Definitions Matter for Studying Emotional Development

The collection of articles presented by Pollak, Camras, and Cole (2019) provides a stimulating survey of the current state of research on emotional development. However, the special issue also makes apparent the need for defining the construct of interest. Definitions of emotions guide how researche...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Developmental psychology 2020-04, Vol.56 (4), p.837-840
Main Authors: Walle, Eric A., Dahl, Audun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Context Effect
Definitions
Emotional Development
Emotional Response
Emotions
Functionalism
Human
Methodological problems
Psychological Patterns
Stimuli
Structuralism
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The collection of articles presented by Pollak, Camras, and Cole (2019) provides a stimulating survey of the current state of research on emotional development. However, the special issue also makes apparent the need for defining the construct of interest. Definitions of emotions guide how researchers deal with fundamental theoretical and methodological issues in emotion research. In this commentary, we contrast 2 views of emotion: the structuralist and functionalist perspectives. We illustrate the consequences of each view for the design and interpretation of empirical research and highlight benefits of adopting a functionalist perspective on emotional development.
ISSN:0012-1649
1939-0599
DOI:10.1037/dev0000887