Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Development of Self-Control of Emotion: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Influences

  • Published:
Motivation and Emotion Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this paper, we review evidence that supports the notion that intrinsic and extrinsic factors contribute to the development of self-control of emotions. Intrinsic factors include the infant's temperament, and cognitive processes such as attention and inhibitory control. Extrinsic factors involve the caregiving environment, sibling and peer relationships, and cultural expectations regarding emotional displays. Integrative approaches to the study of the development of self-control of emotion will be most fruitful if investigations examine the interplay, over time, among these internal and external factors.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Ahadi, S. A., & Rothbart, M. K. (1994). The developing structure of temperament and personality from infancy to adulthood. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aksan, N., Goldsmith, H. H., Smider, N., Essex, M., Clark, R., Klein, M., et al. (1999). Derivation and prediction of temperamental types among preschoolers. Developmental Psychology, 35, 958-971.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell, K., & Calkins, S. D. (2000). Emotions as the inputs and outputs of relationships. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 160-163.

    Google Scholar 

  • Block, J. H., & Block, J. (1980). The role of ego-control and ego resiliency in the organization of behavior. In W. A. Collins (Ed.), The Minnesota symposia on child psychology (Vol. 13, pp. 39-101). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braungart-Rieker, J., & Stifter, C. (1996). Infants' responses to frustrating situations: Continuity and change in reactivity and regulation. Child Development, 67, 1767-1769.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buss, K. A., & Goldsmith, H. H. (1998). Fear and anger regulation in infancy: Effects on the temporal dynamics of affective expression. Child Development, 69, 359-374.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calkins, S. D. (1994). Origins and outcomes of individual differences in emotional regulation. In N. A. Fox (Ed.), Emotion regulation: Behavioral and biological considerations, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development (Vol. 59, Issue 2-3, Series 240). Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calkins, S. D. (1997). Cardiac vagal tone indices of temperamental reactivity and behavioral regulation in young children. Developmental Psychobiology, 31, 125-135.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calkins, S. D., & Dedmon, S. A. (2000). Physiological and behavioral regulation in two-year-old children with aggressive/destructive behavior problems. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 28, 103-118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calkins, S. D., Dedmon, S., Gill, K., & Hungerford, A. (2002). Mothers' interactions with temperamentally frustrated infants. Manuscript submitted for publication.

  • Calkins, S. D., Dedmon, S., Gill, K., Lomax, L. E., & Johnson, L. (2002). Frustration in infancy: Implications for emotion regulation, physiological processes, and associated dimensions of temperament. Infancy, 3(2), 175-197.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calkins, S. D., & Fox, N. A. (2002). Self-regulatory processes in early personality development: A multilevel approach to the study of childhood social withdrawal and aggression. Development and Psychopathology, 14, 477-498.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calkins, S. D., Fox, N. A., & Marshall, T. R. (1996). Behavioral and physiological antecedents of inhibition in infancy. Child Development, 67, 523-540.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calkins, S. D., Gill, K. A., & Williford, A. (1999). Externalizing problems in two-year-olds: Implications for patterns of social behavior and peers' responses to aggression. Early Education and Development, 10, 266-288.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calkins, S. D., & Johnson, M. C. (1998). Toddler regulation of distress to frustrating events: Temperamental and maternal correlates. Infant Behavior and Development, 21, 379-395.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calkins, S. D., Smith, C. L., Gill, K. L., & Johnson, M. C. (1998). Maternal interactive style across contexts: Relations to emotional, behavioral and physiological regulation during toddlerhood. Social Development, 7(3), 350-369.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campos, J. J., Mumme, D., Kermoian, R., & Campos, R. (1994). A functionalist perspective on the nature of emotion. In N. A. Fox (Ed.), Emotion regulation: Behavioral and biological considerations, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development (pp. 284-303). Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cassidy, J. (1994). Emotion regulation: Influences of attachment relationships. In N. A. Fox (Ed.), Emotion regulation: Behavioral and biological considerations, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development (pp. 228-249). Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cicchetti, D., Ganiban, J., & Barnett, D. (1991). Contributions from the study of high-risk populations to understanding the development of emotional regulation. In J. Garber & K. A. Dodge (Eds.), The development of emotion regulation and dysregulation (pp. 69-88). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crockenberg, S. (1981). Infant irritability, mother responsiveness, and social support influences on the security of infant-mother attachment. Child Development, 52, 857-869.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crockenberg, S., & Litman, C. (1990). Autonomy as competence in 2-year-olds: Maternal correlates of child defiance, compliance, and self-assertion. Developmental Psychology, 26, 961-971.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, R. J. (1992). Anterior cerebral asymmetry and the nature of emotion. Brain Cognition, 20, 125-151.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, R. J., & Henriques, J. (2000). Regional brain function in sadness and depression. In J. Borod (Ed.), The neuropsychology of emotion (pp. 269-297). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deater-Deckard, K. (2001). Recent research examining the role of peer relationships in the development of psychopathology. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 5, 565-579.

    Google Scholar 

  • Derryberry, D., & Reed, M. A. (1996). Regulatory processes and the development of cognitive representations. Development and Psychopathology, 8, 215-234.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, A. (1991). Young children's performance on a task sensitive to the memory functions of the medial temporal lobe in adults: The delayed nonmatching-to-sample task reveals problems that are due to non-memory-related task demands. Behavioral Neuroscience, 108, 659-680.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dodge, K. (1991). Emotion and social information processing. In J. Garber & K. A. Dodge (Eds.), The development of emotion regulation and dysregulation (pp. 159-181). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eisenberg, N., Cumberland, A., & Spinrad, T. L. (1998). Parental socialization of emotion. Psychological Inquiry, 9, 241-273.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R., Guthrie, I., Murphy, B., Maszk, P., Holmgren, R., et al. (1996). The relations of regulation and emotionality to problem behavior in elementary school. Development and Psychopathology, 8, 141-162.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eisenberg, N., Murphy, B. C., Maszk, P., Smith, M., & Karbon, M. (1995). The role of emotionality and regulation in children's social functioning: A longitudinal study. Child Development, 66, 1360-1384.

    Google Scholar 

  • Field, T. F. (1994). The effects of mother's physical and emotional unavailability on emotion regulation. In N. A. Fox (Ed.), Emotion regulation: Behavioral and biological considerations, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development (pp. 208-227). Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fogel, A. (1982). Affective dynamics in early infancy: Affective tolerance. In T. Field & A. Fogel (Eds.), Emotion and early interaction (pp. 22-58). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, N. A. (1994). dynamic cerebral process underlying emotion regulation. In N. A. Fox (Ed.), Emotion regulation: Behavioral and biological considerations, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development. Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, N. A., Calkins, S. D., & Bell, M. A. (1994). Neural plasticity and development in the first two years of life: Evidence from cognitive and socioemotional domains of research. Development and Psychopathology, 6, 677-696.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, N. A., Calkins, S. D., Porges, S. W., Rubin, K., Coplan, R. J., Stewart, S., et al. (1995). Frontal activation asymmetry and social competence at four years of age. Child Development, 66, 1770-1784.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, N. A., Henderson, H. A., & Marshall, P. J. (2001). The biology of temperament: An integrative approach. In C. A. Nelson & M. Luciana (Eds.), The Handbook of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (pp. 631-646). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, N. A., Henderson, H. A., Rubin, K. H., Calkins, S. D., & Schmidt, L. A. (2001). Continuity and discontinuity of behavioral inhibition and exuberance: Psychophysiological and behavioral influences across the first four years of life. Child Development, 72, 1-21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garber, J., Braafladt, N., & Zeman, J. (1991). The regulation of sad affect: An information-processing perspective. In J. Garber & K. A. Dodge (Eds.), The development of emotion regulation and dysregulation: Cambridge studies in social and emotional development (pp. 208-240). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garner, P. (1995). Toddlers' emotion regulation behaviors: The role of social context and family expressiveness. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 4, 417-430.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerardi, G., Rothbart, M. K., Posner, M. I., & Kepler, S. (1996, April). The development of attentional control: Performance on a spatial Stoop-like task at 24, 30 and 36-38-months-of-age. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the International Society for Infant Studies, Providence, RI.

  • Gottlieb, G. (1991). Epigenetic systems view of human development. Developmental Psychology, 27, 33-34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grolnick, W., Bridges, L., & Connell, J. (1996). Emotion regulation in two-year-olds: Strategies and emotional expression in four contexts. Child Development, 67, 928-941.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grolnick, W., Cosgrove, T., & Bridges, L. (1996). Age-graded change in the initiation of positive affect. Infant Behavior and Development, 19, 153-157.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. (1999). Emotion regulation: Past, present, future. Cognition and Emotion, 13, 551-573.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J., & Levenson, R. W. (1997). Hiding feelings: The acute effects of inhibiting negative and positive emotion. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106(1), 95-103.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henderson, H. A., Fox, N. A., & Rubin, K. H. (2001). Temperamental contributions to social behavior: The moderating roles of frontal EEG asymmetry and gender. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 40, 68-74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kochanska, G., Coy, K., & Murray, K. (2001). The development of self-regulation across the first four years of life. Child Development, 72, 1091-1111.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kopp, C. (1982). Antecedents of self-regulation: A developmental perspective. Developmental Psychology, 18, 199-214.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kopp, C. (2002). Commentary: The co-developments of attention and emotion regulation. Infancy, 2, 199-208.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhl, J., & Kraska, K. (1993). Self-regulation: Psychometric properties of a computer-aided instrument. German Journal of Psychology, 17(1), 11-24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paris, S. G., & Newman, R. S. (1990). Developmental aspects of self-regulated learning. Educational Psychologist, 25(1), 87-102.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker, J. G., & Asher, S. R. (1987). Peer relations and later personal adjustment: Are low accepted children at risk? Psychological Bulletin, 102, 357-389.

    Google Scholar 

  • PÉrez-Edgar, K., & Fox, N. A. (2000, July). The impact of frontal asymmetry and attentional control on social reticence. Poster session presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Brighton, England.

  • Pettit, G. S., & Bates, J. E. (1989). Family interaction patterns and children's behavior problems from infancy to 4 years. Developmental Psychology, 25, 413-420.

    Google Scholar 

  • Porges, S. W. (1985). Method and apparatus for evaluating rhythmic oscillations in aperiodic physiological response systems. (U.S. Patent 4520944). Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Porges, S. W. (1991). Vagal tone: An autonomic mediatory of affect. In J. A. Garber & K. A. Dodge (Eds.), The development of affect regulation and dysregulation (pp. 11-128). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Porges, S. W. (1996). Physiological Regulation in high-risk infants: A model for assessment and potential intervention. Development and Psychopathology, 8, 43-58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Porges, S. W., & Byrne, E. A. (1992). Research methods for measurement of heart rate and respiration. Biological Psychology, 34, 93-130

    Google Scholar 

  • Posner, M. I. (1992). Attention as a cognitive and neural system. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 1, 11-14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Posner, M. I., & Rothbart, M. K. (2000). Developing mechanisms of self-regulation. Development and Psychopathology, 12, 427-441.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothbart, M. K. (1981). Measurement of temperament in infancy. Child Development, 52, 569-578.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothbart, M. K. (1986). Longitudinal observation of infant temperament. Developmental Psychology, 22, 356-365.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothbart, M. K. (1989). Temperament and development. In G. Kohnstamm, J. Bates, & M. K. Rothbart (Eds.), Temperament in childhood (pp. 187-248). Chichester, England: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothbart, M. K., & Bates, J.E. (1998). Temperament. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & N. Eisenberg (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Social, emotional, and personality development (5th ed., pp. 105-176). New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothbart, M. K., & Derryberry, D. (1981). Development of individual differences in temperament. In M. E. Lamb & A. L. Brown (Eds.), The neuropsychology of individual differences: A developmental perspective (pp. 93-123). New York: Plenum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothbart, M. K., & Derryberry, D. (1997). Reactive and effortful processes in the organization of temperament. Development and Psychopathology, 9, 633-652.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothbart, M. K., Derryberry, D., & Hershey, K. (2000). Stability of temperament in childhood: Laboratory infant assessment to parent report at seven years. In V. J. Molfese & D. L. Molfese (Eds.), Temperament and personality development across the life span (pp. 85-119). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothbart, M. K., Posner, M. I., & Boylan, A. (1990). Regulatory mechanisms in infant development. In J. Enns (Ed.), The development of attention: Research and theory (pp. 139-160). Amsterdam Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothbart, M. K., Posner, M. I., & Hershey, K. L. (1995). Temperament, attention, and developmental psychopathology. In D. Cicchetti & D. Cohen (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology: Vol. 1. Theory and methods (Wiley series on personality processes) New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubin, K. H., Cheah, C. S. L., & Fox, N. A. (2001). Emotion regulation, parenting, and display of social reticence in preschoolers. Early Education and Development, 12, 97-115.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruff, H., & Rothbart, M. K. (1996). Attention in early development. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, C., Calkins, S., Keane, S. P., Anastopoulos, A., & Shelton, T. (2002) Predicting stability and change in toddler behavior problems: Contributions of maternal behavior and child gender. Manuscript submitted for publication.

  • Spangler, G., & Grossman, K. E. (1993). Biobehavioral organization in securely and insecurely attached infants. Child Development, 64, 1439-1450.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spangler, G., Schieche, M., Ilg, U., Maier, U., & Ackerman, C. (1994). Maternal sensitivity as an external organizer for biobehavioral regulation in infancy. Developmental Psychobiology, 27, 425-437.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevenson-Hinde, J., & Glover, A. (1996). Shy girls and boys: A new look. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 37, 181-187.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stifter, C. A., & Braungart, J. M. (1995). The regulation of negative reactivity in infancy: Function and development. Developmental Psychology, 31, 448-455

    Google Scholar 

  • Stifter, C. A., & Moyer, D. (1991). The regulation of positive affect: Gaze aversion activity during mother-infant interaction. Infant Behavior and Development, 14(1), 111-123.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stifter, C. A., Spinrad, T., & Braungart-Rieker, J. (1999). Toward a developmental model of child compliance: The role of emotion regulation. Child Development, 70, 21-32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, A., Birch, H., Chess, S., Hertzig, M., & Korn, S. (1964). Behavioral individuality in early childhood. New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, A., Chess, S., & Birch, H. G. (1970). The origins of personality. Scientific American, 223(2), 102-109.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, R. A. (1994). Emotion regulation: A theme in search of definition. In N. A. Fox (Ed.), The development of emotion regulation: Biological and behavioral considerations, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59(2/3, Serial No. 240), 25-52. Chicago, Ill.

  • Thompson, R. A. (1998). Early sociopersonality development. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & N. Eisenberg (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Social, emotional, and personality development (5th ed., pp. 25-104). New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vaughn, B. E., Kopp, C. B., & Krakow, J. B. (1984). The emergence and consolidation of self-control from eighteen to thirty months of age: Normative trends and individual differences. Child Development, 55, 990-1004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Volling, B. (2001). Early attachment relationships as predictors of preschool children's emotion regulation with a distressed sibling. Early Educationn and Development, 2, 185-207.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiss, B., Dodge, K. A., Bates, J. E., & Pettit, G. S. (1992). Some consequences of early harsh discipline: Childhood aggression and a maladaptive social information processing style. Child Development, 63, 1321-1335.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, B., & Gottman, J. (1996). Attention-The shuttle between emotion and cognition: Risk, Resiliency, and physiological bases. In E. Hetherington & E. Blechman (Eds.), Stress, coping and resiliency in children and families (pp. 189-228). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zelazo, P., Reznick, J. S., & Pinon, D. (1995). Response control and the execution of verbal rules. Developmental Psychology, 31, 508-517.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman, B. J. (1998). Developing self-fulfilling cycles of academic regulation: An analysis of exemplary instructional models. In D. H. Schunk & B. J. Zimmerman (Eds.), Self-regulated learning: From teaching to self-reflective practice (pp. 1-19). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Development, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland

    Nathan A. Fox

  2. Department of Psychology, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina

    Susan D. Calkins

Authors
  1. Nathan A. Fox
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Susan D. Calkins
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Fox, N.A., Calkins, S.D. The Development of Self-Control of Emotion: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Influences. Motivation and Emotion 27, 7–26 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023622324898

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023622324898

Search

Navigation