Self-conscious emotions appear toward the end of the second year. They involve injury to or enhancement of sense of self and include shame, embarrassment, guilt, envy, and pride. Self-conscious emotions assist children in acquiring socially valued behaviors and goals. Emotional self-regulation refers to the strategies used to adjust emotional states to a comfortable level of intensity. By the end of the first year, babies' ability to move around permits them to regulate feelings more effectively by approaching or retreating from various stimuli.
American culture encourages positive feelings more than negative ones.
Infant boys get more training in hiding their unhappiness than do girls. Growth in representation and language permits toddlers to describe their emotions. Temperament refers to stable individual differences in quality and intensity of emotional reaction. Thomas and Chess initiated the New York Longitudinal Study which was a comprehensive examination of temperament. Results indocate that tmperament is somewhat predictive of psychological adjustment, and parenting practices can modify children's emotional styles.