Fear is engendered in the child if physical punishment is used to teach him, the outcome being desire is to escape from study. Gentle behaviour on the part of the teacher pays dividends in the form of proper emotional development and adjustment. It is for this reason that more women and men are employed to teach small children.
The atmosphere in both school and home should be as free as possible since only then the child can freely manifest emotions. If free expression of emotions is hindered because of the presence of excessive control and strict discipline, the child develops all kinds of mental complexes very harmful as regards his mental health and development. Presence of good ideals in healthy school and domestic atmosphere is itself a sufficient condition for the natural development of laudable emotions.
Similarly, if the ideals present in the school and at home are low and detestable, then even the greatest amount of precaution and care cannot avoid the development of improper emotions. Repression only leads to the suppression or control of the expression of emotions, but not their destruction, and this repression is often more dangerous than if the emotions were-expressed.
Emotional Development in Adolescence:
Adolescence is the period of life when the individual shows signs of development in every respect. Hence, it is only natural that the expression of emotion should undergo similar modification. For example, the adolescent is very sensitive to any injury to his prestige. A physical deformity is so magnified in its evil effects that it even enters his dreaming state and modifies it. Many of his emotions he suppresses externally, but they find expression in the form of day-dreams. The high intensity of the sexual instinct is one reason why the adolescent is more prone to react to love than to any other emotion.
This emotion finds expression in the form of excessive and almost obsessional attraction to the individuals of the other sex. As the adolescent’s field of knowledge widens, the situations that give rise to emotions him also change. He becomes angry if his country is attacked by another nation, he can even show displeasure at any instance of injustice that come to his notice, and he can even rebel against society. He develops hatred for authority of administration is strict.