This study addressed the question of whether there are individual differences between children in the development of their understandings of social interactions. A total of 48 children between 2.5 and 5.5 years of age were engaged in telling stories with sequences about nice or mean peers. Children acted out stories with dolls and answered questions about the stories. Coders rated children's behavior in warm-up activities and scored the stories. In order to pass, a child's story and explanation had to show a minimum level of complexity. A total of 7 children passed on more stories on the nice sequence than the mean; 17 passed on more mean stories; and 24 passed on the same number for each sequence. Discriminant analysis revealed that shyness and low physical activity predicted better performance on the nice sequence; while talkativeness and violence predicted better performance on the mean sequence. These results indicate that understandings of opposite valence (nice and mean) do emerge independently of one another. A list of 16 references is included. (Author/BC)