Essays
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Emotion and Intergroup Relations - Mackie, Diane M.
When the social identities people develop as members of groups become salient, people perceive the world in terms of the costs and benefits to that salient group membership. This means that events that have no implications for the individual him or herself can be perceived as harmful, beneficial, offensive, complimentary, unfair, or just, for example, depending on the consequences those events have for the group. As a result, perceptions of intergroup events, anticipated intergroup interactions, or ongoing structural intergroup relations elicit group‐based emotions—emotions that individuals feel as members of their groups. These emotions influence individuals' perceptions, interpretations, and actions toward their ingroup, relevant outgroups, and any other objects and events that are relevant to group membership. Thus, emotions play a critical role in intergroup relations, energizing desires to cooperate or compete, to retaliate or make peace. Focusing on the role of such emotions has contributed to an understanding of the social nature of emotion, as well as to the antecedents of intergroup conflict and the necessary conditions for its resolution. That understanding will be promoted by further clarification of the nature of social identity, the process of identification, the anticipation of emotions in others, and the time course of emotions, both in general and in the context of group membership in particular. -
Social‐Emotional Responding: A Perspective from Developmental Psychology - Malti, Tina
Social‐emotional responding (SER) refers to (i) an individual's awareness and understanding of emotional experiences in the self and others, (ii) expression of emotions, and (iii) emotion regulation capacities. The normative development of these responses is considered a central component of human development. This is because SER underlies our capacities to express other‐oriented behaviors and cope with challenges of everyday life in adaptive and socially responsible ways. The goal of this essay is to identify emerging trends in this area of developmental research. We first discuss central conceptual issues in social‐emotional development and present a conceptual framework from developmental psychology to study SER. Next, we identify current shortcomings in research on SER. We focus on three central components of SER: self‐conscious emotions, other‐oriented emotions, and emotion regulation. On the basis of our analyses of the current gaps, we highlight three promising attempts to solve some of the current shortcomings in this literature: attempts to understand developmental relations among self‐conscious emotions, other‐oriented emotions, and emotion regulation capacities; attempts to identify psychological, neural, and behavioral mechanisms underlying social‐emotional responding, and; the application of this knowledge to interventions that concern children and families. -
The Neurobiology and Physiology of Emotions: A Developmental Perspective - Kahle, Sarah S.
This essay discusses the physiological and neural activity associated with emotion processes, with a focus on the development of this activity in children. We review some conceptual issues about the distinctions between the components of emotion, including the physiology associated with emotions themselves, attempts to regulate emotions, and trait or state patterns of responding. Foundational work examining autonomic nervous system activity is summarized, and we highlight recent work that attempts to investigate emotion processes in multiple systems. We then suggest that two fruitful avenues of future research include the examination of the neurobiology and physiology of social emotions, and further investigation into the temporal dynamics of emotion processes.