The Relation of ANS and HPA Activation to Infant Anger and Sadness Response to Goal Blockage

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.