Infants associate some animate properties with people by 6 months, but they do not associate the appropriate properties to the broad category of animates and inanimates until at least the middle of the 2nd year. The authors offer a theoretical proposal whereby infants acquire knowledge about the properties of different object kinds through a sensitive perceptual system and a domain general associative learning mechanism that extracts correlations among dynamic and static features. A Conceptual Analysis and Empirical Review Dacher Keltner, Lisa Capps, Ann M. Kring, Randall C. Young, and Erin A. Heerey University of California, Berkeley Drawing on E. Goffman's concepts of face and strategic interaction, the authors define a tease as a playful provocation in which one person comments on something relevant to the target. This approach encompasses the diverse behaviors labeled teasing, clarifies previous ambiguities, differentiates teasing from related practices, and suggests how teasing can lead to hostile or affiliative outcomes. The authors then integrate studies of the content of teasing.
Studies indicate that norm violations and conflict prompt teasing.
With development, children tease in playful ways, particularly around the ages of 11 and 12 years, and understand and enjoy teasing more. Finally, consistent with hypotheses concerning contextual variation in face concerns, teasing is more frequent and hostile when initiated by high-status and familiar others and men, although gender differences are smaller than assumed. The authors conclude by discussing how teasing varies according to individual differences and culture. Michael E. McCullough National Institute for Healthcare Research and Southern Methodist University Shelley D. Kilpatrick National Institute for Healthcare Research Robert A. Emmons University of California, Davis David B. Larson National Institute for Healthcare Research Gratitude is conceptualized as a moral affect that is analogous to other moral emotions such as empathy and guilt. The personality and social factors that are associated with gratitude are also consistent with a conceptualization of gratitude as an affect that is relevant to people's cognitions and behaviors in the moral domain.