Findings of a series of studies on individual differences and maturational changes in expressivity at the neonatal stage and during early infancy are reported. Research results indicate that newborns are able to discriminate and imitate the basic emotional expressions: happy, sad, and surprised. Results show widened infant lips when the happy…

This essay discusses the evaluation of the relationship between the nervous system and emotion regulation, introducing vagal tone as a measurable organismic variable that contributes to individual and developmental differences in the expression and regulation of emotion. (MDM)

This essay argues that the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) system does not appear to be related to emotion regulation processes in children, although individual differences in emotion processes related to negative emotion temperaments appear to be associated with individual differences in HPA reactivity among normally…

A basic tenet of this paper is that, from the time of the ancient Greeks, Western thought has distinguished between rational processes unique to humans and the processes governing animal behavior. A model of motivation, emotion, and the cognitive/physiological interaction that can be applied to both animals and humans is presented. The special…

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…