The Development of Affect

Abstract

One of my principal aims in this chapter is to introduce a new way of looking at infants’ faces. The key to this approach is close observation and analysis of moment-to-moment changes in naturally occurring facial behavior, with an eye to discovering organized patterning both in the configuration of the facial features and in the timing and sequencing of facial movements. Beginning with a rich and fine-grained analysis of the infant’s facial behavior, we can distinguish potentially meaningful expressive movements from random facial actions; we can refine grossly defined descriptive categories; and we can be more precise in relating facial movements to the infant’s other behavioral responses and to particular stimulus situations. As a result, we can begin to specify more precisely the affective and communicative “meanings” of the infant’s facial movements, as well as changes in function and meaning with age.