Emotional Development during Infancy and Childhood - Role of Learning and Imitation

Children's emotional development is a mix of inherited traits and learning from their environment. They gradually move from general emotional reactions to more specific ones by imitating parents and others and through learning from experience.

• Babies initially have broad, general emotional expressions.
• They learn specific emotions by imitating family members and peers.
• Emotional responses develop through conditioning—linking objects/events to feelings.
• Example: A baby who once had no fear of cats may show anger after repeated negative experiences, such as a cat stealing milk.
• Example: Children may copy a parent's fear, like fear of rats or thunder.

• Albert, an 11-month-old baby, initially showed no fear of white rabbits.
• A loud noise was repeatedly paired with the rabbit, startling Albert.
• After conditioning, Albert showed fear of the rabbit and similar furry objects (a rat, a dog, wool).
• This experiment shows emotions like fear can be learned by association, not just inherited.

If a child’s mother fears rats and acts scared, the child may also develop a fear of rats simply by imitating this response. This shows the role of society and family environment in emotional learning.

• Emotions develop through both inheritance and learning.
• Children imitate the emotional responses of people around them.
• Conditioning creates emotional reactions to previously neutral stimuli.
• Family and social environment strongly influence emotional growth.