Developmental Methods for Emotion Dynamics

Abstract

Emotions and their development are complex processes. Emotions are dynamic; involve multiple biological, psychological, and social systems; and can be idiosyncratic. However, much of the research on emotional development has used methods that do not capture the dynamic nature of emotions; focus only on one biological, psychological, or social system; and/or do not account for individual differences. I provide an overview of current methods for developmental studies on emotion dynamics. First, I introduce methods for examining emotions as dynamic processes. Then, I extend this discussion to multiple burst designs that capture emotion dynamics at multiple time scales (Ram & Diehl, 2015). Throughout, I discuss approaches for both individual and interpersonal emotion dynamics that are applicable across the lifespan. I conclude with a discussion of future directions in the study of emotion dynamics and their development.

Emotion Dynamics of Solitude: How Spending Time Alone Affects the Way We Experience and Manage Affect

“…In other words, some amount of non-linearity is needed to understand what is happening. This could be in the form of using ordinary differential equations to examine how the rate of change in affect is impacted by time-varying covariates such as social context and momentary desire for solitude (Lougheed, 2020).…”