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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. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 48: 397–405, 2006. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the relation of infant emotional responses of anger and sadness to cortisol response in 2 goal blockage situations. One goal blockage with 4-month-old infants (N = 56) involved a contingency learning procedure where infants' learned response was no longer effective in reinstating an event. The other goal blockage with 6-month-old infants (N = 84) involved the still face procedure where infants' reactions to their mothers' lack of responsivity were not effective in reestablishing interaction. For both blockages, sadness was related to cortisol response, though anger was not--the greater the sadness, the higher the cortisol response. This differential relation is consistent with other evidence indicating the more positive role of anger as opposed to sadness in overcoming an obstacle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the relation of visual self-recognition to personal pronoun use and pretend play. For a longitudinal sample (N=66) at the ages when self-recognition was emerging (15, 18, and 21 months), self-recognition was related to personal pronoun use and pretend play such that children showing self-recognition used more personal pronouns and demonstrated more advanced pretend play than did children not showing self-recognition. The finding of a relation among these measures provides additional evidence that in the middle of the 2nd year of life a metarepresentation of self emerges in the human child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined relations between reactivity (i.e., peak response) and regulation (i.e., response dampening) in 6-month-old infants' cortisol and behavioral responses to inoculation (N = 62). Data showed that reactivity and regulation were unrelated for both cortisol and behavior. The independence of reactivity and regulation suggests that measures of both are needed to characterize infant cortisol or behavioral response to stress more completely. For both reactivity and regulation, cortisol and behavior were unrelated, suggesting that measures of both are needed to assess infant stress more adequately. There was considerable variation in the timing of the peak cortisol response, suggesting that obtaining only a single poststressor cortisol sample does not provide a sensitive measure of cortisol reactivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined individual differences in 4-year-old children's (N = 60) expression of the self-conscious emotions of embarrassment and shame and their relation to differences in cortisol response to stress. Results indicated the presence of two different types of embarrassment--one that reflected negative evaluation of the self, and the other a nonevaluative type that reflected simply exposure of the self when the individual was the object of attention of others. Results also indicated a relation between a higher cortisol response to stress and the greater expression of the self-conscious emotions of evaluative embarrassment and shame that reflected negative self-evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a longitudinal investigation of infants' cortisol and behavioral stress responses at two, four, and six months of age. Finding that cortisol level and cortisol response decreased with age; Indication of a developmental shift in adrenocortical functioning between two and six months of age.

Examines infant cortisol and behavioral responses to receiving inoculations during pediatric visits at two to six months of age in the United States. Pre- to post-stressor changes in cortisol levels; Effect of age and direction of cortisol response.

Studies the behavioral and cortisol responses of Japanese infants and Caucasian American infants during and following routine inoculation. Intense initial affective response showed by the Caucasian American group; Greater cortisol response showed by the Japanese group; Creation of a four-group taxonomy based on behavioral and cortisol responses.

Examines infants' hand preference for removing toys from a box with a door. Bimanual strategies involving complete or incomplete differentiation of roles for the two hands; Strategies in opening the door and removing the toys; Handedness.

The effect of maternal soothing to infant inoculation as well as everyday distress on infant cortisol and behavioral responses to stress was examined in two longitudinal samples of 55 and 74 infants, respectively, between 2 and 6 months of age. There was no evidence that maternal soothing was effective in reducing infants' cortisol or behavioral responses to stress. The absence of this relation occurred despite evidence for cross-time stability and cross-situation consistency in maternal soothing. That maternal soothing plays little role in lowering infant responses to stress leaves open the possibilities that other maternal behaviors may mediate children's distress or that infant temperament may be related to infant stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates whether early differences in reactivity to stress are related to self-recognition at 18 months of age. Information on adrenocortical and behavioral stress; What objective self-awareness involves; Role of maturational factors in the variation in the timing of self-recognition; Details on the relation between brain function and development.

We surveyed 350 University of Washington permanent employees chosen randomly from among both faculty and staff. The aim was to determine the extent and nature of dental anxiety in the university population potentially available for teaching clinics. In addition, the relationship of fears to self-reported dental health, utilization of dental care, and other general and mental health issues was examined. Dental anxiety was prevalent in this population; 13 percent of subjects reported high dental fear. In contrast to respondents with lower dental fear, subjects with clinically significant fear reported poorer perceived dental health, a longer interval since their last dental appointment, a higher frequency of past fear behaviors, more physical symptoms during last dental injection, and higher percentage of symptoms of anxiety and depression. Dental anxiety was not associated with poorer perceived general health or a longer interval since the last dental injection. University employees are a rich source of potential teaching patients for achieving curricular requirements for managing anxious patients. Student clinicians need guidance to be able to recognize fearful patients; they also need instruction about psychiatric conditions like anxiety and depression in order to be able to better manage and prevent dropouts in their patient roster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Observation of cortisol and behavioral responses to routine inoculation was conducted at 18 months for infants in a longitudinal sample whose stress responses had been observed at 2, 4, and 6 months of age. At 18 months, infants showed an increase in cortisol level over base to the perturbation. The magnitude of this response did not differ from the 6-month response. Moreover, level of cortisol response at 18 months was related to level of cortisol response at 6 months, but not at 2 or 4 months of age. In light of previous findings for a decline in cortisol response between 2 and 6 months had for the emergence of consistent individual differences in cortisol response by 4 to 6 months, the present findings indicate that a developmental shift in adrenocortical functioning has occurred by 6 months of age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assesses the quality of attachment relationships in adoptive and non-adoptive mother-infant using data from two separate samples with the Strange Situation paradigm. Absence of differences in mother-infant attachment between nonadopted and intraracial adopted subjects; Higher insecure attachment in interracial adoptive mother-infant pairs; Higher incidence of psychological problems among middle childhood adoptees.

3 studies examined the relation between the spontaneous occurrence in play of simple 2 part action sequences and the frequency of these sequences and their components following modeling at 12, 15, and 19 months of age. Play following modeling was typically more advanced than play preceding modeling. Moreover, imitation was tied to developmental level. Children at 19 months of age were generally able to imitate complete sequences, though only a few 19-month-olds performed such actions spontaneously. Children at 15 months of age typically did not imitate complete sequences except under simplified experimental conditions, and, even then, their ability to perform sequences was attenuated relative to the 19-month-olds. However, 15-month-olds did imitate many single components of the 2-part combinations and, to a lesser extent, exhibited these components spontaneously. A smaller number of 12-month-olds imitated components, which were rarely displayed spontaneously at this age. The results suggested that a general combinatorial capacity in play emerges between 15 and 19 months of age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to validate a paradigm by which an infant's comprehension of concrete nouns could be assessed while controlling for (a) response bias, (b) stimulus preference, and (c) maternal cuing. More specifically, we sought to determine whether 11- and 13-month-old infants directed their eye fixations to the referent of an object word said by the mother and to determine whether there was a developmental shift in responding to object words at these 2 ages, as some previous research suggests. Duration of looking at each of 4 corners of an apparatus was measured while the mother (unable to see what the child was doing) uttered a word she felt the infant knew, 1 she felt he/she did not know, and a nonsense word. Analyses based on signal detection theory using "known" words as signal trials and nonsense words as noise revealed that 13-month-olds directed their looking time signifcantly longer at the referent of the known word when that word was uttered than when the nonsense word was uttered. At neither age did looking at the referent of the unknown word exceed control values. No significant effects were obtained at 11 months of age, nor were there any sex effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2 studies, 1 cross-sectional and 1 longitudinal, examined the relation between 2 developmental trends in play during the second year: the emergence of decentered acts, and the integration of separate acts into simple sequences. In both studies, infants were tested at 13, 19, and 24 months of age. Decentered acts directed toward inanimate as well as animate or lifelike objects had appeared for most children by 19 months. Sequences resulting from the repetition of a single theme generally emerged concurrently with the decentration measures. In contrast, sequences resulting from the coordination of 2 different acts did not emerge for most children until 24 months. It was suggested that the latter type of sequence may require an additional cognitive skill, specifically, the ability to mentally relate 2 different actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]