Emotion and Self Regulation Naomi Ekas 92809 SelfRegulation

Emotion and Self Regulation Naomi Ekas 9/28/09

Self-Regulation n n Children do not come into this world with all of the skills necessary to regulate their behavior It is around 2 years that we really start to see children monitoring behavior

Self-Regulation n Ability to comply with a request, initiate and cease activities according to situational demands, to modulate the intensity, frequency, and duration of verbal and motor acts in social and educational settings, to postpone acting upon a desired object/goal, and to generate socially approved behavior in the absence of external monitors (Kopp, 1982)

Self-Regulation n Neurophysiological modulation n n Birth to 2 -3 months Reflexes

Self-Regulation n Sensorimotor modulation n 3 months - 9 months + Engage in voluntary motor acts (reach & grab, hand to mouth, etc. ) and change that act in response to environmental demands No awareness of meaning of situation

Self-Regulation n Control n n n 9 -12 months to 18 + months Emerging ability of children to show awareness of social or task demands and modulate behavior/emotions E. g. compliance to demands

Self-Regulation n Emergence of self-control and the progression to self-regulation n n 24 + months Compliance, delay an act on request Representational thinking and recall memory Limited flexibility

Self-Regulation n Self-regulation n n 36 + months Flexibility!!!

Emotion Regulation n n In addition to regulating behaviors, children must also regulate emotional experiences Development of emotion regulation abilities follows Kopp’s description of emergence of self-regulation n Reflexes to flexible management

Emotion Regulation n Emotion regulation consists of the extrinsic and intrinsic processes responsible for monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotional reactions, especially their intensive and temporal features, to accomplish one’s goals

Emotion Regulation n Monitoring, evaluating, modifying n n Not only negative emotions Not only dampening emotions, but also increasing

Emotion Regulation n Extrinsic influences n n n Parents!!! Critical in the early months Intrinsic influences n temperament

Emotion Regulation n Intensive and temporal features n n Intensity - subdue or enhance Speed or slow onset or recovery Reduce or increase lability (range) Limit or enhance persistence over time

Emotion Regulation n Accomplish one’s goals n n Must be regarded functionally What are regulator’s goals for that situation?

Emotion Regulation n What is regulated? n Control of underlying arousal processes through maturing systems of neurophysiological regulation n Diffuse excitatory processes decline in lability during first year Cortical inhibitory controls emerge gradually during infancy Nervous system reactivity

Emotion Regulation n Attention processes n Emotion can be regulated by managing the intake of emotionally arousing information n n Redirecting attention As they get older can do things like internal redirection of attention (e. g. thinking of something pleasant during unpleasant situation)

Emotion Regulation n Other components of information processing n Alter interpretations n n “He didn’t really die, he just got frightened and ran away” “It’s just pretend”

Emotion Regulation n n Increase access to coping resources Regulating emotional demands of familiar situations

Emotion Regulation n Importance of social interaction n Others can help regulate our emotions (e. g. mothers soothing young infant) n n n Importance of attachment relationship Others can help us with our interpretations of situations Modeling behavior of those around us

Emotion Regulation n Individual differences n n Temperament Attachment Parenting Others? ? ?

Emotion Regulation n Problems with the construct and research area

Emotion regulation… • …viable scientific construct? • …proposes to account for how and why emotions • organize, facilitate other physiological processes (e. g. , promote problem solving) – and/or • have detrimental effects (harm relationships) • …integrates an understanding of typical and atypical development – emotions relate to cognition and behavior --> developmental outcomes Fernandez

• Concerns – Use the term without a definition • define emotion & emotion regulation – Do not distinguish between emotion and emotion regulation • emotions are inherently regulatory • physiological systems aren’t clearly distinct from emotions – Use valence to provide information about emotion regulation without evidence of regulatory process • regulating & regulated • intra/interdomain – Optimal functioning only or includes maladaptive regulation – Emotions understood in context Fernandez

• Areas of Research – Infant Temperament • Reactivity (speed & intensity of initial activity) • Self-regulation (ability to modify the intensity & duration by engaging in behavioral strategies) – Mother-Child Interactions • regulated and regulating in social interactions • quality of emotional exchanges related to child’s ability to regulate own behavior – Early Emotional Self-Regulation • emergence of new (more complex) use of objects and interactions (ages 2 -4) • manner of self-regulation is predictive of later outcomes Fernandez

• Direction for New Research – Independent measures of emotion & regulation • Avoid confounding valence with regulation • Use of multiple measures – Analysis of temporal relations between emotion & regulation • Demonstration of change over time – Comparison of emotion & regulation in contrasting conditions • Help the researcher infer emotion when its barely detectible • Disentangle activation of emotion & regulatory process – Multiple converging measures • Self-report, expressive behavior, and physiological change • Heightens inferencing Fernandez

Feldman, R. (2009). The development of regulatory functions from birth to 5 years: Insights from premature infants. Child Development, 80(2), 544 -561. n Different perspectives of regulation n n Common assumptions n n Posner & Rothbart (1998) – interplay of b/mechanisms of excitation and inhibition Calkins & Fox (2002) – integration of physiological, emo, attn, cog processes Neuroscience – relations b/ brainstem, limbic, and cortex to produce behavior Fogel (1993) – coregulatory function of early relationships Integrated , hierarchically ordered system of multiple components of functioning Synchronized in time Plastic interplay b/ coregulated and autoregulated processes in development Hierarchical-integrative course of regulation development n 1 st year: Emotion regulation of external and internal stresses n 2 nd n n n Based in brain-stem function (sleep-wake cycle, vagal tone) year: Attention regulation to achieve goals Based in both physiological and emotional regulation processes Preschool years: Self-regulation of behavior and cognition n Behavior adaptation, Executive functions, Conscience

Current Study Premature infants from birth to 5 yrs n Difficulties in physiological and behavioral regulation Brainstem Limbic Cortex Core Systems 32 wks Neonate Physiological oscillators Emotion regulation 3 mos 6 mos 12 mos Attention regulation Self-regulation Goals 1) Describe expression of multiple regulatory processes in at-risk pop 2) Describe longitudinal pattern of associations across levels - Unique and interactive effects of levels 1 -3 on 4 3) Test causal paths to self-regulation - Vagal tone Attn regulation & behavior adaptation - Sleep-wake cyclicity Attn regulation 24 mos 5 yrs

Current Study n High vs. Low Medical Risk n n n Correlations between levels of regulation n n Mild – moderate correlations among levels Predicting self-regulation at age 5 n n n Neonates: less organized sleep-wake cycle, higher neg emotion (boys also at risk) 1 year: worse emotion reg, higher neg emotion 2 years: worse attn reg 5 years: poorer EF, no differences in behavior adaptation or self-restraint Vagal tone, sleep-wake, emo reg, attn reg predicted EF All but sleep-wake predicted behavior problems & self-restraint Structural modeling

Results & conclusions n High vs. Low Medical Risk n n n Neonates: less organized sleep-wake cycle, higher neg emotion (boys also at risk) 1 year: worse emotion reg, higher neg emotion 2 years: worse attn reg at 12 but not 24 mos, worse delayed response at 24 mos 5 years: poorer EF only, no differences in behavior adaptation or self-restraint Vulnerability but effects diminish over time due to other protective factors Correlations between & within levels of regulation n n Mild – moderate correlations between levels Regulation construct is continuous across time Physiological measures capture basic feature of orientation to environment Most variance not shared – suggests malleability in development Consistent relationship between low neg emotionality and regulatory functions (e. g. sleep-wake cyclicity & less cry states) Bidirectional influence between development of negative affect and regulatory functions Reactivity Regulation Reactivity Environmental stressors Fuccillo Negative Emotionalit y Regulation

Results & conclusions (cont. ) • Predicting self-regulation at age 5 n Structural model Sig better fit when indirect paths included Consistent with hierarchical-integrative model of brain maturation n n Unanswered questions n n Physiological & emotional regulatory processes across time Need for person-centered analysis & study of predictors of resilience Fuccillo