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Toward a Component Systems Approach to Emotional Development

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Part of the book series: Emotions, Personality, and Psychotherapy ((EPPS))

Abstract

During the past decades, theorists and researchers have offered a wide range of perspectives on the nature and development of emotion. Toward one end of a continuum, theorists define emotions in terms of specific patterns of feeling and behavior organized by innate neurological pathways and biological substrates (Ackerman, Abe, & Izard, Chapter 4, this volume; Ekman, 1984; Izard & Malatesta, 1987; Panksepp, Knutson, & Pruitt, Chapter 3, this volume; Tomkins, 1962, 1984). At the other end, theorists suggest that emotions consist of socially constructed syndromes of cognition, feeling, and action (Averill, 1982; Mancuso & Sarbin, Chapter 12, this volume; Oatley, 1992; Shweder, 1994). A component systems approach to emotions (Scherer, 1984, 1994) holds out the possibility of integrating these two diverse traditions. From this view, emotional episodes consist of multiple component processes and systems that mutually regulate each other at the biological, psychological, and sociocultural levels of functioning. In what follows, we elaborate on a component systems approach to emotional development, focusing specifically on the development of pride as a social, self-evaluative emotional experience. Thereafter, we report the results of a preliminary study assessing developmental changes in pride-relevant behavior of infants and toddlers as they interact with their caregivers in achievement-related tasks.

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Mascolo, M.F., Harkins, D. (1998). Toward a Component Systems Approach to Emotional Development. In: Mascolo, M.F., Griffin, S. (eds) What Develops in Emotional Development?. Emotions, Personality, and Psychotherapy. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1939-7_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1939-7_8

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