research collaborator Richard Davidson suggests that regulation also occurs simultaneously with all the other emotional

changesthe signal, the changes in thinking, and the impulses to action.11 Although this is not firmly established, I think Davidson is right, that there is an initial, involuntary stage of regulation that is set off when all the other emotional changes happen, intermixed with them. However, Davidson has not yet been very clear about what the processes are nor how they are established.12 In the coming decade we will be learning much more about this. The initial regulatory pattern is, I believe, based on learning, probably early social learning, and is potentially modifiable. It may include how quickly one becomes conscious of experiencing an emotion; once conscious, how readily one can recognize, or label, one's emotional state; and whether there is an immediate insertion of a brake on action, or the reverse, an indulgence of impulsive actions. Admittedly, we know little about this initial regulatory pattern, but it seems that emotions may not spring forth totally unregulated once learning begins, and learning begins early in infancy. Those regulatory patterns are likely to be so well learned that they operate involuntarily and are resistant to change. How resistant we do not know, but if they are at all changeable, that would be quite an opportunity for modifying emotional life. Consider for a moment a person who is extremely unemotional, so restrained in his emotional reactions that he is dissatisfied with his life, who would like to become more emotionally responsive. Temperament, a genetically based emotional disposition, is one explanation for his pallid emotional life. But if emotional regulation is learned very early in life, perhaps this fellow had the types of experiences that led him to overcontrol his emotions. Perhaps he was punished, disparaged, or ignored for any sign of emotion. If his behavior is caused by learned regulation, there would be a possibility that he might be able to change his reactions. If it is based on his natural temperament, though, there isn't much chance for change. The existence of such initial regulatory patterns points to the enormous importance of the infant's and child's interactions with others in structuring the nature of that individual's subsequent emotional