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months of age, social smiles emerge—smiles directed to people, particularly primary caregivers (Emde &Harmon, 1972). Social smiles contain cheek rais- ing that is thought to distinguish genuine and nongenuine expressions of happiness ( FIGURE 7.4 ) (Messinger, Fogel, & Dickson, 2001). Smiling continues to change as infants become familiar with people and their environments. By 4 months of age, infants smile in response to the smiles of their caregivers and other familiar people, who continue to respond by smiling back (Ruvolo, Messinger, &Movellan, 2015). By the end of the first year, infants display different smiles across situations and people, such as broad-open smiles and belly laughs during playful interactions but reserved, tentative smiles to a stranger’s greeting (Messinger & Fogel, 2007). CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING 7.3 1. Approximately when do different types of smiles typically occur in developmental time? Infant Negative Emotions LEARNING OBJECTIVE 7.4 Explain alternative interpretations of infant distress around the emotions of anger and fear. Distress represents the first negative emotion. Newborns express distress across various situations ranging from hunger to getting shots. Over the next several months, infants express negative emotions in situations that arouse anger, fear, wariness, and perhaps frustration. Anger Infants as young as 2 months of age react with what some researchers infer to be anger, as seen in “arm restraint” lab tasks in which mothers gently hold down infants’ arms for 2 minutes (Stifter & Spinrad, 2002; Moscardino &Axia, 2006). Infants of 4 to 5 months of age express anger when a goal is blocked, as found when infants could no longer play music by pulling on a ribbon after being taught how to do so (Sullivan & Lewis, 2003). Anger increases in intensity and frequency from 4 to 16 months of age (and later into the second year) in line with infants’ growing cognitive understanding (Braungart-Rieker, Hill-Soderlund, & Karrass, 2010) ( FIGURE 7.5 ). That is, toddlers increase their ✓

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FIGURE 7.4 Social smiles emerge between 6 weeks and 3 months of age. Social smiles are thought to reflect genu- ine expressions of happiness and are characterized by cheek raising during the smile.

social smiles Smiles directed to people, particularly to caregivers, with the purpose of engaging in social interactions

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FIGURE 7.5 Infant anger and fear reactions increase from 4 to 16 months of age. The left panel shows increases in infant anger, with each line representing an infant followed over age. The right panel shows increases in infant fear, again with each line representing an infant. (After J. Braungart-Rieker et al. 2010. Dev Psychol 46: 791–804. Copyright © 2010 by American Psychological Association. Reproduced with permission.) UNIVERSITY PRESS