It was 13 years ago that we met for the first time at a German developmental psychology conference. One of us,Wolfgang Friedlmeier (WF), was interested in ontogenetic development from a cross-cultural perspective. He presented a study on the development of empathy and distress in preschool age, dealing with how far children from different cultures respond to comparable demands with different emotions and regulation strategies. The other, Manfred Holodynski (MH), was interested in ontogenetic development from the perspective of internalization: How processes that are originally socially distributed between persons are transformed into mental processes within the individual. He presented a study on the development of the emotions pride and shame in preschool age.