Premium
The Generality—Specificity Issue in Infants' Emotion Responses: A Comment on Bennett, Bendersky, and Lewis (2002)
Author(s) -
Izard Carroll E.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
infancy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.361
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1532-7078
pISSN - 1525-0008
DOI - 10.1207/s15327078in0603_7
Subject(s) - generality , psychology , facial expression , emotion classification , cognitive psychology , expression (computer science) , two factor theory of emotion , event (particle physics) , flexibility (engineering) , social psychology , affective science , communication , psychotherapist , computer science , statistics , physics , mathematics , quantum mechanics , programming language
Bennett, Bendersky, and Lewis (2002) highlighted a need for revision, or at least clarification, of aspects of differential emotions theory (DET) that relate to the development of facial expressions of discrete emotions. Their article reveals a need for a better theoretical integration of propositions about the emergence of discrete emotions, the generality and flexibility of emotion responding, and issue of specificity in event‐emotion relations. Bennett et al. tested and partly disconfirmed a hard version of an event‐emotion hypothesis that predicts a specific discrete emotion expression for a specific stimulus at a particular age (4 months). They noted that some statements of DET supported their hypothesis, whereas others did not. I clarify the relevant theoretical issues and formulate a soft hypothesis of event‐emotion relations. I suggest methodological changes that may prove necessary to verify or disconfirm hypotheses relating to infants' capacity to encode a specific discrete emotion expression at a given age.