The Expression of Emotion: Nonverbal

Communication

Nonverbal Communication• Humans reveal their emotions both verbally and

nonverbally. • Nonverbal expressions include facial and other

bodily responses• Communicating feelings without words:

– Facial expressions – Which part of the face is most important to displaying emotion?

– Tone of voice– Hand gestures

• Also called “body language” – Can You Speak Body? (4 min)

Which is the lie and which is the truth?

Reading Nonverbal Communication

Click Here to Play in a separate window

The first part (about her past) is the lie.

Facial muscles, in particular, are hard to control and can reveal emotions that a person is trying to conceal Trained lie-catchers can detect minute changes in facial expressions (called microexpressions) that reveal lying.

View beginning of

Lie to Me TV Show where they talk about Microexpressions

(4 min)

Reading Nonverbal Communication: Questions

1. Discuss some social and work situations in which the ability to interpret nonverbal cues is of particular importance.

2. E-mail and Internet chat-room conversations are completely lacking in nonverbal communication. What might some of the consequences be?

3. Many studies find that women are better than men at reading nonverbal cues. Why might this be so?

The Expression of Emotion:

Gender and Cultural Effects on Emotion

Gender Effects

• Women are better at reading nonverbal communication of emotions.

• Women tend to express emotions more than men do.

Display Rules

• The cultural rules governing how and when a person may express emotion

• Rules greatly vary from culture to culture and for different groups within a given culture

• Emotionally expressive people do tend to be more well liked by others

• Is this an appropriate display of emotions?

Ekman’s Facial Feedback Theory

Ekman's Studies on Facial Expressions of Emotion:

Introduction

• Humans reveal their emotions both verbally and nonverbally. Nonverbal expressions include facial and other bodily responses.

• Paul Ekman and his colleagues have studied facial expressions of emotions and have linked specific emotions to the movement of specific facial muscles.

Ekman’s Facial Feedback Theory• Each basic emotion is associated with a unique facial expression• Sensory feedback from the expression contributes to the emotional feeling• Example: Smile if you want to feel happy.

• Follow this example from Mary Poppins: Click HERE to view video.

Ekman’s Facial Feedback Theory

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Facial expression

Facial expressions have an effect on self-reported anger and happiness

Emotion and Facial Expressions• Paul Ekman and Walter Friesen coded

different facial expressions by painstakingly analyzing the facial muscles involved in producing each facial expression

• Ekman and his colleagues found that people from many different cultures, even remote ones, accurately recognized the basic emotions expressed in photographs of facial expressions

• Some specific nonverbal gestures & emblems may vary across cultures; however, some body language is probably universal.

Facial Expressions• Each basic emotion is associated with

a unique facial expression• Facial expressions are innate and “hard-wired”

– By 6-7 months most babies exhibit facial expressions for all the basic emotions

– Children who are born deaf & blind still have the same facial expressions for joy, anger & pleasure.

• Innate facial expressions are the same across many cultures• Display rules—social and cultural rules that regulate emotional

expression, especially facial expressions.• Emblems – nonverbal gestures do vary across cultures

• Ekman has found that these expressions of emotion are universal and recognizable across widely divergent cultures.

Ekman’s Facial Expression Study• Paul Ekman describes the multiple roles of the

human face and its primary importance in displaying emotions. His studies of emotional expressions in preliterate cultures, some of which are shown here, confirm his findings in literate cultures. (4:50)

Click Here to Play in a separate window

Ekman's Studies on Facial Expressions of Emotion:

Questions

1. How did Ekman's studies allow him to determine whether facial expressions of emotion are the result of nature or nurture?

2. What do the results of Ekman's studies suggest about the ability to detect lying about emotional responses?

3. Suggest some other groups of people psychologists could study to investigate whether facial expressions are innate and universal or are acquired through learning.

Which Baby is Which?Anger, Disgust, Fear, Interest,

Joy, Surprise, Sadness

Which Baby is Which?Anger, Disgust, Fear, Interest,

Joy, Surprise, Sadness

Joy Anger Interest

Disgust Surprise Sadness Fear

Emotion-Detecting RadarArne Ohman and his Stockholm colleagues (2001) found that people more speedily detect an angry face than a happy one.

Animals & Emotion

Do animals experience emotion?

Do animals experience emotion?

• Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, motives, emotions, or behaviors to nonhuman animals or inanimate objects.

• Some animal species clearly demonstrate emotions

• But, to understand how they subjectively experience such feelings raises questions that cannot be fully answered at this time.