Problems for Studying This TopicWhat are babies experiencing?What do their facial expressions mean?What other capacities have to be in place for an emotion to emerge?Nature or Nurture?GoalsDevelopmental Patterns (of emotions)Secondary emotions (shame, pride, guilt)Emotion RegulationDevelopmental PatternsEmotion ExpressionExpression – FacesDarwin: “…the young, and the old of widely different races, both with man and animals, express the same state of mind by the same movements.”The Expression of Emotion in Man and AnimalsFacial ExpressionPaul EkmanUniversal & Innate (Nativist Theory)Even very different cultures identify emotions in the same wayAdults agree on happiness, sadness, anger, and disgust (even if no word)Are Emotions Innate?Evidence for Expression1 month old infants express disgust and interestFeeding & OrientingVideos of infant emotions (Carroll Izard)Raters agreed on:Interest, Joy, Surprise, & SadnessRaters disagreed on:Anger, Disgust, & ContemptBlind versus Sighted AthletesVictory & DefeatPride & ShameTook pictures when they were defeated or won and compared the pictures, their bodies did the same thing with blind vs. sightedPositive EmotionsSmilingNewborns: Smile in REM sleep (burst in brainstem activity)2nd week: Smile when awake (not correlated with environment)3-8 weeks: Smile due to environment (not really social)2.5-3 months: Social Smiles (reciprocally related to others)Start getting feedback, reaffirm how they are feelingImportant in forming attachment and bonds7 months: Smiles, also to familiar facesNature vs. Nurture?Blind children smile (Nature)May not shift to social smilesNeed to be reciprocal (nurture)Premature infants smile lateBut at the appropriate gestational age (nature)Laughter3-4 month old laugh when happy1 year old laugh at the unexpected2 year old enjoy making others laughNegative EmotionsDistressGeneralized distress appears very quickly (undifferentiated – don’t know if it is sad or angry)By 2 months: adults can differentiate anger and sadness from distress and pain (in some contexts)By age 2: Adults can easily differentiate anger from other negative emotionsSeparation AnxietyFeelings of distress that infants and toddlers experience when they are separated, or expect to be separated, from individuals to whom they are attachedAn important type of fear and distress that tends to increase from 8-13 or 15 months and then begins to declineBy about 5 months, infants can start comparing faces (mom’s is different than dad’s)After 8 and past 12, but starts to go down: separation anxietyAcross CulturesInnate behavior that all humans tend to haveStranger AnxietyEmerges around 6-7 months (first evidence of fear)Intensifies and lasts until about 2 years oldVariable across individuals and contexts1st evidence of fearOther fears (e.g., fear of loud noises) are also evident around 7 months and tend to decline after 12 monthsWhy does this start?Better recall memory (new vs. old events)Have to understand that this person is newBetter categorization (trustable vs. not)Greater needsIncreased ability to signal needs  prefer respondersWhat else?Control/PredictabilityNoisy Monkey12 – 13 month oldsControl (press button)  less distressNo control (random)  more distressFixed interval of noise (random and fixed interval, no control)Predictability  less distressRandom  more distressMinimizing Stranger AnxietyMost anxiety when mother is not present, least when mother holds childLet child leave the parentTell child what is going to happenTime to get to know strangerSecure attachment styleExperience, regularly cared for by othersParent responds favorably to strangerEmotion RecognitionEmotion Recognition in OthersEmpathetic crying (babies distressed when others are)Present at birthVisual discrimination & categorization – Facial Expressions6 weeks: some signs7 months: well developedSocial Referencing12 monthsUnderstanding EmotionsEmpathetic Crying18-72 hours post-natal, newborns exposed to another infant’s crying displayed distress reactions (Martin & Clark, 1982; Sagi & Hoffman, 1976)Another infants cry  greater distress thanSilence, white noise, synthetic cry sounds, non-human cry sounds, own cryInfant distress to another infant’s cry not a response to aversive noiseMay be a very early precursor to empathetic respondingEmpathetic Responding and Behavior10-12 months: no response to others’ distress14-20 months: increased capability of a variety of helping behaviors such as:Verbal comfort and adviceSharingDistracting the person in distress3 years of age: capable of a variety of empathy related behaviors such as:expressing verbal and facial concernInterest in another’s distressResponses to simulated distress of a stranger and of their parent, at home and in the laboratory, between the ages of 14 and 36 monthsEmotion RecognitionDiscrimination: perceive that one thing is different than another4-7 month old dishabituateCategorization: Ignore natural variation in one category, and still treat two slightly different members in a category as the “same”Inter-modal matching by 7 months (faces and soundtracks)Show emotional facial expressions and pairing it with emotionsPrefer to look at congruent match ups (happy face with a happy voice versus happy face with angry voice)DiscriminationBy 6 weeks or so:Habituate babies to a smiling face (reduced looking)Present smiling and fearful facesBaby will look longer at fearful face after being habituated to smiling – they notice a difference and their ability to see detail develops overtimeCategorizationBy 5 months;Good visual acuityIntegrate features into wholesCategorize other things such as animalsBabies can be habituated to many smiling faces and look at the fearful face in the testSocial ReferencingThe seeking of another’s reaction to a situation to guide own behaviorAppears as early as 6 monthsIs not initially intentionalConsidered the basis of observational learningVisual cliff: platform baby can crawl on with plexi-glass over a pitReferencing caretakers’ emotions is vital for learning of basic adaptive behaviors. Kids who cannot do this are at risk.Understanding Emotions: Labeling Emotional Expression2 year olds: Happiness3-4 year olds: Anger, SadnessPre-K: Fear, Surprise, DisgustGrade School: Pride, Shame, GuiltLabeling Emotions: LanguageLabeling Emotions and identification of antecedents and consequences develops around age 2 (Bretherton et al., 1985)Emerging ability toMatch a