The current study examined the influence of maternal characteristics on the development of infant smiling and laughter, a marker of early positive emotionality (PE) and how maternal characteristics and the development of infant PE contributed to subsequent maternal parenting. One hundred fifty-nine mothers with 4-month-old infants participated.…

Examined emotion regulation strategy use in 75 infants between 6 and 18 months during interactions with strangers. Compared to 12- and 18-month olds, the 6-month olds were more likely to use gaze aversion and fussing as their primary regulation strategy and were less likely to use self-soothing and self-distraction. (HTH)

Explored patterns of emotional communication in 70 mother-infant dyads, emphasizing both mother and child roles in affect regulation. Display of maternal positive and negative affects decreased with age; child affects were unchanged. Maternal sensitivity was associated with maternal matching of son's affects and daughter's creation of shared…

Explores current theories of emotional development in order to identify the assumptions that could explain the strong antagonism toward early nonbasic emotions. Draws on the contrasting and polarity of viewpoints to examine the logical implications of these viewpoints for the very possibility of early nonbasic emotions and their reciprocal…

Examined facial expressions in relation to cognition in infants 2 to 8 months of age. A total of 48 subjects received an audiovisual stimulus contingent on arm movement, whereas 32 infants did not control the stimulus. Infants in the contingent group expressed greater interest and joy during learning and greater anger during extinction. (RH)

Explored 14- and 18-month olds' ability to identify the target of the experimenter's emotional display of happiness or disgust in response to something seen or felt inside a box. Findings suggested that, regardless of age, infants used the experimenter's attentional cues to interpret her emotional signals and behaved as if they understood that she…

Older Down's syndrome infants responded to the regular reappearance of a squeaky doll with significantly more affective behavior than did younger Down's syndrome infants. Longitudinal research with the younger infants indicated that the onset of affective behavior significantly correlated with mental development and aspects of temperament.…

Examined infant facial expressions at two, four, and six months of age during face-to-face play and a still-face interaction with their mothers. Contrary to differential emotions theory, at no age did proportions or durations of discrete and blended negative expressions differ; they also showed different patterns of developmental change. (MM)

Compared Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles of 1- to 6-month olds during weekly videotapes of mother/infant interaction for clues regarding emotional significance. Correlated levels of Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiling within sessions; found that they had similar developmental trajectories. Duchenne smiles were typically preceded by non-Duchenne…

It is difficult to make progress in the study of emotions and emotional development if the meanings assigned to central constructs vary widely across investigators. This book clarifies and synthesizes the different ways in which emotion researchers approach fundamental questions about the nature of emotion and emotional development. Theorist and…