Development and Psychopathology, 10 (1998), 811–828 Copyright © 1998 Cambridge University Press Printed in the United States of America

Stress, memory, and emotion: Developmental considerations from the study of child maltreatment

SETH POLLAK,a DANTE CICCHETTI,b,c a b

AND

RAFAEL KLORMAN c

University of Wisconsin at Madison; Mt. Hope Family Center; and cUniversity of Rochester

Abstract Emotion and memory are examined within a developmental framework. The point of departure for this discussion is the study of maltreated children whose traumatic experiences have been linked to difficulties in emotional development. It is suggested that cognitive processes such as memory and attention serve to link experience with emotion …ver más…

However, fundamental questions about the nature of emotional processes include: How and what does the emotion learner learn?; How do emotion systems remain flexible to experience?; and Through what mechanisms does experience influence the development of emotion systems? These questions hold importance because they may cast light upon how interactions with the environment may predispose the organism towards successful adaptation or psychopathology. Developmental questions regarding the role of experience in the ontogenesis of emotions are particularly challenging research problems. The literature on emotions indicates both regularly timed changes and individual differences over development. Yet current research supports only the most tentative suggestions concerning the processes that underlie these developmental changes. Many of these research approaches rely upon the assumption that human behavior is rooted partly in biology and partly in experience and that a sound developmental explanation comes from attempts to tease these influences apart. In contrast, the issue most germane to understanding the developmental effects of trauma is not the core systems of emotion knowledge with which children are endowed, but rather the process(es) by which children extend their knowledge beyond its initial state. Thus, a

challenge for exploring