Describe how biology and cognitive maturity contribute to the development of infant

Question

emotions.

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Infants across the world display a number of discrete emotions, such as anger, sadness,
and fear, during the first six months of life. These emotions can be reliably elicited and
evoke similar reactions, for instance, arm restraint elicits anger in most infants. Given
these cross-cultural findings, it has been concluded that infants are probably
pre-programmed, by biology, to exhibit these basic emotions, which have important
communicative functioning. However, later in life, children exhibit more complex
emotions such as envy, embarrassment, and pride. In order to display these emotions,
children need the cognitive maturity to do so, for example, a child cannot become
embarrassed until they have become self-aware. Similarly, a child cannot become
envious or guilty until they can make social comparisons or have achieved some level of
moral development.