Children's decoding of emotion in expressive body movement: The development of cue attunement.

Little research has focused on children's decoding of emotional meaning in expressive body movement; none has considered which movement cues children use to detect emotional meaning. The current study investigated the general ability to decode happiness, sadness, anger, and fear in dance forms of expressive body movement and the specific ability to detect differences in the intensity of anger and happiness when the relative amount of movement cue specifying each emotion was systematically varied. Four-year-olds (n?=?25), 5-year-olds (n?=?25), 8-year-olds (n?=?29), and adults (n?=?24) completed an emotion contrast task and 2 emotion intensity tasks. Decoding ability exceeding chance levels was demonstrated for sadness by 4-year-olds; for sadness, fear, and happiness by 5-year-olds; and for all emotions by 8-year-olds and adults. Children as young as 5 years were shown to rely on emotion-specific movement cues in their decoding of anger and happiness intensity. The theoretical significance of these effects across development is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social schemata of peripheral changes in emotion.

Psychophysiological research failed to establish consistent physiological patterns differentiating emotion. Recent data showed that people verbally report experiencing peripheral changes that differ among emotions. The present studies tested the hypothesis that these reports originate in social schemata. Study 1 showed that Ss' reports of peripheral changes experienced during actual emotion do not differ from those defined in social schemata. Studies 2 and 3 showed that these schemata are similar across cultures. Overall, these data suggest that (a) people can directly access schemata about peripheral changes in emotion, (b) people are likely to do so when they believe to be reporting actual memories of such changes, and (c) the specific patterns revealed by past research may reflect prototypical knowledge of emotion. Finally, the data highlight the various peripheral patterns as they exist in schematic knowledge of emotion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Voluntary facial expression of emotion: Comparing congenitally blind with normally sighted encoders.

The ability of congenitally blind persons to produce voluntarily facial expressions of a number of emotions was compared with that of normally sighted individuals using both objective facial measurement and observer recognition. Results revealed that there were almost no significant differences between blind and sighted participants with respect to the number and type of facial action units produced. The portrayals of the blind participants were significantly more poorly recognized by observers than were those of the sighted participants (except for happiness). Correspondence analyses of the data showed differences between sighted and blind participants in the dimensional structure of the expressions (as based on the similarity among emotions with respect to both objective measurement and judgments). Overall, the data relativize earlier conclusions on the facial expression of blind as compared with sighted persons and suggest specific hypotheses and procedures for further work in this area. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Loneliness and expressive communication.

Examined the communication skills of 66 female undergraduates who were either chronically lonely, situationally lonely, or not lonely. "Sender" Ss were videotaped while they watched and rated the pleasantness of 25 slides. These videotapes were then shown to "receiver" Ss who made judgments about the sender Ss' reactions to each slide. Results indicate that the situationally lonely Ss were more successful as communication senders than were the chronically lonely or nonlonely Ss. This finding is interpreted within a cognitive framework as reflecting the increased motivation created by attributing one's situational loneliness to unstable causes. Beck Depression Inventory scores were also obtained. In general, highly depressed Ss were less successful as communication senders, but this relation did not hold for the situationally lonely group. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Voluntary control of skin temperature: Unilateral changes using hypnosis and feedback.

Used hypnosis and auditory feedback to train a select group of 6 hypnotically talented university students to produce a difference in skin temperature in 1 hand relative to the other in a direction specified by the E. Large and reliable effects were shown, demonstrating that some individuals are capable of achieving a high degree of voluntary control over the autonomic processes involved in peripheral skin temperature regulation. Individual differences between Ss were noted, and variables that might account for these are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do schizophrenic patients show a disjunctive relationship among expressive, experiential, and psychophysiological components of emotion?

Recent research has found a discrepancy between schizophrenic patients' outward expression of emotion and their reported emotional experience. In this study, which attempts to replicate and extend the findings of previous studies, participants with and without schizophrenia viewed emotional film clips while their facial expressions were videotaped and skin conductance was recorded. Participants also reported their subjective experience of emotion following each film. Those with schizophrenia were less facially expressive than controls during the emotional films and reported experiencing as much positive and negative emotion, replicating previous findings. Additionally, schizophrenic patients exhibited greater skin conductance reactivity to all films than controls. These findings suggest a disjunction among emotional response domains for schizophrenic patients; alternative explanations for the findings are considered as well as suggestions for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory and emotion.

The purpose of this study by a 9th grade student "was to see if there were a relationship between memory and emotions." 121 Ss (junior high school students) viewed 30 words successively, each being exposed for a period of 2? sec., and then were instructed to recall them in writing. A week later dittoed lists of the same words were rated on a 5-point scale of unpleasantness-pleasantness by the Ss. "The difference in the kind of feeling, i.e., pleasant or unpleasant, seems to have no effect on memory… . Intensity of emotion does appear to affect memory." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex-typed execution and perception of expressive movement.

Do sex-typed individuals differ from other individuals in their execution and perception of expressive movement? Undergraduates classified as sex-typed, androgynous, undifferentiated, or cross-sex-typed on the Bem Sex Role Inventory (Bem, 1981b) were videotaped as they walked in front of a dark background while wearing dark clothes with reflective tape on their body joints. Observers of these "dynamic point-light displays" judged the movements of sex-typed subjects to be somewhat more masculine or feminine than those of other subjects. When sex-typed subjects themselves described the videotaped displays of other people, they spontaneously used gender-connoting terms more often than did androgynous and undifferentiated subjects and were more accurate in identifying the sex of the person in the tape. Cross-sex-typed subjects—feminine men and masculine women—resembled androgynous and undifferentiated individuals in their execution of expressive movement, but resembled sex-typed individuals in their perception of expressive movement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-related changes in the integration of gaze direction and facial expressions of emotion.

Gaze direction influences younger adults' perception of emotional expressions, with direct gaze enhancing the perception of anger and joy, while averted gaze enhances the perception of fear. Age-related declines in emotion recognition and eye-gaze processing have been reported, indicating that there may be age-related changes in the ability to integrate these facial cues. As there is evidence of a positivity bias with age, age-related difficulties integrating these cues may be greatest for negative emotions. The present research investigated age differences in the extent to which gaze direction influenced explicit perception (e.g., anger, fear and joy; Study 1) and social judgments (e.g., of approachability; Study 2) of emotion faces. Gaze direction did not influence the perception of fear in either age group. In both studies, age differences were found in the extent to which gaze direction influenced judgments of angry and joyful faces, with older adults showing less integration of gaze and emotion cues than younger adults. Age differences were greatest when interpreting angry expressions. Implications of these findings for older adults' social functioning are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Continuities and changes in emotion expressions during brief separation at 13 and 18 months.

16 children were videotaped at 13 and 18 mo of age during the strange-situation procedure (M. D. Ainsworth et al, 1978). Facial expressions (interest, anger, sadness, and emotion blends) during the 2nd separation episode were coded using a system for identifying affect expressions by holistic judgments (Affex) developed by the 2nd author and colleagues (1980). Results show significant continuities in proportion of interest expressions, anger, emotion blends and frequency of expression changes. The major developmental change was seen in an age?×?emotion interaction, showing an increase in the use of facial expression blends or combinations from 13 to 18 mo. Results support the belief that patterns of emotion reflect early, persistent individual differences; they also reflect a developmental trend toward increasing complexity of emotional responses. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vicarious instigation and conditioning of facial expressive and autonomic responses to a model's expressive display of pain.

In 2 experiments, 35 undergraduates participated in the application of a long-interstimulus-interval differential conditioning paradigm with a confederate's videotaped expression of pain serving as the UCS. Facial EMG signals and skin conductance were recorded. Clear evidence of vicarious autonomic instigation and some evidence of facial excitation were obtained in Exp I, but vicarious autonomic and facial muscle conditioning were obtained only for the 50% of the Ss who were aware of the contingency between the CS+ and the model's pain. In Exp II, steps were taken to increase awareness of the contingency, and significant autonomic and facial muscle instigation and conditioning occurred. Both the vicariously instigated and conditioned autonomic responses involved skin conductance increases, but facial responses to the model's pain were different from conditioned facial responses. Autonomic and facial muscle data suggest that Ss were behaving as though they were anticipating shock when the CS+ was displayed to the model, and as though they were in pain when the model was being shocked. Vicariously aroused emotional reactions thus appear to be similar to those that would be elicited if the S were directly anticipating and receiving shock. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual asymmetries reflect developmental changes in the neuropsychological mechanisms of emotion recognition.

To study how perceptual asymmetries in the recognition of emotion reflect developmental changes in processing affective information, a fused rhyming dichotic word test with positive, negative, and neutral stimuli was administered to adults and children. Results suggested that the hemisphere in which affective information is initially processed affects the strength of perceptual asymmetry and that children's perceptual processing of emotional information is constrained by limited computational resources. Another experiment ruled out effects of volitional shifting of attention to emotional stimuli. These data further confirm that emotional processing involves integration of neural systems across brain regions, including distributed systems that support arousal and recognition. General developmental factors, such as processing capacity, contribute to the coordination of multiple systems responsible for processing emotional information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The social consequences of expressive suppression.

At times, people keep their emotions from showing during social interactions. The authors' analysis suggests that such expressive suppression should disrupt communication and increase stress levels. To test this hypothesis, the authors conducted 2 studies in which unacquainted pairs of women discussed an upsetting topic. In Study 1, one member of each pair was randomly assigned to (a) suppress her emotional behavior, (b) respond naturally, or (c) cognitively reappraise in a way that reduced emotional responding. Suppression alone disrupted communication and magnified blood pressure responses in the suppressors' partners. In Study 2, suppression had a negative impact on the regulators' emotional experience and increased blood pressure in both regulators and their partners. Suppression also reduced rapport and inhibited relationship formation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and expressed emotion.

Expressed emotion (EE) is an established psychosocial predictor of relapse in patients with schizophrenia and mood disorders; however, nothing is currently known about the personality characteristics of high and low-EE relatives. A total of 45 relatives of schizophrenia patients completed the California Psychological Inventory, a widely used measure of common personality traits. Compared with low-EE relatives, high-EE relatives were more conventional in their behavior (higher norm-favoring) and less satisfied with themselves and their lives (lower self-realization). High-EE relatives were also less flexible, tolerant, and lower in empathy and achievement via independence than were low-EE relatives. Even with statistical control of potential demographic confounds, flexibility remained a significant predictor of EE status. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Darwin and emotion expression.

In his book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Charles Darwin (1872/1965) defended the argument that emotion expressions are evolved and adaptive (at least at some point in the past) and serve an important communicative function. The ideas he developed in his book had an important impact on the field and spawned rich domains of inquiry. This article presents Darwin's three principles in this area and then discusses some of the research topics that developed out of his theoretical vision. In particular, the focus is on five issues--(a) the question of what emotion expressions express, (b) the notion of basic emotions, (c) the universality of emotion expressions, (d) the question of emotion prototypes, and (e) the issue of animal emotions--all of which trace their roots to Darwin's discussion of his first two principles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facial expression and emotion.

Cross-cultural research on facial expression and the developments of methods to measure facial expression are briefly summarized. What has been learned about emotion from this work on the face is then elucidated. Four questions about facial expression and emotion are discussed: What information does an expression typically convey? Can there be emotion without facial expression? Can there be a facial expression of emotion without emotion? How do individuals differ in their facial expressions of emotion? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Complicated grief and deficits in emotional expressive flexibility.

There is growing evidence that deficits in emotion regulation may be at the heart of maladaptive reactions after bereavement. Expressive flexibility, or the ability to flexibly enhance or suppress emotional expression, appears to be especially important for adjustment in the aftermath of highly aversive events (Bonanno, Papa, Lalande, Westphal, & Coifman, 2004). In this study, we compared expressive flexibility in a sample of bereaved adults who lost their spouse 1.5–3 years earlier and a comparable sample of married adults. Approximately half of the bereaved adults had Complicated Grief (CG) and half were asymptomatic. Using a within-subjects design, we asked all participants to either enhance or suppress their expressions of emotion or to behave normally while viewing evocative pictures at a computer screen. Observer ratings of expressiveness made blind to condition showed no group differences in overall emotion. However, bereaved adults suffering from CG exhibited deficits in expressive flexibility. Specifically, the CG group was less able to enhance and less able to suppress emotional expression relative to asymptomatic bereaved and married adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exposure influences expressive timing judgments in music.

This study is concerned with the question whether, and to what extent, listeners' previous exposure to music in everyday life, and expertise as a result of formal musical training, play a role in making expressive timing judgments in music. This was investigated by using a Web-based listening experiment in which listeners with a wide range of musical backgrounds were asked to compare 2 recordings of the same composition (15 pairs, grouped in 3 musical genres), 1 of which was tempo-transformed (manipulating the expressive timing). The results show that expressive timing judgments are not so much influenced by expertise levels, as is suggested by the expertise hypothesis, but by exposure to a certain musical idiom, as is suggested by the exposure hypothesis. As such, the current study provides evidence for the idea that some musical capabilities are acquired through mere exposure to music, and that these abilities are more likely enhanced by active listening (exposure) than by formal musical training (expertise). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Voluntary turnover and alternative job opportunities.

Models of voluntary turnover specify important roles for both general labor-market conditions and labor-market perceptions. Although there is consistent support for the role of general labor-market conditions, evidence on perceptions is mixed. In a national sample of young adults, both factors were related to voluntary turnover. However, the two constructs were not closely linked, possibly because labor-market perceptions are based on incomplete information. Thus, for example, despite poor general labor-market conditions, an employee may perceive ease of movement to be high, which contributes to the employee's intention to quit. Yet, the employee may not actually quit because the unfavorable general labor-market conditions act to limit the number of alternative job openings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Signature size: Studies in expressive movement.

Conducted a series of 4 empirical studies examining the relationship between signature size, a form of expressive movement, and certain personality characteristics related to status and self-esteem. 24 male faculty members, 232 undergraduates, 43 11th graders, and 28 6th graders served as Ss. Signature size was significantly related to high self-esteem induced in an experimental situation, imagined status in a role-playing situation, the ascribed status of male or female, and tenured or nontenured status in a university setting. The variety and consistency of the findings were interpreted as indicating the value of further studies of expressive movement and personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)