Module 36: Expressing Emotion

Question 1

How can we detect emotion in others?

Answer 1

▪ People can often detect nonverbal cues and threats as well as signs of status.
▪ Nonthreatening cues are more easily detected than deceiving expressions.
▪ Firm handshake: Outgoing, expressive personality
▪ Gaze: Intimacy
▪ Averted glance: Submission
▪ Stare: Dominance

Question 2

What is absent in written communication?

Answer 2

Gestures, facial expressions, and voice tones. In the absence of expressive emotion, ambiguity can occur.

Question 3

Women vs. Men in reading emotion.

Answer 3

Women tend to read emotional cues more easily and to be more empathic, and express more emotion with their faces
People attribute female emotionality to
disposition and male emotionality to circumstance.

Question 4

Expressing emotion in different cultures

Answer 4

Gesture meanings vary among cultures, but
outward signs of emotion are generally the
same.
Musical expression of emotion crosses cultures.
Shared emotional categories do not reflect
shared cultural experiences.
Facial muscles speak a universal language for some basic emotions; interpreting faces in context is adaptive.

Question 5

The facial feedback effect

Answer 5

Facial expressions can trigger emotional feelings and signal our body to respond accordingly
People also mimic others’ expressions, which helps them empathize

Question 6

The behavior feedback effect

Answer 6

The tendency of behavior to influence our own and others’ thoughts, feelings, and actions