Follows a child two weeks old, from an unspecific beginning in which the only discernible emotion is one of negative excitation, the child develops interest for the human being by the end of the first month. The differentiation of the first positive emotions from this interest is shown with the aid of the smiling response in children ranging from two to six months. Experiments show the factors operative in the smiling responses. The differentiation of the negative emotion is shown in the four-month-old child. The negative emotion's preponderant role between the eighth and the tenth month, during which it leads the development of the other emotions, is shown, as well as its role in the process of environmental discrimination. The last part of the film demonstrates the wide gamut of emotions the child has already developed at the end of its first year. Silent © 1953 Rene Spitz, M.D., Psychology. From the Psycholoanalytic Research Project on Problems in Infancy film studies.
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