Dynamical systems approaches to emotional development

Within the last 20 years, transitions in the conceptualization of emotion and its development have given rise to calls for an explanatory framework that captures emotional development in all its organizational complexity and variability. Recent attempts have been made to couch emotional development in terms of a dynamical systems approach through utilization of principles like self-organization and emergence. In this article, we review and evaluate these attempts, both at the level of theoretical framework and empirical instantiation. We trace the dynamic systems approach to emotional development from theoretical origins in the work of Fogel and Wolff to the more recent framework of Lewis. We also chart its empirical applications from the standpoint of research strategy specific to the approach. We also explore the challenges this approach faces in promoting its framework as both unique and beneficial to the study of stability and change in emotion.