Emotional Development
The Organization of Emotional Life in the Early Years

Emotional Development presents the phases of early of emotional development and regulation.

L. Alan Sroufe (Author)

9780521629928, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 28 September 1997

280 pages, 5 b/w illus.
23.1 x 15.1 x 1.8 cm, 0.417 kg

'… an important contribution to our understanding of the emotional worlds of our patients … It sets out comprehensively, and with academic rigour, how the experience and expression of emotion is a central strand of individual development.' Tamsin Cottis, New Directions in Psychotherapy and Relational Psychoanalysis

In the past, researchers have treated the development of the emotions and the task of emotional regulation as two separate topics, the former emphasizing 'normative' questions and the latter emphasizing 'individual' differences. Until now, understanding the first topic has never been seen as relevant for the second. This is the area pioneered by Emotional Development. This book presents the early phases of emotional life from a developmental perspective. It argues that emotional generation hinges on the developing ability to express arousal or 'tension' in accordance with one's context. It reveals the common core processes underlying the emergence of specific emotions and the capacity for emotional regulation. It explains the timing of emotional emergence, why emotions function as they do, and also explores individual styles of emotional regulation. Close ties between emotional development, cognitive, social and CNS development are discussed, too.

Part I. The Nature of Emotional Development: 1. A perspective on development
2. Conceptual issues underlying the study of emotion
3. Emotion and the organization of development
Part II. The Unfolding of the Emotions: 4. An organizational perspective on the emergence of emotions
5. The development of joy: a prototype for the study of emotion
6. The development of fear: further illustration of the organizational viewpoint
7. The interdependence of affect and cognition
8. Meaning, evaluation, and emotion
Part III. Emotional Development and Individual Adaption: 9. The social nature of emotional development
10. Attachment: the dyadic regulation of emotion
11. The emerging of the autonomous self: caregiver guided self-regulation
12. The growth of self-regulation
13. Summation.

Subject Areas: Child & developmental psychology [JMC]