Carolyn Saarni

Carolyn Ingrid Saarni (May 13, 1945 – June 5, 2015) was a developmental psychologist known for groundbreaking research on children's development of emotional competence and emotional self-regulation, and the role of parental influence in emotional socialization. She was a professor in the Department of Counseling at Sonoma State University from 1980 to 2013.

Saarni worked with Michael Lewis in editing a landmark book titled ''The Socialization of Emotions'', which guided research on the development of emotions for decades. She subsequently authored ''The Development of Emotional Competence'', which outlined a theory of emotional competence encompassing eight different skills: awareness of one's own emotion, awareness of others' emotions, ability to use emotional vocabulary, capacity for empathy, ability to cope with stressful situations, emotional communication within relationships, and emotional self-efficacy. Provided by Wikipedia