The Importance Of Emotional Regulation

A). Emotional regulation is a process through which emotions are monitored, appraised, and modified in relation to goals (Gross, 381). Emotions that are regulated can either be positive or negative, such as joy, pleasure, distress, anger and fear (Gross, 314). Parents contribute heavily to emotional regulation as for example, they try to change the infant’s emotions and behaviors by controlling their temper tantrum or by teaching a child how to behave appropriately in different types of settings. Self-regulation during the first three years of life develops as the child learns appropriate reactions to different situations and also is based on the development of language skills and memory. By the end of the first year, infants are able to shift their attention and use emerging motor, social-emotional and cognitive skills to regulate feelings of wariness or to indicate that they want specific kinds of responses from caregivers (Gross, 314). In comparison to young infants, older infants are able to recall past experiences …show more content…
Emotional regulation is interesting to me as it helps children understand how emotions work and it provides the appropriate skills to be able to manage them. It also decreases the amount of vulnerability children endure towards negative emotions as learning to regulate them helps children build more positive emotional experiences. Learning how to cope and manage negative emotions can help a child live a healthy emotional life as they react appropriately to situations they experience throughout life. Also, having emotional regulation and communication with parents also promotes positive relationships with caregivers and advanced social skills. For example, “Very young children who have cooperative, emotionally positive relationships with parents who explain the reasons for rule and prohibitions tend to become aware of standards of behaviors and learn to differentiate situations allowing for autonomy from those requiring compliance (Gross,