ABSTRACT Many behaviors in everyday social life are based on people's emotional reactions. Thus, one can better understand both differences among people in social behavior and the development of social competence in children by attending to differences in individuals' emotional responding and regulation of emotion. Currently there is some research both on aspects of emotional responding (such as the tendency to experience negative emotions and the intensity of people's emotional responses) and on self- regulatory and coping behaviors. However, few researchers have studied the combined effects on social outcomes of differences among people in both emotional reactivity and the ways in which people regulate their emotion and emotion-based behavior (e.g., sympathy, anger). The purpose of the present study is to examine the relation of individual differences in tendencies to react emotionally, emotion-regulation, and styles of coping to vicarious emotional responding (e.g. sympathy and empathy), social behavior (e.g., behavior when angered), popularity with peers, and social competence at school and at home. In this research, the PI's will take a multimethod approach, using self- report and behavioral measures, facial reactions and physiological measures as markers of emotion, and naturalistic observational techniques as well as laboratory studies. Participants in the studies are preschool and school-aged children and adults. The goals of this research are to better understand how people cope with emotions (especially vicariously induced emotions such as sympathy and personal distress and anger), the factor related to constructive coping with emotions, and the relation of how one deals with emotions to socially competent and positive behavior. This research will enhance our understanding of the development of socially competent modes of behavior and the regulation of negative emotion, and the results could be used to foster positive social development in children.
