Psychology

This paper will bring light on the research question What are the functions of emotions and how does parenting contribute to their development

Emotional development begins from the time a child is conceived in the womb until death. Although physical development may be faster at the onset of ones becoming, a persons mental and emotional development happens at the same time. At such crucial years of becoming, this paper looks into the role of parents in the emotional development of the child.

Parenting trends have taken on different paradigms in the last fifty years of the familys evolution. From the very traditional styles of parenting where strict rules from society set up norms of rearing children to eclectic styles of dealing with a growing offspring. There are single parenting, same sex parenting, surrogate parenting, adopting and community parenting. These organizational styles of rearing children have bred generations of offspring that carry a variety of consequences.

Styles of parenting from strict, traditional, liberal, modern, and post modern have led to an industry where companies jump on the bandwagon with these varied issues to promote their own products and parenting styles.

This paper shall focus on some of these parenting styles as these techniques may contribute to the development or regression of emotions in the offspring. The functions of emotions are the take off point of the discussions. The importance of emotions to an individual will be the rationale in discussing parenting styles contribution in helping an individual cope with daily survival needs.

Body
Wimmers movie, (2002) entitled The Equilibrium delved into the consequences of a futuristic society that takes away emotions from human beings. The plot ends with the protagonist saving the community from a tyrant and restoring normalcy to society that meant taking away the pill that took away emotions. This science fiction visualizes mans issues with emotions, of how important, mind boggling and powerful emotions can be to both individuals and societies.

Most of mans actions are motivated by the need of man to survive. Self-preservation is an instinct that most animals have. Emotions have been a stand out behavior where scientists continue to study its functions so that they may find its real purpose in mans survival. Survival starts when life starts.

The wholistic perspective defends the concept that a fertilized ovum undergoes pre-experiential becoming and therefore the childs emotional development in as much that his physical development is continuous, starts at the onset of conception. The parent, specifically the mother, whether she is surrogate or not, is the person closest to the unborn child. The community around the parent of the unborn child also affects the unborn child through the wellbeing of the mother holding the offspring. The parent therefore is crucial to the development of the childs physical, mental and emotional well being.

Emotions serve functions that continually interrelate and integrate with each other to serve a persons interests. Among the many functions of emotions, five categories are highlighted in this discourse.
First, emotions are used for arousing and eliciting action and movement for oneself or from another. When Person A shows anger, this emotion can either arouse anger or silence from Person B. Person As anger can also arouse action from himself. He may either arouse himself to shout at Person B or to whom he is angry at or he can be aroused to take a gun and kill Person B.

Every baby goes through the stage of standing up. Johnston (1986, p. 106) narrates, that the act of standing is both phylogenetically and ontogenetically a critical achievement for the human organism. It is a bipolar movement, both a lifting up of form and awareness, and a pressing downward of ground and nature. At a young age, the child takes this physical development but it does not happen without the parent or caregivers support. Most of the babys first few steps are recorded in hundreds of ways. Parents applaud and become excited each time they see this seemingly natural phenomenon. The child as it reacts to this parent support of standing up and walking, continuous to try hard and get up the courage to try and try until the baby is successful. One can imagine if this physical development in the child is not accompanied by a parents excitement. Parents reaction to a childs emotion in this example, helps the child understand the feeling of success and what he needs to do to get this emotion from his parents.

Second, emotions are used to motivate actions and control these actions. The intensity of reaction to these emotions depends on the intensity of emotion that motivates these actions to take place. The intensity of anger, for example defines the level of physical, emotional and mental reactions that can take place before, during and after the projection of emotion. Getting carried away, suggests that an adrenalin rush took place and the doer was motivated to act upon an emotion in a level more than the level required.

Science Direct.com (2010 p. 1) elaborates, emotion regulation concerns how people manage emotional experience for personal and social purposes. It is a complex and multifaceted process, and is developmentally important because it is central to social competence, psychological wellbeing, and risk for affective psychopathology. The development of emotion regulation is based on early neurobiological growth, shaped by temperamental individuality, and guided by the young childs conceptual understanding of emotion, strategies of emotion management, and the self. It is also guided by social influences parental coaching, modeling, direct interventions, conversation, the quality of the parentchild relationship, and the unique influences of peers and siblings.

Third, emotions have adaptive functions. Emotional reactions arise when individuals are under stress. In order for individuals to cope with these difficult situations, emotions occur so that internal and external environments can adapt to the situation and eventually protect the individual from harm. Crying, for example can be seen when death occurs in the family. This emotion is a coping up mechanism, adapting to the situation so that the sadness involved does not stress out internal organs of the body like the heart. Fainting of family members are often signs of stress where the body cannot adapt anymore. This type of emotional responding is known as vicarious emotional responding  responses that occur because of exposure to someone elses emotional state as expounded in SocialJrank.org ( 2010 p. 1)

A childs critical period is formed from birth to one year. It is in these months that the child learns what trust and mistrust is. The concept of trust is defined by Boyd (2006 p. 11)  as, there may be specific periods in development when an organism is especially sensitive to the presence (or absence) of some particular kind of experience. A parent who cares for his child and consciously builds trust with the offspring is able to mold in the child trust as can be seen in how long the child can take his parents absence, and still be happy upon the parents return. A parent who cannot leave the child alone because the child will immediately shout and cry has not yet effected the childs trust that the parent will return.

This phenomenon of the childs level of trust and confidence in their parents can be seen in the first day of a toddlers school day. While other children will not allow their parents to leave and get out of sight, other toddlers will readily venture into the classroom and explore their new school surroundings. Boyd (2006) further explains, for a child, the presence or absence of a parent or caretaker determines whether or not the child develops trust in his or her self.

Fourth, emotions add color to living. Positive emotions are often expressed through visual arts, performances, literature and other art forms. The common advise, Laughter is the best medicine, is founded on science. Releasing endorphins and seratonin enzymes occur when an individual laughs. Both chemicals are found to be mood enhancers. Depressed individuals have low levels of these compounds.

Parents nourish children from day one to the time children can fend for themselves or when they start earning for themselves. Nourishing ones child is a responsibility of the parent or caregiver. Giving the child proper nutrition affect the childs physical development. What the child eats also affects his mental and emotional development. Obesity, for example has been found at alarming rates in America. Nestle (2007, p. 175) notes that, by the early 1990s, for example, 23 of white girls aged 6-11 were overweight, compared to 29 of Mexican-American girls and 31 of black girls. Although community and society is part responsible in what children eat, parents are directly responsible in their nutrition that can affect childrens emotions. Studies show that increase in sugar content in diet can enhance anger as elaborated by Fujii (2006).

Fifth, emotions are used to control social interactions. Society has seen civilizations rise and fall according to how leaders use their emotions to control consensus. This can visually be observed during political elections and other social interactions. Controlling bodily actions, facial expressions, tone of voice and other communicative element that can show emotions are carefully being studied. These studies are used to get the effective response needed in different situations.

At an early age, children begin to memorize their parents bodily actions, emotion signals and other communicative devices. These first social interactions with their parents become the standard for their own emotions and how they react to the emotions in their environment. Both mother and fathers are the first role model children have whether they like it or not. Fathers reacting appropriately to a childs expression of emotion predict positive emotional and social models of behavior in later childhood and adolescence. It is theorised that fathers instill a sense of confidence to explore within relationships (Berk, L., 2006).

When pretending to shop for a social evening, children two to six years old were nearly four times as likely to choose cigarettes if their parents smoked and children who viewed PG-13- or R-rated movies were five times as likely to choose wine or beer, according to a study in the September issue of Archives of Pediatrics  Adolescent Medicine. (2005)

What children see in their parents is most likely to be mimicked. Habits and style of living and emotional controls are just a few of the things that the child will observe at an early age. While there will be other forces and influences in the kind of emotion that the offspring will mimic such as what they see in the television or what they hear with peers at school, parents influence in their perception is the foundation of the child. From this foundation, emotions will gradually develop so that the child can form his own.

Conclusion
The function of emotion is no less as important as the function of other aspects in ones life. Emotions help individuals develop their personalities, talents, and culture. Emotions help individuals cope up stress. Emotions help individuals communicate with other persons that can help them become better persons. Emotions help individuals become productive happy citizens.

Emotions elicit responses that vary from positive to negative outcomes. Controlling emotions is part and parcel in its development. It is during these developing years of a human being that emotions can be a strength or a weakness of an individual. This is where parenting plays a crucial role.

Parenting starts at the onset of conception. The amount of physical care is pivotal in the early tri-mester of the unborn child. This is where cell replication and cell division occurs and a mother and childs nutrition is crucial to the development of the fetus. As the child develops in the womb and specially after giving birth, the bond between mother and child strengthens as nourishing continues. The action of the childs parents leaves an imprint in the child who mimics the parent. These initial signals which the child accumulates, develops into becoming his cognitive skill set. The emotions that he experiences from his parents become a foundation for his affective imprints from where he will create and develop his own set of emotional characteristics. Mothers and Fathers interact with their children in different ways, fathers tend to play more physically and induce more excitement from their children than do mothers as cited in (Berk, L., 2006).

Parenting is a prime component in the emotional development of a child. Lack of awareness of this responsibility leads to insufficient nurturing. Society has moved into complicated definitions of living that requires a citizen to have solid discernment in dealing with his internal and external environments. Increasing in parents awareness of this crucial role is essential for the individual and society in general.
Emotionally stable constituents will bring about normalcy in the environment. Where emotions are as important as physical, psychological and mental health of the growing child, attitudes towards parenting must be taken up more seriously. Further studies towards the correlation of parenting how it affects the emotional development of the child is always well worth it.