Get Bent Into Shape: The Non-linear, Multi-system, Contextually-embedded Psychophysiology of Emotional Development

Abstract

Psychophysiological aspects of emotional development have been studied for several decades, yet recent years have borne witness to impressive advances in the sophistication of theoretical, procedural, and analytical approaches that scholars have brought to this field. In this chapter, Hastings and Kahle review several of the perennial challenges that are inherent to the study of developmental affective psychophysiology and consider the insights that have emerged over the past two decades as researchers have sought to address these challenges. In particular, they argue that the psychophysiology of emotional development should be understood and studied as dynamic processes embedded in situational and relationship contexts, both shaping and being shaped by personal experiences, and involving the coordination of multiple physiological systems with the other essential elements of emotional functioning.