Parental Frameworks of Pleasure and Pride

Seventeen mothers, whose infants ranged in age from 2 to 1 5 months, were asked to elicit in their children a simple emotion (pleasurel and a complex one (pride). Most of the mothers (15/171 believed that this could be done. An analysis of the mothers' elicitations revealed the existence of behavioral frameworks that were differentiated both with regard to the emotion as well as the age of the infant. Mothers made young infants happy by letting them respond passively to their action. Older infants were made happy by being given the role of partner in a game with established rules. When trying to elicit pride, mothers of young infants performed an action and in their praise attributed the action to the infant. Older infants were given the opportunity to perform an action and were praised for it. An analysis of the infants' responses revealed that they behaved similarly when their mothers elicited the simple and complex emotions.