In the last decade, the boom in the study of emotions and their influence on the psychological well-being of human beings has revolutionized the conception of these, giving them a role as fundamental as the cognitive processes had at the end of the last century.

But… how does the maturation of this capacity take place in the human being during the first years of life?

What is meant by emotional development?

Given that emotional development is a phenomenon that consists of many components, therefore when describing and conceptualizing it the following axes should be considered :

  • How emotions arise.
  • What is and how does emotional reactivity occur in relation to one’s own temperament?
  • The evolution of emotional expression according to the stages of development
  • How the development of self- and hetero-emotional awareness occurs.
  • What mechanisms are set in motion in emotional self-regulation.

Since the human being is a social being, in his nature both emotional and social development are linked ; through the first one the second one is reached, since from the identification, experimentation and communication of emotions (expression and understanding) and through empathy and training in social skills (both key elements of emotional development), the establishment of social relations between the individual and the rest of the beings around him can take place.

All of this is also possible at the same time as language development is taking place, which is fundamental to achieving this interpersonal linkage through communicational processes.

Emotional development in early childhood

As mentioned above, the ultimate purpose of emotions refers to issues related to communication between individuals. It could be said, therefore, that it presents an adaptive function to the environment and motivates the individual’s behaviour to achieve certain objectives.

In the process of emotional development, so complex and multifactorial, the child initiates in the first months of life some incipient associations between the external situations that occur and the emotional reactions that are observed in the caregivers. At the age of six months a baby can respond to signs of affection with positive emotions, as well as to potentially dangerous situations with other less pleasant emotions.

Even so, their understanding of the relationship between behaviour and emotional state is very limited: their emotional reactivity maintains a very close relationship with the child’s temperament, so that the level of internal emotional self-control is very low during this stage, with the caregivers being the ones who make it possible.

Symbolic play and emotional bonding

The most relevant milestone that will mark a before and after in the emotional development of the child will be the achievement of the capacity for symbolic play, usually by the age of two. At this time they begin to represent their own and other people’s emotional states through language , which implies the previous step to the development of empathy.

The emotional bond established between the attachment figure and the child becomes a fundamental factor in the emotional development of the child during this first stage of development. That the child perceives security, trust, affection, care and protection on the part of the parents (or caregivers) is going to be fundamental to avoid the formation of a functioning of rejection and avoidance towards these figures. This type of resistant or ambivalent bonding pattern becomes a risk factor in the subsequent appearance of psychopathologies or future emotional alterations.

…and in adolescence

Despite the fact that the beginning of adolescence indicates the consolidation of the individual’s emotional development , where the understanding of one’s own and other people’s emotional states is carried out in a more satisfactory and deeper way, its application is not complete since the very processes that this vital stage implies make the manifestations of the first one difficult.

During adolescence, children make cognitive reasoning through hypothetical-deductive logic, from which they compare and base their understanding and emotional expression on previous personal experiences that provide them with sufficient information to correctly interpret the new situation they are facing.

On the other hand, although they sharpen their empathic capacity , they are also characterized by a psychological egocentrism by which they are very centered in the image of themselves that is transmitted to others and the type of evaluations that can be made by others regarding their personal characteristics. Therefore, one of the main goals is to work and maintain a positive self-concept to offer themselves and others.

Furthermore, due to the fact that at a neuroanatomical level the adolescent brain is not yet fully completed (especially in terms of prefrontal structures and synapses, which are responsible for making decisions and ensuring the expression of mature or adult behaviour) in adolescence there is a great variability in the quality and intensity of emotional expression , as well as a lack of flexibility in endogenous emotional self-regulation, which is why the transition to opposite moods in very short periods of time, the so-called emotional lability, is frequent.

The role of the school environment

Parallel to the family context, the school also becomes a very important socializing agent of the child and plays a very relevant role in the child’s emotional development.

Thus, the current school is not only understood as an entity that transmits instrumental and technical knowledge , but also has among its main functions to educate students in the acquisition of values and ethical and moral principles, in promoting the achievement of critical reasoning, in assuming modes of behaviour and attitudes appropriate for living in society (achieving their understanding), in learning a series of social skills and abilities that allow them to establish satisfactory interpersonal ties and even in the resolution of vital problems.

In order to consolidate all these aspects, it is essential to achieve adequate emotional development, since both the cognitive and the emotional aspects are involved in every psychological process.

On the other hand, achieving an adequate emotional development also makes it possible for the child to adopt an optimistic attitude in the achievement of academic goals and a more adaptive self-perception of school competence, which leads to the promotion of a more manifest achievement motivation that facilitates the maintenance of that state of motivation and willingness to improve his or her learning capacity. All of this makes them more resistant and less vulnerable to criticism and social comparisons which, although made unconsciously, are established in relation to the results obtained by the child and by their peers.

The attributional style

Another very relevant aspect in which the school has considerable responsibility is in establishing the attributional style of the students.The attributional style is defined as the process by which the individual gives cause to the situations he or she faces .

An internal attributional style indicates that the person is aware as an active agent of what is happening in his environment and understands as controllable the motivations that these provoke. An external attributional style is identified with more passive subjects, who have the conception that factors such as luck are what motivate the situations they experience. Without a doubt, the former is psychologically more adequate and the one most closely related to satisfactory emotional development.

  • You may be interested in: “Fundamental Attribution Error: Pigeonholing People”

Emotional Intelligence

In recent times there has been a paradigm shift in the importance of promoting emotional intelligence. Empirical evidence is beginning to emerge, therefore, that emotional intelligence has a very intense influence when it comes to making everyday decisions , on the nature of interpersonal relationships or in the acquisition of a deeper and more complete self-knowledge about oneself.

Being such a complex competition, its development is gradual and slow, covering approximately the first two decades of life. Therefore, the achievement of an adequate establishment during childhood and adolescence will be decisive in the emotional (psychological) functioning in adult life.

Bibliographic references:

  • Bach, E., and Darder, P. (2002). Seducing yourself to seduce: living and educating emotions. Barcelona: Paidós.
  • Berk, L. (1999). Child and adolescent development. Madrid: Prentice Hall Iberia.
  • López, F., Etxebarría, I., Fuentes, M.J., Ortiz, M. J. (Cood.) (1999) Desarrollo afectivo y social. Madrid: Pirámide.
  • Trianes, M.V., and Gallardo, J.A. (coord.) (2000). Psychology of Education and Development. Pirámide.