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Individual differences in emotionality in infancy
G Kochanska1, K C Coy, T L Tjebkes
1Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City 52242-1407, USA. GRAZYNA-KOCHANSKA@UIOWA.EDU
Insights
Infant emotional responses to joy, fear, anger, and discomfort were observed using multiple methods. Infant temperament and attention capacity were linked to emotional expression and regulation.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Infant Emotional Development
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Understanding early emotionality is crucial for developmental psychology.
- Infants display a range of emotions, including joy, fear, anger, and discomfort.
- Temperament and attentional capacity are key factors influencing infant emotional expression.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the emotionality of 112 infants aged 8-10 months using a multimethod approach.
- To examine the coherence of emotional responses within and across different emotion-eliciting episodes.
- To explore the convergence of observed emotionality, parental temperament reports, and naturalistic interactional emotional tone.
Main Methods:
- Observation of 112 infants (8-10 months) responding to standardized joy, fear, anger, and discomfort stimuli.
- Collection of parental temperament reports.
- Observation of infant emotional tone during naturalistic mother-infant interactions.
- Analysis of emotional response parameters: latency, discrete behaviors, average and peak intensity across multiple channels.
Main Results:
- Emotional response parameters cohered strongly within specific emotion-eliciting episodes.
- Coherence across episodes targeting the same emotion was observed, with some exceptions (e.g., anger).
- Observed emotionality and father-reported temperament meaningfully related to infant emotional tone in mother-child interactions.
- Infant focused/effortful attention was modestly associated with better modulated negative emotionality.
Conclusions:
- Infant emotional responses show consistency within and, to some extent, across different eliciting conditions.
- Multiple measures of infant emotionality converge, linking observed responses to temperament and interactional patterns.
- Attentional capacity plays a role in the modulation of negative emotionality in early development.
Abstract:
In this multimethod investigation of early emotionality, we observed 112 8- to 10-month-olds' responses to standard procedures consisting of multiple brief episodes that elicited joy, fear, anger, and discomfort to aversive stimulation. We obtained parental reports about the infants' temperament and observed their emotional tone during naturalistic interactions with their mothers. Parameters of emotional response to the standard procedures (latency, discrete behaviors, and average and peak intensity across facial, vocal, and bodily channels) cohered strongly within each episode. To a lesser extent and with the exception of anger, they also cohered across episodes targeting the same emotion. The four emotions appeared orthogonal, except for the peak intensity of response, which cohered modestly across the 3 negative emotions. The emotionality measures converged to some extent: responses to the standard procedures and father-reported temperament related meaningfully to the infant's emotional tone in mother-child interactions. As predicted, infants' capacity for focused or effortful attention was modestly associated with better modulated negative emotionality.