Following leads from differential emotions theory and empirical research, we evaluated an index of emotion knowledge as a long-term predictor of positive and negative social behavior and academic competence in a sample of children from economically disadvantaged families (N = 72). The index of emotion knowledge represents the child's ability to recognize and label emotion expressions. We administered control and predictor measures when the children were 5 years old and obtained criterion data at age 9. After controlling for verbal ability and temperament, our index of emotion knowledge predicted aggregate indices of positive and negative social behavior and academic competence. Path analysis showed that emotion knowledge mediated the effect of verbal ability on academic competence. We argue that the ability to detect and label emotion cues facilitates positive social interactions and that a deficit in this ability contributes to behavioral and learning problems. Our findings have implications for primary prevention.

The understanding of emotions possesses important implications for elucidating normal as well as abnormal development. The contributions that the emotions have made for enhancing our understanding of psychopathology have been evident throughout history. In this article, an overview of the historical links between the emotions and psychopathology is presented. Despite its rich history, much contemporary theory and research on emotions has been conducted primarily within a nonpathology perspective. In recent decades, investigators have become more interested in examining the role and development of the emotions in atypical populations. It has been argued that the modularity of the emotions system requires a developmental model of emotion regulation.The investigation of the emotions has im-tions relate to other domains of the human portant implications for understanding nor-mind such as biology, cognition, social cogmal and abnormal development (Hesse & nition, language, representation, and motiCicchetti, 1982; Izard & Harris, in press), vation, will we be able to specify the condiOne of the theoretical consequences of the tions necessary to effect particular changes examination of normal emotional develop-in the emotional domain. Additionally, the ment is that it highlights the need to con-study of abnormal populations can enhance struct a model that can distinguish between our understanding of some of the processes well-adjusted and abnormal emotional de-involved in normal emotional development, velopment. Moreover, the theoretical and As Bleuler (1924, p. 117) noted, affectivity practical import of the investigation of emotional development is also critical with . . , assumes a prominent role in psychopatholrespect to the formulation of an integrated ogy generally, even in slight deviations, not only theory of development. Thus, only if we on account of its own morbid manifestations, possess information about how the emo-but even more because in disturbances in any sphere, it is the affective mechanisms that first create the manifest symptoms.

This longitudinal study examined the relation between family instability and the problem behaviors of children from economically disadvantaged families. Family instability was assessed when the children were ages 5 and 7 and included number of residence changes, changes of intimate caregiver relationships, and recent negative life events. The results showed direct concurrent relations between family instability and preschool children's externalizing behavior in the context of other family process variables, relations between subsequent family instability and lst-grade children's internalizing behavior (i.e., with preschool behavior ratings controlled), and an effect for persistent instability across grade. Moderator effects were also found for child variables, including gender, temperamental adaptability, and prior externalizing Children raised in economically disadvantaged families are at risk for a variety of academic and social problems. As shown by a

It is hypothesized that age deficits in recall are due to a reduction in available processing resource. It is argued that the formation of a distinct encoding in which unique aspects of the context are integrated with the target item requires a substantial amount of attentional resource, but that the core semantic features of words are encoded relatively automatically. Thus, under conditions of reduced processing resource, a general, stereotyped encoding will result. The effectiveness of general, categorical retrieval cues was compared to the effectiveness of contextually specific retrieval cues in three experiments. Young adults recalled more than old adults when they were cued with specific retrieval cues, but no age differences were observed when general retrieval cues were used. A similar pattern of results was obtained when the amount of processing resource was experimentally reduced by requiring young adults to perform a concurrent task during encoding.Many recent views of human memory have been couched in terms of encoding processes, retrieval processes, and their interrelations. Within such a

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