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On Specifying Specificity: Facial Expressions at 4 Months
David S Bennett1, Margaret Bendersky, Michael Lewis
1Department of Psychiatry, Drexel University College of Medicine.
Summary
Researchers identified a family of frustrating events eliciting anger and sadness in 4-month-olds. This finding supports situational specificity in early emotional development and expression.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Emotion Science
- Infant Studies
Background:
- Differential Emotions Theory distinguishes event-emotion relations.
- Examining situational specificity in facial expressions requires diverse stimuli and longitudinal data.
- Identifying stimulus situations a priori remains a challenge.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose a method for identifying families of stimulus situations.
- To demonstrate how facial expressions and physiological indexes can converge to identify meaningful stimulus situations.
- To examine situational specificity in infant emotions.
Main Methods:
- Utilized multiple stimulus situations assessed over multiple occasions and ages.
- Examined facial expressions and physiological indexes (cortisol responses).
- Focused on 4-month-old infants' responses to frustrating, goal-blocking events.
Main Results:
- Evidence found for a family of frustrating, goal-blocking events.
- These events elicited expressions and cortisol responses indicative of anger in infants.
- Individual differences showed these situations also elicited expressions and cortisol changes indicative of sadness.
Conclusions:
- Facial expressions and physiological responses can converge to indicate meaningful stimulus situations.
- A family of frustrating, goal-blocking events elicits anger and sadness in 4-month-olds.
- Further identification of infant stimulus situations is needed to systematically examine emotional specificity.