Facial Expressions

Research Paper # 111136

Communication > Interpersonal
Medical and Health
Psychology > Social

Facial Expressions

This paper explores the subject of facial expressions and looks at the importance of the understanding of such expressions.

4,406 words () | 83 sources | APA | 2006 Canada

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer examines the existing research concerning a variety of fields related to the topic of facial expressions. The writer notes that the ability to recognize facial expressions of pain and emotion has important clinical and social implications. The writer points out that the importance of a clinician's abilities to recognize facial displays of pain is especially relevant for infants, those with handicaps that preclude accurate verbal reporting, and patients for whom distorting a verbal report is a concern. The writer also discusses that in the social environment, expression emotions, pain and distress may serve as a warning of threat or may solicit helping behavior on the part of the observer. The writer maintains that, thus, an understanding of the theory behind facial expressions and their perception and study has practical implications in many areas of life and professional practice. The writer concludes that in general the majority of the research reviewed in this paper indicates that facial expressions are universal and can be studied in a variety of different manners.

Outline:
General Overview of Facial Expressions
Perception of Facial Expressions
Expression, Psychometry, and the Perception of Facial Behavior
Emotional Prototypes
The Measurement of Facial Expressions
Sets of Static Emotional Stimuli
General Results on the Perception of Emotion
Perception of Facial Expressions and Response Times
Facial Expression of Pain
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"At this point, it is also important to address the concept of universality of facial expressions of emotion and how universality relates to the development of encoding ability. If facial expressions of emotion are universal, then encoding of them should occur naturally given the appropriate stimuli and maturity of the neural and muscular control mechanisms. Therefore, a discussion of "universal" and encoding ability is discussed below in greater detail.
"The majority of the research concerning age-related changes in encoding, involves the posing of expressions of emotion rather than the spontaneous expression that accompanies emotion. This method of research is discussed in greater detail below. The ability to pose non-emotional expressions (i.e. facial expressions of emotion that are not associated with the experience of emotion) leads to questions concerning the role of either verbal ability or knowledge of emotion vocabulary in the performance of the encoding tasks. Is a good encoder able to control facial musculature better than a poor encoder? Or, does a good encoder have a better understanding of emotion words and expectations about how to demonstrate that awareness?"

Sample of Sources Used:

Alvardo, N. (1996). Congruence of meaning between facial expressions of emotion and selected emotion terms. Motivation and Emotion, 20, 33-61.
Bartlett, M., Violoa, P., Sejnowski, T., Golomb, B., Larsen, J., Hager, J., & Ekman, P. (1996). Classifying facial action. In Advances in Neural Information Processing, 8, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Bassili, J.N. (1978). Facial motion in the perception of faces and of emotional expression. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 4, 373-379.
Bassili, J.N. (1979). Emotion recognition: The role of facial movement and the relative importance of upper and lower areas of the face. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37,2049-2059.
Begin, C., Kirouac, G., Dore, F.Y. (1984). Collection of facial stimuli based on FACS. Unpublished manuscript, Universite Laval, Quebec.