Commentary: Rethinking the Development of “Nonbasic” Emotions: A Critical Review of Existing Theories

outlined current theories of emotional development in infants. They summarized the arguments of a few well-known researchers in the field, describing both the theoretical approaches and the rationale behind those approaches. In the end, the authors argued against the mainstream chronology describing the emergence of so-called " nonbasic " emotions. According to their critical review, infants younger than 2 years old may have the capacity to experience these emotions. Draghi-Lorenz et al. first delineated those emotions widely considered " basic, " namely interest, further explored the literature surrounding some of the nonbasic emotions, finding a surprising number of studies showing that infants as young as 2 months might be found to express these found that 2–3 month-old infants showed " coy " smiling, which occurs simultaneously with gaze/head aversion and curving arm movement, and had been reported before only in 2-year-old toddlers earliest. Next, the review presented two contrasting emotional development theorists from two theories. Fundamentally, Lewis's framework may best be illustrated in the context of two basic and interconnected proposals: " The young infant is incapable of 'nonbasic' emotions because these depend on specific higher representational skill and this is so because until these skills emerge the infant cannot experience his/her own emotions nor those of others " (Draghi-Lorenz et al., 2001, p. 273). The key difference between Lewis's and Trevarthen's reasoning lies in Trevarthen's belief that both nonbasic and basic emotions are independent from higher representational skills, which are developed only later in life. Furthermore, Trevarthen holds a nativist point of view on the matter of when interpersonal awareness is present (from birth, if not before). Draghi-Lorenz et al. (2001) argued specifically against those two concepts in the conclusion of their review. Instead, they suggested a theoretical construct that synthesizes emotion and representational skills and adopts a