13.1: Infant Emotions

Learning Objectives

1. Differentiate between basic (primary) and self-conscious (secondary) emotions and identify when each typically emerges.
2. Describe how infants express and interpret emotions.
3. Explain how emotional self-regulation develops during infancy and toddlerhood and identify factors that influence it.
4. Compare emotional coaching and emotional dismissing approaches and their impact on children’s emotional development.
5. Identify practical strategies caregivers can use to support emotional self-regulation in infants and toddlers.

What are Emotions?

Emotions are a reaction to an experience or situation. Emotions are often divided into two general categories:

1. Basic emotions (primary emotions), such as interest, happiness, anger, fear, surprise, sadness, and disgust, which appear first, and
2. Self-conscious emotions (secondary emotions), such as envy, pride, shame, guilt, doubt, and embarrassment.

Basic, or primary emotions, are those that are innate- we are born with them. Secondary emotions emerge as children develop a self-concept and require social guidance on when to express such emotions. The situations in which children learn self-conscious emotions vary across cultures. Individualistic cultures teach us to take pride in personal accomplishments. In contrast, in more collectivist cultures, children are taught not to draw attention to themselves, unless they wish to avoid embarrassment for doing so (Akimoto & Sanbinmatsu, 1999).

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): An infant making an angry facial expression. Image by Brytny.com on Unsplash.

At birth, infants exhibit two emotional responses: attraction and withdrawal. They show attraction to pleasant situations that bring comfort, stimulation, and pleasure, and they withdraw from unpleasant stimulation, such as bitter flavors or physical discomfort. At around two months, infants exhibit social engagement in the form of social smiling, responding with smiles to those who capture their positive attention (Lavelli & Fogel, 2005).

Social smiling becomes more stable and organized as infants learn to use their smiles to engage their parents in interactions. Pleasure is expressed as laughter at 3 to 5 months of age, and displeasure becomes more specific as fear, sadness, or anger between ages 6 and 8 months.

Anger is often the reaction to being prevented from achieving a goal, such as when a toy is removed (Braungart-Rieker, Hill-Soderlund, & Karrass, 2010). In contrast, sadness is typically the response when infants are deprived of a caregiver (Papousek, 2007). Fear is often associated with the presence of a stranger, known as stranger wariness, or the departure of significant others, known as separation anxiety. Both appear sometime between 6 and 15 months after object permanence has been acquired. Further, there is some indication that infants may experience jealousy as young as 6 months of age (Hart & Carrington, 2002).

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): An infant making a sad facial expression. Image by acheron0 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Connecting with Others' Emotions

Facial expressions of emotion are essential regulators of social interaction. In the developmental literature, this concept has been investigated under the concept of social referencing, which is the process whereby infants seek out information from others to clarify a situation and then use that information to act (Klinnert, Campos, & Sorce, 1983). To date, the strongest demonstration of social referencing comes from work on the visual cliff. In the first study to investigate this concept, Campos and colleagues (Sorce, Emde, Campos, & Klinnert, 1985) placed mothers on the far end of the “cliff” from the infant. Mothers first smiled at the infants and placed a toy on top of the safety glass to attract them; infants invariably began crawling to their mothers. When the infants were in the center of the table, however, the mother then posed an expression of fear, sadness, anger, interest, or joy. The results were clearly different for the various faces; no infant crossed the table when the mother showed fear. Only 6% did when the mother posed anger, 33% crossed when the mother posed sadness, and approximately 75% of the infants crossed when the mother posed joy or interest.

Other studies provide similar support for facial expressions as regulators of social interaction. Researchers posed facial expressions of neutral, anger, or disgust toward babies as they moved toward an object and measured the amount of inhibition the babies showed in touching the object (Bradshaw, 1986). The results for 10- and 15-month-olds were the same: Anger produced the greatest inhibition, followed by disgust, with neutral the least. This study was later replicated using joy and disgust expressions, altering the method so that the infants were not allowed to touch the toy (compared with a distractor object) until one hour after exposure to the expression (Hertenstein & Campos, 2004). At 14 months of age, significantly more infants touched the toy when they saw joyful expressions, but fewer touched the toy when they saw disgust.

Developing Emotional Self-Regulation

A final emotional change is in self-regulation. Emotional self-regulation refers to the strategies we use to control our emotional states, enabling us to attain our goals (Thompson & Goodvin, 2007). This requires effortful control of emotions and initially requires assistance from caregivers (Rothbart, Posner, & Kieras, 2006). Young infants have a very limited capacity to adjust their emotional states and depend on their caregivers to help soothe themselves. Caregivers can offer distractions to redirect the infant’s attention and comfort to reduce the emotional distress. As areas of the infant’s prefrontal cortex continue to develop, infants can tolerate more stimulation. By 4 to 6 months, babies can begin to shift their attention away from upsetting stimuli (Rothbart et al, 2006). Older infants and toddlers can communicate their needs for help more effectively and can crawl or walk toward or away from various situations (Cole, Armstrong, & Pemberton, 2010). This aids in their ability to self-regulate. Temperament also plays a role in children’s ability to control their emotional states, and individual differences have been noted in the emotional self-regulation of infants and toddlers (Rothbart & Bates, 2006). ¹¹

Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\): A toddler at a park. Image is licensed under CC0.

Emotional Coaching vs. Dismissing

Gottman et al. (1996) identified two primary approaches caregivers use when responding to children's emotions: emotional coaching and emotional dismissing.

1. Emotional coaching involves recognizing, validating, and labeling children's emotions while guiding them toward appropriate regulation strategies. Caregivers who use this approach help children understand their feelings and develop problem-solving skills. For example, a caregiver might say, "I see that you're feeling frustrated because your tower fell. That can be really upsetting. Let's take a deep breath and try again together." This method promotes emotional intelligence and resilience, enabling children to develop more effective coping mechanisms (Rothbart et al., 2006).
2. Emotional dismissing occurs when caregivers minimize, ignore, or discourage the expression of emotions. Common phrases associated with this approach include "Don't be sad," "You're fine," or "Stop crying." This response can lead children to feel misunderstood, suppress their emotions, and struggle with self-regulation in later years (Gottman et al., 1996). Research suggests that children raised by emotionally dismissive caregivers may have more difficulty managing stress and understanding their emotions (Cole et al., 2010).

Practical Strategies for Supporting Emotional Self-Regulation

Parents and caregivers can implement several practical strategies to help young children develop emotional self-regulation.

• Modeling self-regulation is one effective approach, as children learn by observing how caregivers manage their own emotions. Demonstrating calm responses to stress and verbalizing coping strategies can help children learn to manage their own emotions constructively (Kopp, 2011).
• Providing predictable routines is another key strategy, as consistent daily schedules help infants and toddlers feel secure, reducing emotional distress and promoting self-regulation (Rothbart & Bates, 2006).
• Comforting techniques, such as physical touch, holding, or rocking, help infants regulate distress, while toddlers may benefit from deep-breathing exercises or comfort objects like a favorite blanket (Braungart-Rieker et al., 2010).
• Encouraging emotional expression by acknowledging and labeling feelings can enhance a child’s ability to regulate emotions effectively (Cole et al., 2010).
• Additionally, scaffolding problem-solving skills—such as guiding toddlers through frustration by helping them find alternative solutions—fosters problem-solving abilities and emotional resilience (Lavelli & Fogel, 2005).

By adopting these strategies, caregivers can create an emotionally supportive environment that nurtures the development of self-regulation in young children, setting the foundation for future emotional well-being and social competence.

References, Contributors and Attributions

11. Lifespan Development: A Psychological Perspective by Martha Lally and Suzanne Valentine-French is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Akimoto, S., & Sanbonmatsu, D. M. (1999). Differences in self-conscious emotions across cultures: A comparison of Japanese and American reactions to failure. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25(12), 1775–1786. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672992512012

Bradshaw, G. L. (1986). Emotional communication in infants: The role of facial expressions in social interactions. Child Development, 57(6), 1435–1443. https://doi.org/10.2307/1130427

Braungart-Rieker, J. M., Hill-Soderlund, A. L., & Karrass, J. (2010). Fear and anger reactivity trajectories from 4 to 16 months: The roles of temperament, regulation, and maternal sensitivity. Developmental Psychology, 46(4), 791–804. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019673

Cole, P. M., Armstrong, L. M., & Pemberton, C. K. (2010). The role of language in the development of emotion regulation. Child Development, 81(1), 28–39. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01399.x

Gottman, J. M., Katz, L. F., & Hooven, C. (1996). Parental meta-emotion philosophy and the emotional life of families: Theoretical models and preliminary data. Journal of Family Psychology, 10(3), 243–268. https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.10.3.243

Hart, S., & Carrington, H. (2002). Jealousy in infancy: The role of attachment and emotional regulation. Infant Behavior and Development, 25(4), 395–409. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-6383(02)00141-0

Hertenstein, M. J., & Campos, J. J. (2004). The retention effects of infant emotional expressions: Emotional messages are remembered. Emotion, 4(4), 379–387. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.4.4.379

Klinnert, M. D., Campos, J. J., & Sorce, J. F. (1983). Social referencing: The infant’s use of emotional signals from a familiar adult. Child Development, 54(1), 123–128. https://doi.org/10.2307/1129868

Kopp, C. B. (2011). Self-regulation in childhood: Developmental perspectives. In K. D. Vohs & R. F. Baumeister (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation: Research, theory, and applications (pp. 108–128). Guilford Press.

Lavelli, M., & Fogel, A. (2005). Developmental changes in the relationship between the infant’s attention and emotion during early face-to-face communication: The two-month transition. Developmental Psychology, 41(1), 265–280. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.41.1.265

Lewis, M., & Brooks, J. (1978). Self-knowledge and emotional development. Developmental Psychology, 14(6), 541–547. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.14.6.541

Papousek, M. (2007). Communication in early infancy: An arena of intersubjective learning. Infant Behavior and Development, 30(2), 258–266. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2007.02.003

Rothbart, M. K., & Bates, J. E. (2006). Temperament. In W. Damon & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3, Social, emotional, and personality development (6th ed., pp. 99–166). Wiley.

Rothbart, M. K., Posner, M. I., & Kieras, J. E. (2006). Temperament, attention, and the development of self-regulation. In K. McCartney & D. Phillips (Eds.), Handbook of Early Childhood Development (pp. 338–357). Blackwell Publishing.

Sorce, J. F., Emde, R. N., Campos, J. J., & Klinnert, M. D. (1985). Maternal emotional signaling: Its effect on the visual cliff behavior of 1-year-olds. Developmental Psychology, 21(1), 195–200. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.21.1.195

Thompson, R. A., & Goodvin, R. (2007). Taming the tempest in the toddler years: Emotion regulation in early childhood. In C. A. Brownell & C. B. Kopp (Eds.), Socioemotional development in the toddler years: Transitions and transformations (pp. 320–341). Guilford Press.