Emotion Regulation in Infancy - Literature review Example

RUNNING HEAD: THE DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTION REGULATION IN INFANCY The Development of Emotion Regulation in Infancy Name Institution Date Introduction One of the most important adaption during infancy is often the development of the ability to manage arousing events. Emotional regulation in infancy basically refers to the various processes that enable infants to manage the magnitude of their emotional state as well as minimize the feelings of distress. According to Stifter (2002), empirical research on emotion regulation during infancy is considerably a recent phenomenon, and a number of studies have paid significant attention to its development. Consequently, a number of developmental models, debates and conceptualizations have emerged. The concept has been explored by no less than three developmental areas or domains including the cognitive domain, the emotion domain and the temperament, with every perspective approaching the emotion regulation development differently. On the other hand, even though these perspectives might approach the research on emotional regulation in different ways, each also acknowledges that emotion regulation in infancy is a multifaceted process. Indeed, as Stifter (2002), concluded; emotional regulation in infancy is thus a theoretical rubric for an incredible series of developmental processes, whereby they may have their individual catalysts as well as control processes. A developmental investigation (analysis) of emotion regulation in infancy, thus, requires input from various perspectives in order to attain a comprehensive perceptive of this construct. This particular paper therefore intends discuss the development of emotion regulation in infancy, with a particular focus on over-regulation. What is emotion over-regulation in infancy? As highlighted by Del Carmen-Wiggins & Carter (2004), an infant’s indication of his/her experience regarding an event is often the starting of the process of adaptation. Generally, in instances where the sensory experiences are commonly shared, grown-ups or adults will often correctly construe an infant’s responses. However, when an infant’s sensory experience seem strange, grown-ups may misconstrue the infant’s response. For instance, an evading of sensory stimulation might be construed as fear, and the infant might be let to avoid many situations in order to minimize his/her distress. As such, an understanding of sensory stimulation might be misconstrued as an uncontrollable behaviour; as a result, the infant might be punished. Therefore, light of the above, Del Carmen-Wiggins & Carter (2004) argues that an infant’s adaptive performance is sustained when the sensory stimuli are not overpowering as well as when emotions are efficiently regulated. On the other hand, emotions are argued to be dysregulated if there is an interference of other functions such as activating memory or sustained attention occurs. For instance, infants suffering from attention deficit disorder often have impoverished peer relations owing to their inadequately timed as well as extreme expression of positive effect. Therefore, both regulated and dysregulated emotions are often efforts to manage behaviour as well as convey intentions to others. Zeanah (2009) highlights that attaining emotion regulation that is consistent is a significant developmental task, mainly realized by school-age, but unreliable during early childhood. According to Mackler (2009), studies reveal that infant behaviour issues may come as a result of a pattern of over-regulation or under-regulation. As such, one of the basic types of emotional dysregulation is emotional overregulation. Overregulated emotions in infancy are often held in strongly, as in the case of a freezing response, as a result, the infant may require assistance from others in order to communicate what they are experiencing (Martins et.al, 2012).According to Del Carmen-Wiggins & Carter (2004), overregulated emotions result in a compromise in an infant’s capability to react flexibly to particular contexts, as a result, placing him/her susceptible to psychopathology. The implication of this for infants within the centre-based care is to consider treatment for an emotional disorder especially in a situation where emotional regulation has turned out to be persistent and prolonged. Why Infants who Over-Regulate Emotionally Appear More Functional than Infants who Under-Regulate As highlighted by Mackler (2009), research reveals that infant behaviour problems can come as a result of various patterns of over-regulation or under-regulation. Infants with externalizing behaviour issues display an under-control of unhappiness and anger responses, whereas infants who go through internalizing behaviour issues both over-regulate as well as under-regulate their respective emotions, as a result, displaying an over-control as regards their anger responses, in addition to exhibiting improper and extreme display of unhappiness and anger. As such, according to Mackler, (2009), infants who over-regulate emotionally appear to be more functional than infants who under-regulate because they have a higher level inhibitory control as well as a better attentional regulation than the infants who under-regulate. According to a study that involved a two-year follow up, infants who under-regulate revealed a regular pattern in terms of lesser effortful, attentional regulation and higher level impulsivity, whereas infants who over-regulate emotionally exhibited a higher level inhibitory control as well as a better attentional regulation. The polyvagal theory can also explain why infants who over-regulate emotionally appear more functional than infants who under-regulate. The theory hypothesizes that persons with deprived vagal regulation or low vagal tones have problems regulating their emotions in addition to displaying appropriate emotional responses towards the environmental demands. As highlighted by Calkins & Keane (2004), recent studies investigating infants’ response to various challenging tasks found that infants who under-regulate exhibit significant vagal withdrawal. Such infants are known to display significant negative displeasures and often requiring extreme calming, in addition to developing more behavioural problems. In addition to this, such infants are argued to be having less effective regulation strategies, and as having a consistently lower physiological regulation of Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA) suppression when going through challenging tasks.Conversly, infants who over-regulate emotionally appear more functional as they tend to show signs of a greater Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA) suppression display, less depressing reactivity, better social skills, in addition to experiencing fewer externalizing behaviour issues or problems ( Calkins & Keane,2004). Parental attachment also highlights why infants who over-regulate emotionally appear more functional than infants who under-regulate. As highlighted by Bhreathnach (2008), when infants do not go through an effective infant-parent attachment it impairs the ontogeny of the attachment as well as the self-regulatory system. This starts from pregnancy. If the child’s mother undergoes stress she generates stress hormones. This goes through the placenta to the unborn baby. A mother’s continuous experience of stress while pregnant makes the unborn baby more susceptible to stress after the baby is born, as a consequence, the child is likely to experience self-regulatory dysfunction. Bhreathnach (2008) argues that in such situations mothers’ response to stress can either support a predisposition to unreceptive avoidance, which results in a limited capacity to deliberately experience negative or positive distress, and to a vulnerability to over-regulation disorder or the mother might support an approach avoidance response as well as a predisposition to discriminative expressions of extreme emotionality and a vulnerability to under-regulation disturbance. In terms of behaviour the overregulated infant might reveal itself as not active in terms of activities; as under-reactive to stimuli, and might also present himself/herself as very focused as well as compliant when with adults. On the other hand, Infants who are subject to under-regulation disorders appear to be restless, distressed and irritated. The overregulated infant, in this case, the more sensitized child and is therefore more functional since he/she can operate in whichever mode he/she considers the most adaptive for survival when with the stressed mother. With time, this response turns out to be generalized to other agitation provoking interactions even in cases where there are no actual threats. As a result of this, the overregulated infant is appears to be more functional than the under-regulated infant. Bhreathnach (2008) recommends that parents or even the children’s significant caregivers ought to be involved in the processes of intervention so that they become good enough parents who can considerately respond to the ongoing needs of their respective children. Bhreathnach (2008), however, argues that as much as parents can be given advice concerning the developmental requirements of their children, the context through which the home programme is normally undertaken as a significant role in colouring the children’s experience of it. This is because their ability to regulate as well as self-regulate their respective children is often not assessed nor facilitated. There is thus the probability that a particular child, due to the intervention of a therapist, might either turn out to be more resistant to the parent’s effort to engage. What Is Known About the Role of Attachment in Infant Emotion Over-Regulation? As highlighted by DeOliveira (2004), the past few years have witnessed the emergence of the explanation of the disordered attachment relationship in terms of the early mother and infant interaction. According to Barlow (2012), for instance, a study investigating the significance of the mother-infant relationship for the future development of the infant as well as the impact of anomalous mother-infant relations witnessed in infancy, revealed that infants below the age of one make up to approximately 13 percent of infant protection registrations within the United Kingdom, with emotional abuse (17 percent) and neglect (55 percent) making up approximately two-thirds of these. In view of this, therefore, Miller et.al (2002) highlights that infants are extremely dependant on their respective caregivers in order to enable them optimize their quickly developing nervous systems, in addition to enhancing their abilities to control regulation via their attachment relationship. As a consequence, maltreatment that occurs during the period of infancy implies a disproportionate consequence on the infant’s development. According to Baruch et.al (2007), the attachment theory as developed by John Bowlby (1969, 1973, and 1980) hypothesizes a general human requirement to create close affection relationships. At the centre of this theory is the reciprocity of early bonds, which are a pre-condition of typical development in possibly all mammals, including human beings. Human-infant attachment behaviour is reciprocated by adult attachment behaviour (soothing, touching and holding), and these particular responses makes stronger the attachment behaviour of various infants towards a particular grown person. The foundation of the attachment behaviour often depends on an infant’s assessment of a number of environmental signals, resulting in subjective experience of insecurity or even security. The security experience is in this case the objective of the attachment system, which is therefore essentially an emotional experience regulator. In general, Clarkin et.al (2010) highlights that no human being is given birth to with a ability to manage his/her emotions, a dyadic regulatory system often develop where the infant’s gestures of every moment changes are understood as well as responded to by a given caregiver, as a result, attaining their regulation. Thus, according to, the attachment system is a bio-social, homeostatic regulatory as well as an open regulatory system as the behaviour of a secure infant is generally dependant on the experience of an efficiently co-ordinated, responsive interactions where a given caregiver is infrequently over-arousing and is able to stabilize an infant’s disorganizing emotional reactions. In order to manage the disordered attachment relationship between mother and infant, Barlow (2012), argues that studies strongly identify the requirement of prevention through the assessment as well as the intervention that starts during pregnancy and goes on throughout the first post-natal year. Conclusion From the analysis, what is clearly evident is the fact that emotion regulation in infants is such a complex phenomenon as well as a significant developmental process of early years of human lives. Its complexity can be explained by the various perspectives approaching the research on emotional regulation in different ways. Overall; the analysis seems to highlight the significant need for parents to assist their children’s emotion regulation efforts. Enabling parents to assist their respective infants’ emotion regulation efforts when undergoing stress or when over-stimulated will enable their infants’ efforts at adapting their emotional states in addition to making use of the adaptive regulation strategies. As such, therapists recognize that they ought to address social as well as emotional problems and infant’s developmental issues. However; the current issue is that a number of interventions often take a split approach, which is co-regulation and self regulation when observed from either the attachment perspective or the sensory processing perspective. This may regrettably result in misdiagnosis as well as the usage of unsuitable interventions. References Barlow, J. (2012).Child Maltreatment during Infancy: Atypical Parent–Infant Relationships, Vol.22, Iss.11, Pp.465–469 Baruch.G, Fonagy, P & Robins, D. (2007).Reaching the Hard to Reach: Evidence-based Funding Priorities for Intervention and Research, John Wiley & Sons Bhreathnach, É, 2008, Parent-Child Engagement, A Co-Regulation Process Calkins, S.D & Keane, S.P, 2004, Cardiac vagal regulation across the preschool Period: Stability, continuity, and implications for childhood adjustment. Journal of Developmental Psychobiology, (45) Pp.101-112 Clarkin, J.F, Fonagy, P & Gabbard, G.O. (2010).Psychodynamic Psychotherapy for Personality disorders, American Psychiatric Publishers. Del Carmen-Wiggins, R & Carter, A. (2004). Handbook of Infant, Toddler, and Preschool Mental Health Assessment, Oxford University Press DeOliveira, C.A, Bailey, H.N & Moran, G & Pederson, D.R. (2004).Emotion Socialization as a Framework for Understanding the Development of Disorganized Attachment, Journal on Social Development Vol.13, Iss.3,Pp.437–467 Miller, A.L, McDonough, S.C, Rosenblum, K.L & Sameroff, A.J, 2002, Emotion Regulation in Context: Situational Effects on Infant and Caregiver Behaviour, Journal of the International Societies on Infant Studies, Vol.3, Iss.4, Pp.403-433 Martins, E.C,Soares,I,Martins,C,Tereno,S & Osorio, A.(2012).Can We Identify Emotion Over-regulation in infancy? Associations with Avoidant Attachment, Dyadic Emotional Interaction and temperament. Infant and Child Development, Vol.21, Iss.6, Pp 579–595 Mackler, J.S, 2009, The Role of Emotion Regulation in Children’s coping with Environmental Stress. Stifter, C.A. (2002).Individual Differences in Emotion Regulation in Infancy: A Thematic Collection, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc, Infancy, 3(2), 129–132 Zeanah, C.H. (2009).Handbook of Infant Mental Health, Guilford Press Read More

Therefore, light of the above, Del Carmen-Wiggins & Carter (2004) argues that an infant’s adaptive performance is sustained when the sensory stimuli are not overpowering as well as when emotions are efficiently regulated. On the other hand, emotions are argued to be dysregulated if there is an interference of other functions such as activating memory or sustained attention occurs. For instance, infants suffering from attention deficit disorder often have impoverished peer relations owing to their inadequately timed as well as extreme expression of positive effect.

Therefore, both regulated and dysregulated emotions are often efforts to manage behaviour as well as convey intentions to others. Zeanah (2009) highlights that attaining emotion regulation that is consistent is a significant developmental task, mainly realized by school-age, but unreliable during early childhood. According to Mackler (2009), studies reveal that infant behaviour issues may come as a result of a pattern of over-regulation or under-regulation. As such, one of the basic types of emotional dysregulation is emotional overregulation.

Overregulated emotions in infancy are often held in strongly, as in the case of a freezing response, as a result, the infant may require assistance from others in order to communicate what they are experiencing (Martins et.al, 2012).According to Del Carmen-Wiggins & Carter (2004), overregulated emotions result in a compromise in an infant’s capability to react flexibly to particular contexts, as a result, placing him/her susceptible to psychopathology. The implication of this for infants within the centre-based care is to consider treatment for an emotional disorder especially in a situation where emotional regulation has turned out to be persistent and prolonged.

Why Infants who Over-Regulate Emotionally Appear More Functional than Infants who Under-Regulate As highlighted by Mackler (2009), research reveals that infant behaviour problems can come as a result of various patterns of over-regulation or under-regulation. Infants with externalizing behaviour issues display an under-control of unhappiness and anger responses, whereas infants who go through internalizing behaviour issues both over-regulate as well as under-regulate their respective emotions, as a result, displaying an over-control as regards their anger responses, in addition to exhibiting improper and extreme display of unhappiness and anger.

As such, according to Mackler, (2009), infants who over-regulate emotionally appear to be more functional than infants who under-regulate because they have a higher level inhibitory control as well as a better attentional regulation than the infants who under-regulate. According to a study that involved a two-year follow up, infants who under-regulate revealed a regular pattern in terms of lesser effortful, attentional regulation and higher level impulsivity, whereas infants who over-regulate emotionally exhibited a higher level inhibitory control as well as a better attentional regulation.

The polyvagal theory can also explain why infants who over-regulate emotionally appear more functional than infants who under-regulate. The theory hypothesizes that persons with deprived vagal regulation or low vagal tones have problems regulating their emotions in addition to displaying appropriate emotional responses towards the environmental demands. As highlighted by Calkins & Keane (2004), recent studies investigating infants’ response to various challenging tasks found that infants who under-regulate exhibit significant vagal withdrawal.

Such infants are known to display significant negative displeasures and often requiring extreme calming, in addition to developing more behavioural problems. In addition to this, such infants are argued to be having less effective regulation strategies, and as having a consistently lower physiological regulation of Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA) suppression when going through challenging tasks.

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