Language and communication lecture 2

Question 1

Why are facial expressions important? (2 reasons)

Answer 1

• sending capacity of different parts of the body - face is the fastest at changes for emotion and can send emotion to body parts
• Hypothesis that facial expressions of emotion are innate (Darwin, 1872)

Question 2

What are the 6 basic emotions identified by Darwin (1872)?

Answer 2

• Disgust
• Anger
• Surprise
• Fear
• Sadness
• Happiness

Question 3

How have facial expressions of the basic emotions developed?

Answer 3

As part of actions necessary for life - e.g. disgust expression relates to expelling matter

Question 4

What is the anger expression derived from originally?

Answer 4

Preparing to attack

Question 5

What is the surprise expression derived from originally?

Answer 5

Making a state of readiness to deal with an unexpected event

Question 6

What is the prime function of smiling and crying and how is this innate?

Answer 6

Communication
Infants need to signal to the caregiver that they want food or attention (smiling can gain attention)

Question 7

What posture indicates boredom according to Bull (1987)?

Answer 7

Leaning backwards with legs forward

Question 8

What posture indicates interest according to Bull (1987)?

Answer 8

Leaning forward with legs tucked back

Question 9

What are expansive and contractive body postures?

Answer 9

• Expansive = outstretched
• Contractive = closed in

Question 10

What did Vacharkulksemsuk et al. (2016) when they looked at expansive vs contractive body postures in speed dating and on a dating app?

Answer 10

Expansive postures sig. increased likelihood of:
- a “yes” response from the speed-dating partner
- being selected on the dating app

Question 11

What did Vacharkulksemsuk et al. (2016) find out about nonverbal affiliation (smiles, laughs, nods etc.) in speed dating?

Answer 11

They are not a significant indicator of getting a ‘yes’ - so they things people expect to work aren’t as important as posture

Question 12

Why might men have a greater benefit of expansive postures on a dating app than women?

Answer 12

Women like to see men displaying dominance

Question 13

What did Ekman & Friesen (1971) find about the innateness of facial expressions cross culturally?

Answer 13

The main 6 emotions they used were labelled in the same way by members of both literate and non-literate cultures

Question 14

What did Ekman & Friesen (1986) identify as the 7th universal emotion?

Answer 14

Contempt

Question 15

What did Eibl-Eibesfeldt (1973) find when studying children born both deaf and blind and their emotional facial expressions?

Answer 15

They produced appropriate facial expressions for the situational context without ever having seen them to learn (innate?)

Question 16

Why might deaf and blind children not be evidence for innate facial expressions?

Answer 16

They may have learnt which expressions were appropriate through behaviour shaping - people will respond differently to correct or incorrect facial expression usage

Question 17

What is the facial action coding system?

Answer 17

All facial movements are related to action units (one in unit and one out unit) -> if both of these units are activated, there is a full movement
Specific facial expressions are combinations of action units

Question 18

What did Oster and Ekman (1977) find when looking into muscle actions in adults and newborns?

Answer 18

All but one of adult ones were visible in the infants - but this doesn’t mean they relate to particular emotions yet

Question 19

What display rules vary according to culture in the neuro-cultural model? (4)

Answer 19

• Attenuation - weaken the expression
• Amplification - exaggerate the expression
• Concealment - give a neutral expression
• Substitution - show a different emotion

Question 20

Other than culture, what factors can display rules vary according to? (3)

Answer 20

• Gender
• Status
• Individuals

Question 21

What are the two types of facial expression?

Answer 21

• Innate/spontaneous
• Learned/posed

Question 22

When looking into brain damage for voluntary facial movement and spontaneous facial expression, what did Rinn (1991) find?

Answer 22

When each is damaged it has different effects, and the other type of expression is not harmed - therefore 2 different systems

Question 23

What are micro-expressions?

Answer 23

Very brief expressions – may vary between 1/25th & <0.5 of a second

Question 24

What are subtle expressions?

Answer 24

Fragments of an expression - e.g. just brow raising for surprise

Question 25

What does good deception detection correlate with?

Answer 25

Skill at perceiving subtle and micro-expressions

Question 26

What did Warren et al (2009) find when decoders had to lie detect for encoders of emotional and non-emotional stimuli?

Answer 26

• Overall accuracy rate just 50%
• Emotional lie detection sig. better than chance (64%)
• Non-emotional lie detection sig. worse than chance (34%)

Question 27

What does emotional lie detection significantly correlate with (Warren et al, 2009)?

Answer 27

• SETT (.46)
• Self-reported use of facial expressions (.52)