Smiling is one of the most important emotional expressions in infancy because it plays a role in initiating and maintaining social interactions between infants and adults.
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As infants grow, laughs begin to accompany their smiles, and they laugh more often and at more things. Infants may show clear expressions of joy and intense happiness as early as 2½ months of age while playing with a parent and at 3 to 4 months of age in response to stimuli that they find highly arousing (Bornstein & Lamb, 2011). At 6 months of age, an infant might laugh at unusual sounds or sights, such as when Mommy puts a bowl on her head or makes a funny face. Laughing at unusual events illustrates the baby’s increasing cognitive competence as he or she knows what to expect and is surprised when something unexpected occurs. By a year of age, infants can smile deliberately to engage an adult.
Negative emotions change over time as well. Distress is evident at birth when newborns experience the discomfort of hunger, a heel prick, or a chilly temperature. Anger appears at about 6 months of age and develops rapidly, becoming more complex in terms of elicitors and responses (Lemerise & Dodge, 2008). Initially, physical restrictions such as being restrained in a high chair or when being dressed can elicit anger. The inability to carry out a desired act, such as unsuccessfully reaching to obtain a desired toy, can also provoke frustration and anger (Sullivan & Lewis, 2003). Between 8 and 20 months of age, infants gradually become more reactive, and anger is more easily aroused (Braungart-Rieker, Hill-Soderlund, & Karrass, 2010). They become aware of the actions of others, so that anger can be elicited by others’ behavior. For example, an infant may become upset when Mommy goes to the door to leave or when Grandma takes out the towels in preparation for bath time. During the second year of life, temper tantrums become common when the toddler’s attempts at autonomy are thwarted and he or she experiences frustration or stress. The anger escalates with the child’s stress level (Potegal, Robison, Anderson, Jordan, & Shapiro, 2007). Some toddlers show extreme tantrums, lie on the floor, scream, and jerk their arms and legs. Other children’s tantrums are more subtle. They may whine, mope, and stick out their lower lip.
Self-Conscious Emotions
Emotional development is an orderly process in which complex emotions build on the foundation of simple emotions. The development of self-conscious emotions, or secondary emotions—such as empathy, pride, embarrassment, shame, and guilt—depends on cognitive development, as well as an awareness of self. Self-conscious emotions do not begin to emerge until about 15 to 18 months, and they largely develop during the second and third years of life (Goodvin, Thompson, & Winer, 2015). To experience self-conscious emotions, toddlers must be able to have a sense of self, observe themselves and others, be aware of standards and rules, and compare their behavior with those standards (Lewis, 2016). Feelings of pride, for example, arise from accomplishing a personally meaningful goal, whereas guilt derives from realizing that one has violated a standard of conduct. Parental evaluations are the initial basis for many secondary emotions (Stipek, 1995).
Emotion Regulation
As children become aware of social standards and rules, emotion regulation—the ability to control their emotions—becomes important. How do infants regulate emotions? Very young infants have been observed to manage negative emotions by sucking vigorously on objects or turning their bodies away from distressing stimuli (Mangelsdorf, Shapiro, & Marzolf, 1995).
Smiling is also thought to serve a purpose in regulating emotions, as it allows the infant to control aspects of a situation without losing touch with it. When an infant gets excited and smiles, she looks away briefly. This may be a way of breaking herself away from the stimulus and allowing her to regroup, preventing overstimulation. Smiling is associated with a decline in heart rate, suggesting that it is a relaxation response to decrease an infant’s level of arousal.
Whereas 6-month-old infants are more likely to use gaze aversion and fussing as primary emotion regulatory strategies, 12-month-old infants are more likely to use self-soothing (e.g., thumb sucking, rocking themselves) and distraction (chewing on objects, playing with toys). By 18 months of age, toddlers actively attempt to change the distressing situation, such as by moving away from upsetting stimuli, and begin to use distraction, such as by playing with toys or talking (Crockenberg & Leerkes, 2004; Feldman, Dollberg, & Nadam, 2011).
After 18 months of age, toddlers’ vocabulary for talking about feelings develops rapidly, and their ability to tell caregivers how they feel presents new opportunities for emotion regulation (Bretherton, Fritz, Zahn-Waxler, & Ridgeway, 1986). Vocabulary predicts self-regulation abilities in 24-month-old infants (Vallotton & Ayoub, 2011). In one longitudinal study of children from 18 to 48 months, toddlers with better language skill tended to engage in more support seeking and distracted themselves more, which was linked with showing less anger at 48 months (Roben, Cole, & Armstrong, 2013). Researchers have also found that infants’ abilities to self-regulate at 15 months predict executive functioning at 4 years (Ursache, Blair, Stifter, Voegtline, & The Family Life Project Investigators, 2013).
Social Interaction and Emotional Development
Infants and young children often need outside assistance in regulating their emotions. Warm and supportive interactions with parents and other caregivers can help infants understand their emotions and learn how to manage them.
Parental Interaction
Responsive parenting that is attuned to infants’ needs helps infants develop skills in emotion regulation, especially in managing negative emotions like anxiety, as well as their physiological correlates, such as accelerated heart rate (Feldman et al., 2011). For example, sensitive responses coupled with soft vocalizations aid 3-month-old infants in regulating distress (Spinelli & Mesman, 2018). Likewise, when mothers responded promptly to their 2-month-old infants’ cries, these same infants, at 4 months of age, cried for shorter durations, were better able to manage their emotions, and stopped crying more quickly than other infants (Jahromi & Stifter, 2007).
Parents help their infants learn to manage emotions through a variety of strategies, including direct intervention, modeling, selective reinforcement, control of the environment, verbal instruction, and touch (Waters, West, Karnilowicz, & Mendes, 2017). These strategies change as the infants grow older. For example, touching becomes a less common regulatory strategy with age, whereas vocalizing and distracting techniques increase (Meléndez, 2005). When mothers provide guidance in helping infants regulate their emotions, the infants tend to engage in distraction and mother-oriented strategies, such as seeking help, during frustrating events.
Parent–infant interactions undergo continuous transformations as infants develop. For example, infants’ growing motor skills influence their interactions with parents, as well as their socioemotional development. Crawling, creeping, and walking introduce new challenges to parent–infant interaction and socioemotional growth (Adolph & Franchak, 2017). As crawling begins, parents and caregivers respond with happiness and pride, positive emotions that encourage infants’ exploration. As infants gain motor competence, they wander further from parents (Thurman & Corbetta, 2017). Crawling increases a toddler’s capability to attain goals—a capability that, while often satisfying to the toddler, may involve hazards.
Responsive parenting helps infants learn to manage their emotions and self-regulate.
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