children come to grasp display rules, and how they learn to monitor and control of their emotional expressions. She considered how people use emotional expressions to form a first impression about a person, e.g., they are a happy person or a sad person, and how they may judge others by the emotional state they are in. Saarni looked at the difficulties associated with reading the emotional state of a person who is crying, as the behavior may mean different things (sadness or admiration or happiness) depending on the situation and culture. Saarni studied the development of expressive control by exploring how children learn to hide their emotions, such as when they are disappointed by a gift they were given. In one of her studies with 6- to 10-year-old children, Saarni explored when children develop the ability to differentiate between appearance (what emotional expression is visible) and reality (what the person really feels). Saarni also explored whether children would display a positive or negative reaction when they received a wanted or unwanted gift, i.e., monitoring and attempting to regulate their expressive behavior. In the first round, she gave out candy and children had a positive reaction. However, when they were subsequently given baby toys as gifts, older girls were most likely to display a positive emotional expression after receiving the unwanted gift whereas younger boys were most likely to display a negative reaction. Books Lewis, M., & Saarni, C. (Eds.). (1985). The socialization of emotions. Springer Saarni, C., & Harris, P. L. (Eds.). (1989). Children's understanding of emotion. Cambridge University Press. Lewis, M., & Saarni, C. (Eds.). (1993). Lying and deception in everyday life. Guilford Press. Saarni, C. (1999). The development of emotional competence. Guilford Press. Representative papers Saarni, C. (1979). Children's understanding of display rules for expressive behavior. Developmental Psychology, 15(4), 424-429. Saarni, C. (1984). An observational study of children's attempts to monitor their expressive behavior. Child Development, 55(4), 1504-1513. Saarni, C. (1988). Children's understanding of the interpersonal consequences of dissemblance of nonverbal emotional-expressive behavior. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 12(4), 275-294. Saarni, C. (1997). Coping with aversive feelings. Motivation and Emotion, 21(1), 45-63. Saarni, C. (1998). Issues of cultural meaningfulness in emotional development. Developmental Psychology, 34(4), 647–652. Saarni, C., & Buckley, M. (2002). Children's understanding of emotion communication in families. Marriage & Family Review, 34(3-4), 213-242. References 1945 births 2015 deaths 20th-century American psychologists American women psychologists Developmental psychologists Sonoma