Psychology Lab Report Essay Research Paper Interpreting

Psychology Lab Report Essay, Research Paper

Interpreting Facial Expressions:

A Cross-cultural and Developmental Study

Abstract

Various illustrations of faces created by Hockney and Velazquez were shown to subjects who were required to decide which was the most effective of two semantic opposites which described the characters mental state. The study challenges notions suggesting that young children from approximately the age of eight years old are able to be interpret facial expressions. The study also questions attitudes and ideologies that facial expressions can be universally perceived and that differing cultures and nationalities play no major role in an individual s judgment. The results supported what previous works have proposed and demonstrate that children can understand the cognitive mental condition of a person through their facial expressions just as accurately as adults. Results regarding cross-cultural examinations also provided evidence that members of differing nationalities held very similar jugements of the several illustrations given to them throughout the study.

Reading mental states through facial expressions is an imperative factor in people s ability to socially interact and is preformed by individuals every day in all aspects of their lives. It is important to investigate whether adults of varying cultures as well as children are able to perceive a range of facial expression linked with mental conditions.

When considering whether facial recognition is culturally based or worldwide, a ongoing debate has existed. Previous studies propose that only a minor collection of facial expressions can be perceived universally with any consistency. Darwin (1872) suggested that each emotion constituted its own facial behaviour. La Barre, (as cited in Baron-Cohen etal, 1996) on the other hand argued There is no natural language of emotional gesture. However, evidence had returned back towards a modified universal arrangement since the late 1960 s. Ekman (1973, 1992) concluded that while not all mental conditions are associated with facial expressions which can be universally interpreted, a limit of six expressions disgust, happiness, anger, sadness, surprise and fear are universally recognizable. Numerous data, since the late 1960 s have provided strong evidence for the recognition of universal emotions being hard-wired in the human brain, therefore Darwin can be seen to be partially correct.

The study required classifying adults into the differing culture groups of Caucasian, Asian or other and children into the age groups of eight, nine, ten and eleven. The research strategy involved showing subjects illustrations of faces each revealing its own unique facial expression. Those subjects were given two opposite cognitive mental states of which the face expressed and were forced to choose the closest one of the two. Information regarding results from children subjects was taken from a previous study Read in the Mind in the Face.

The aim of the study was interested in testing whether the ability of judging facial expressions would vary in individuals depending on their cultural background. It was also concerned with examining the developmental ability of children to interpret facial expressions.

It was predicted that children would be able to perceive facial expressions almost as accurately as adults due to past research providing evidence that children develop these senses at a young age. Also expected was that the various cultural backgrounds of adults would hold little influence over their interpretations of facial expressions.

Method

Participants

Among the 902 adult subjects, each was classified as either Caucasian totaling 747, Asian totaling 117, and all others totaling 38. These participants were psychology 100 students as well as other members of the community over the age of eighteen years which took part entirely voluntarily. Those 902 adults consisted of 602 females with an average age of 21.7 years old and 300 males averaging an age of 22.6 years.

Child participants comprised of 80 Caucasian subjects, aged between eight and eleven years of age. They were divided into four groups (eight, nine, ten and eleven) of 20 subjects each. All children were attending a state school of the South-East of England.

Apparatus

Subjects were presented with eleven illustrations of faces, some drawn and some painted. Six illustrations were the artwork of seventeenth century Spanish artist Velazquez and five were by contemporary British artist Hockney. Each of the eleven pictures were reproduced and presented to the subjects in a black and white version. The pictures were displayed through a projector screen or shown on paper. Each of the eleven faces were connected with an opposite pair of words describing the mental state of the character.

Procedure

Subjects were presented with each of the eleven faces one at a time and with each the subject was read aloud a pair of words and asked which of these was the closest to describing the persons mental state, that is, what the person is thinking or feeling. In order to overcome any unwillingness which subjects may experience when judging the state of someone else s mind, a forced choice procedure was devised.

The word pairs were initially put together by three authors, Simon

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