Early Social Experience and the Ontogenesis of Emotion Regulatory Behavior in Children

Abstract

Emotions are complex processes that organisms use to evaluate their environments, rapidly assess the significance of environmental changes, and adjust their behaviors. Over the course of (normative) development, these processes interact seamlessly and rapidly, affording successful adaptation to a variety of demands. Yet, problems in emotional functioning can lead to pervasive problems in mental and physical health. A central assumption in the study of human emotion is that we are born with certain basic, normative emotions (at least those referred to in Western cultures by words such as anger, sadness, fear, disgust, and happiness) and that some rudimentary neural circuitry for emotion is preconfigured in the human brain. But increasingly, the role of social experience in configuring human brain function has shed new light on the emergence of emotional behavior. The issue of how adverse social experiences alter and shape children’s social and emotional development has become center-stage for the exploration of the relative contributions of nature and nurture in child development. Our research has examined the ways in which children’s developing biology is shaped in a manner that may be adaptive to their immediate environment, but confers risk for a host of negative developmental outcomes.