Development of Emotions and Emotion Regulation

vii PREFACE It was 13 years ago that we met for the ?rst time at a German developmental psychology conference. One of us, Wolfgang Friedlmeier (WF), was interested in ontogenetic development from a cross-cultural perspective. He presented a study on the development of empathy and distress in preschool age, dealing with how far children from different cultures respond to comparable demands with different emotions and regulation strategies. The other, Manfred Holodynski (MH), was - terested in ontogenetic development from the perspective of internalization: how processes that are originally socially distributed between persons are transformed into mental processes within the individual. He presented a study on the devel- ment of the emotions pride and shame in preschool age. This led the two of us to discover our common interest in central issues of emotional development: What role do the emotions play in an individual’s activity regulation? What is it exactly that is “developing” when we talk about emotional development? Do emotional processes have a social genesis? And what is the role of the early social interactions between children and their caregivers, along with the obvious fact that individuals grow up and live in completely different cultures? Even at this time, we both already suspected that the social and cultural embedment of the individual would prove to be a key to understanding how the diversity of human emotions and their regulation develop.

The first book to examine emotional development from birth to adulthood, Development of Emotions and Their Regulation fills in significant gaps in the literature by integrating major developmental theories of emotion with robust research on emotion regulation in adults. Noted German psychologists Holodynski and Friedlmeier have written a work that takes on dominant theories such as the desomatization of emotion as people attain maturity, as well as more recent contextual models of emotional growth.

The authors define emotion in terms of attendant expression, feeling, and physical reaction, and describe its development in terms of both universal and culture-specific contexts. This trajectory is characterized first by the origination of emotions and later the move from interpersonal to intrapersonal emotion regulation, including:

- Processes that occur during emotional development, starting with infancy

- Links between children’s emotions and communication strategies

- The key role of caregivers’ communication in the child’s emotional development

- How emotions become nuanced and individualized during the school years

- The intricate relationship between emotional development and emotion regulation as the person reaches adulthood.

Surprising and often startling in its conclusions, Development of Emotions and Their Regulation is sure to spark controversy among students, researchers, and practitioners in the developmental field. It may also signal a paradigm shift in the making.