Anger, sad, and blended expressions to contingency disruption in young infants.

Three studies elicited young infants' (aged 17-23 weeks) anger and sad facial expressions during brief contingency disruptions to explore their potential organization over time as a biphasic process. Study 1 examined partial correlations among anger, sad, blended anger/sad, and neutral expressions during extinction in three extant, independently recruited samples. Across samples, all three negative expressions were inversely related to neutral expressions, but anger and sad expressions were not significantly correlated when anger/sad blends were controlled. Study 2 compared expressions during contingency and disruption minutes in two groups: one in which the disruption was an extinction phase (the absence of the formerly contingent event), or one in which the disruption was noncontingent presentations of the stimuli. Study 3 examined expression trajectories over time in two contingency and extinction sessions. Independent trajectories of anger and sad expressions occurred over time in Studies 2 and 3. Extinction and noncontingency differed in sad expression. The relation between expressions and blends also varied over time.

Infant approach and withdrawal in response to a goal blockage: Its antecedent causes and its effect on toddler persistence.

In 2 separate longitudinal studies, infants and their mothers were seen in 3 longitudinal visits. At 2 months, they were observed in free play where mothers' contingency toward their infants was obtained. At 5 months, a goal blockage response was produced when a previously learned contingent response became ineffective in producing an interesting event. Infants' emotional responses, in particular anger and sad facial expressions, were observed. At 2 years, toddlers' persistence at play was assessed by measuring children's responses to an interruption of their play. In both studies, the amount of toddlers' persistence was positively related to their anger response to the blocked goal at 5 months. Maternal contingency was not related either to infants' response to the blocked goal or to their persistence at play. These findings provide evidence for the contribution to and the consequences of infants' response to a goal blockage and the role of anger as an approach emotion.

Relations of Early Goal Blockage Response and Gender to Subsequent Tantrum Behavior.

Infants and their mothers participated in a longitudinal study of the sequelae of infant goal blockage responses. Four-month-old infants participated in a standard contingency learning/goal blockage procedure during which anger and sad facial expressions to the blockage were coded. When infants were 12- and 20- months-old, mothers completed a questionnaire about their children's tantrums. Tantrum scores increased with age and boys tended to show more tantrum behavior than girls. Anger expressed to goal blockage at 4 months was unrelated to tantrum behavior. There was a gender by sad expression interaction. Girls who expressed sadness in response to the goal blockage had lower total tantrum scores than boys; otherwise there was no difference. These results suggest that tantrums of infants who display sad, not anger expression, in response to goal blockage, are differentially influenced by children's gender.

Emotion knowledge in young neglected children.

Young neglected children may be at risk for emotion knowledge deficits. Children with histories of neglect or with no maltreatment were initially seen at age 4 and again 1 year later to assess their emotion knowledge. Higher IQ was associated with better emotion knowledge, but neglected children had consistently poorer emotion knowledge over time compared to non-neglected children after controlling for IQ. Because both neglected status and IQ may contribute to deficits in emotional knowledge, both should be assessed when evaluating these children to appropriately design and pace emotion knowledge interventions.

Emotions and the Development of Childhood Depression: Bridging the Gap.

There is a gap between scientific knowledge about typical and atypical emotional development and efforts to identify and serve children's mental health needs. The gap can be bridged with research that integrates clinical perspectives into the study of emotional development. We illustrate this by discussing typical emotional development in early childhood and how it differs from the atypical features of emotion seen among preschool-age children with depression. We suggest new research directions that integrate the study of typical emotional development with clinical evidence of risk for and presence of affective disorders in young children.

The relation of ANS and HPA activation to infant anger and sadness response to goal blockage.

This study examined the relation of anger and sadness to heart rate and cortisol in 4-month-old infants' (n = 56) response to a goal blockage. The blockage occurred during a contingency learning procedure where infants' response no longer produced a learned interesting event. Anger and sadness were the major emotional expressions to the blockage. The two emotional expressions were differentially related to heart rate and cortisol. Anger was related to increased heart rate, but not cortisol, whereas sadness was related to increased cortisol, but not heart rate. Along with other work, the present results support the view that infant anger in response to goal blockage involves autonomic as opposed to adrenocortical activation as a consequence of an expectation of control over the event. In contrast, sadness in response to goal blockage involves adrenocortical as opposed to autonomic activation stemming from the absence of an expectation of control.

Contextual determinants of anger and other negative expressions in young infants.

Two experiments examined how different frustration contexts affect the instrumental and emotional responses of 4- to 5-month-old infants. Three different frustrating contexts were investigated: loss of stimulation (extinction), reduction in contingent stimulation (partial reinforcement), and loss of stimulus control (noncontingency). In both experiments, changes in arm activity and facial expressions of anger and sadness coded according to the Maximally Discriminative Facial Movement Coding System (MAX) were the measures of frustration. Both experiments showed that (a) arm responses increased when the contingent stimulus was lost or reduced but decreased when control of the stimulus was lost under noncontingency, (b) MAX-coded anger, but not MAX-coded sad or blends of anger and sad, was associated with frustration, and (c) the pattern of anger and arm responses varied with the frustration context. When contingent stimulation was lost or reduced, both anger and arm responses increased, but when expected control was lost under noncontingency, arm responses decreased while anger increased.