Encoding and decoding facial expressions of emotion as a function of children's social competence.

Transcription

1 Unversty of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst Masters Theses February Encodng and decodng facal expressons of emoton as a functon of chldren's socal competence. Robert Joseph Custrn Unversty of Massachusetts Amherst Follow ths and addtonal works at: Custrn Robert Joseph "Encodng and decodng facal expressons of emoton as a functon of chldren's socal competence." (1987). Masters Theses February Retreved from Ths thess s brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. t has been accepted for ncluson n Masters Theses February 2014 by an authorzed admnstrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more nformaton please contact scholarworks@lbrary.umass.edu.

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3 ENCODNG AND DECODNG FACAL EXPRESSONS OF EMOTON AS A FUNCTON OF CHLDREN'S SOCAL COMPETENCE A Thess Presented By ROBERT JOSEPH CUSTR N Submtted to the Graduate School of the Unversty of Massachusetts n partal fulfllment of the requrements for the degree of MASTER OF SCENCE September 1987 Psycho ogy

4 ENCODNG AND DECODNG FACAL EXPRESSONS OF EMOTON AS A FUNCTON OF CHLDREN'S SOCAL COMPETENCE A Thess Presented By ROBERT JOSEPH CUSTR N Approved as to style and content by: Robert S. Feldman Ph.D. Charperson Wllam S. Edell Ph.D. Member Charperson Psychology

5 wsh. denced n ACKNOWLEDGMENT to express my deepest have grattude helped to me through those who the varous stages of n ths partcular my thanks project to Dr. Robert Feldman commttee char for of hs my unfa lng support and hs provde ablty gudance to n both a hghly skllful manner and respectful.nmm!* n S " commttee ke t0 thank the otner members of Dr. my R chard Ha g n and Dr. W am Ede ther valuable for nput and patence n seeng t nvestgaton through. a specal note of aue appreca?on s to Dr. Edell whose devoton s ev by wllngness hs to endure an nter state commute attend order my to defense. fnally would lke to convey my heartfelt Ms thanks to Laure Teraspulsky who despte her tght took schedule the tme to ntroduce me to the wonders of Unversty the computng system n my hour of need

6 gures 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgment Lst of Tables Lst of F Chapter.. v v. NTRODUCT ON Studes of Facal Expressveness among Chldren and Adu ts- Early cross-cultural studes... 2 Developmental patterns n the ablty to decode and encode emotons 4 Socal competence and ts relaton to chldren's nonverbal decodng skll 8 The Present Study V1. METHOD... 1 Subjects 14 Mater als 14 st mu.."!!!!!!.'!! Quest onna re 16 Procedure 17 Encodng 17 Decodng 19 N. RESULTS 21 Encodng and Decodng Accuracy 21 Errors n the Decodng of Chldren's Facal Expressons 28 Chldren's Decodng Errors 34 V. DSCUSSON 4 0 Effects Related to Socal Competence Level and Sex 4 1 Effects Related to Category of Emoton Concludng Remarks 47 v

7 TABLE OF CONTENTS (CONTNUED) Append x A 51 B 51.. C D 53 E 55 ' F 56 ' G 57 h ss.. ; ; 59 Selected Bblography v

8 LST OF TABLES 1 f An^u^cy ". var ance fo : : Encodng and Decodn ^ 2. Mean Encodng and Decodng ' Accuracy--by ' ' Group 3. Mean Accuracy Scores by Category of ' Emoton 4. Frequency of Rater Errors n Decodng Facal Chldren's Expressons by Group Frequency of Rater Errors n Decod ng ' Ch Facal dren s Expressons by Sex Frequency of Rater Errors n Decod ng ' Ch dren s Facal Expressons by Category of Emoton. " ' ' * 7. Frequency of Chldren's ' Decodng Errors bv Group s 8. Frequency * of Ch dren ' ' Decod ' ng Errors by Sex l 9. Frequency of Chldren's Decodng Errors Category by of Emoton OQ V

9 LST OF FGURES Mean Accuracy Scores by Sex and Level of Socal Competence: Encodng and Decodng Combned 25 v

10 anck ntroduct ve CHAPTER on Over the past two decades a substantal body 0 f evdence has been amassed pontng to the mportance of facal expressons as a means of communcatng and obtanng nformaton about one's mmedate socal envronment (e.g. B Buck & Rosenthal ; Ekman 1982; Frdlund Ekman & Oster ). Such express ons provde valuable cues as to the qua tat meanng of nterpersonal exchanges nformaton that mght otherwse be dsgused or hdden by the verbal content of communcatons. n fact there s evdence to suggest that facal expressons are n some nstances more effectve than ether verbal or con textua cues n revealng an ndvdual's nternal af feet ve state (Ekman Fresen & E swor th ). Charles Darwn (1872) was among the frst to propose the dea of a unversally-recognzed set of facal ef format ons among humans notng that "The movements of expresson gve vvdness and energy to our spoken words. They reveal the thoughts and ntentons of others more truly than do words whch may be falsfed" (p. 364). Darwn beleved that facal expressons evolved as a mechansm to facltate socal communcaton both wthn 1

11 and between speces. And a though many took ssue wth the noton of a bologcal as opposed to a sccocutura bass for human facal expressveness the work of later researchers has confrmed that Darwn was ndeed correct. Studes of Fac_al_ Expressveness Among Ch dren and Adults Ear y cross-cu tura stud es n hs dscusson of cross-cultural research n the area of human facal expressveness Ekman (1973) noted that "the only way to establsh conclusvely the exstence of unversal facal expressons of emoton was to show that vsually solated people nterpret facal expressons n the same was as people from lterate cultures" (p. 210). n a seres of classc studes completed n the late 1960's (Ekman & Fresen 1971) he dd just that. The subjects were ndvduals from an solated culture n New Gunea who had had lttle or no contact wth the outsde world snce beng dscovered several years earler. Each was told a seres of short stores (e.g. "Hs frends have come and he s happy") and presented wth three pctures dentfed n prevous "lterate culture" studes as representng anger dsgust fear happness sadness or surprse. They were then asked to dentfy the pcture that was most approprate to the story. Results showed that the faces chosen were the same as those selected n other cultures. n a second experment dfferent subjects from the same

12 t New Gunea culture were read a seres of smlar vgnettes and asked to show how they would feel f they were the person n the story. They were vdeotaped and ther pose d expressons shown to a group of college students n the Unted States; Ekman and Fresen reported that the students had lttle dffculty dentfyng most of the emotons expresed by the New Gulneans. n a study lookng at the unversalty of spontaneously encoded emotons Ekman Fresen and Malmstrom (1970; descrbed n Ekman Fresen & Ellsworth 1972) showed a stress- nduc ng flm to Amercan and Japanese college students. The subjects' reactons to the flm were vdeotaped under two cond dscussng the exper ence w ons a one and whle th another ndvdual from ther own culture. The authors found that when alone both Amercan and Japanese subjects dsplayed (encoded) expressons that were vrtually dentcal; however n the presence of a peer Japanese subjects tended to mask ther emotons much more than ther Amercan counterparts suggestng that facally expressed reactons to certan prmary (and n ths case negatve) emotons are smlar but that cultures dffer n the varety and strength of emoton that members are encouraged to openly express. Lendng addtonal support to Darwn's evolutonary theory are the results of numerous other experments by Ekman zard and others examnng the producton and

13 recognton of faca expressons among peope from M countres on fve contnents. (For a revew see Frdlund. Ekman & Oster 987.) Taken as a whole. these studes substantate the exstence of at least fve (and probaby more) unversally-recognzed categores of facal expresson: happness. sadness anger dsgust and combned f ear /surpr se Developmental pa_tterns J_n the abmty to d^cp^ aj^ encode emot ons nvestgators have also attempted to dentfy a typcal course of development n the ablty to recognze (decode) and produce (encode) each of the prmary emotons and the evdence avalable suggests that these sklls are farly well establshed even at an early age. Buck (1975) looked at the encodng ablty of a group of pre-schoolers by showng them a group of sldes (wth pleasant neutral and unpleasant content) and havng raters observe them through the use of a hdden camera. The author found large dfferences n "sendng ablty" between chldren but also noted a sgnfcant overall level of communcaton ndcatng that most chldren were able to accurately convey at least some nformaton about ther affectve state whle vewng the sldes. One of the frst studes to compare the encodng and decodng sklls of dfferent-aged chldren was conducted by

14 Odom and Lemond (1972). nlt kndergarten and fth grade students were ndvdual y exposed to one of two types of stmul: a standardzed seres of 32 black-andwhte photographs of human faces (zard 1971) and a verbally-presented lst of stuatonal tems suoh as "beng chased by a mean dog" or "fndng a smashed bug n your mlk." n the encodng procedure subjects were asked to mtate the people n the photographs or to make a face showng how they would feel n the stuatons descrbed to them. The decodng procedure requred the subject to match photographs expressng the same emotonal state or dentfyng photographs showng how a person n each of the verbally-presented stuatons mght feel. Eght emotonal categores were used anger dsgust dstress fear nterest joy shame and surprse and results showed that the ffth graders were sgnfcantly better at both encodng and decodng than ther kndergarten counterparts; ths was true for all categores except joy whch was encoded wth approxmately the same accuracy n both groups. Fear proved to be extremely dffcult for the younger group to encode. The authors also reported a lag n the development of encodng sklls n sx of the eght emotonal categores studed and suggested that encodng of certan emotons may be nhbted by socalzaton factors

15 Yarczower Klbrde and H. (1979) looked at the mtatve encodng abltes of f rst graders> s ><th graders and college students-both alone and n the presence of an expermenter. They found that the sxth graders performed sgnfcantly better than the frst graders both overall and n the expermenter-absent condton. However n the presence of an expermenter ther encodng accuracy dd not dffer notceably from the frst graders. Moreover n a study focusng on both encodng and decodng abltes Moyer (1974) compared thrd graders and kndergarteners and found the older chldren to be sgnfcantly more sklled n both areas. Numerous other nvestgatons have looked at developmental patterns as they relate to sex of subject decodabllty of peers versus adults and chronologcal dfferences n the producton and recognton of specfc categores of emoton. Among pre-school aged chldren both sexes appear equally capable of encodng facal expressons (Buck 1975) but studes wth adult subjects do ndcate a gender dfference wth females showng greater skll than males (e.g. Buck Mller & Caul 1974). As zard (1971) suggests ths may be due to cultural values that dscourage males from openly expressng ther emotons. No reports ctng sex dfferences n the ablty to decode facal expressons were located.

16 rouac n contrast to the lterature on sex dfferences n the deve.opment of a nonverbal repertore sgnfcant effects due to category of emoton have been demonstrated repeated y wth happness and sadness provng to be the easest to recognze and produce; anger and dsgust beng somewhat more dffcult; and fear/surprse beng the most troublesome for chldren and adults alke (e.g. Feld & Walden ; Wa den & Feld 1982; K & Dore' 1983). The results of these studes suggest a developmental pattern n the acquston and nonverbal use of specfc emotonal expressons wth the smplest acqured early and the more dffcult categores appearng later on as the chld's nonverba commun cat ve sk s become more sophstcated. n ther revew of the lterature through the md 1980's Frdlund Ekman and Oster (1987) suggested that the producton and recognton of facal expressons seems to mprove untl about age 10 at whch tme chldren and adults appear equally capable of encodng and decodng all major categores of emoton. n some experments lookng at chldren's decodng abltes attempts have also been made to determne whether peer and adult stmul are equvalent;.e. do adults and chldren encode emotons n essentally the same manner? The evdence thus far s nconclusve. Masters Felleman Barden Carlson and Rosenberg (1983) report that 4- and 5-year-old subjects were better able to recognze

17 8 the faca! expressons of peers as opposed to adults. However a group of 8- to -year-o ds tested by Eawards Manstead and MacDona d (1984) found st mu usng adult (as opposed to chldren's) faces easer to decode. Fnally Klrouac TremPlay and Dor' (1 986) fourk) no dfference n the decodabllty of adult versus chld faces by 5- to 9-year-olds. Socal competence and ts relaton to ch decod nq ab ty dren's nonverbal From the research descrbed above t s clear that nonverbal channels of commun cat on and facal expressons n partcular play an mportant role n helpng us to understand and respond to those around us. Such forms of communcaton comprse an ntegral component of general socal competence (.e. the ablty to functon effectvely n nterpersonal stuatons). We have also seen that the ablty to encode and decode facal expressons s a developmental process wth mastery of the most complex emotonal expressons normally attaned sometme before the onset of adolescence. Therefore t would seem a reasonable hypothess to assume that ndvduals wth recognzable defcts n nterpersonal sklls mght not have reached the same level of development n the nonverbal realm as have ther more successful peers.

18 nd v Supportng ths hypothess s a study by Zabe ( 19 79) that compared groups of elementary- and junor hgh-aged students from both regular schools and specal" schools for chldren wth emotonal and behavor problems judged "too severe to be accommodated or remedated n regular schools." m an emoton recognton task subjects (aged 7 to 15) were ndlvldual ly presented w th a ser es of 42 Photographs selected from Ekman and Fresen's Pctures of Facal Affect (Ekman 1976). They were gven detaled nstructons and asked to choose one of sx emoton labels (anger dsgust fear happness sadness surprse) for each photo presented. To be sure the subjects understood what they were to do examples were gven for each category such as: "A person who s havng fun would probably be happy" or "Someone who s gong to throw away a rotten egg but drops t and t smells really bad would probably be dsgusted." Zabel found the dsturbed groups to be less adept both for overall decodng ablty and for several dua emot ons n another study by Walker (1981) groups of schzophrenc anxous-depressed unsoc a zed-aggress ve and "typcal" control chldren (aged 9 to 13) were admnstered zard's (1971) Cross-Cu tura Test of Emoton Recognton. The test conssts of 32 photographs of adult male and female faces each depctng one of eght emotons anger dsgust fear nterest Joy sadness

19 se-w aced 10 shame or surpr th four photos for each category. Eght ndex cards prnted wth a common. y recognzed name for each emoton were p n front of the subject who was then asked to match one of the labes to each Photograph as t was presented. Results showed that chldren dagnosed as schzophrenc were sgnfcantly less profcent at decodng than the other three groups. Dfferences between the control group and the other two expermental groups were not statstcally sgnfcant. Walker suggested that the poor performance of the schzophrenc chldren s best explaned by the fact that they exhbted greater socal mparment than ether the control or the less severely dsturbed groups but also noted that t s unclear f such decodng defcts precede socal wthdrawal or f they are a result of the process. Addtonal evdence for a possble causal connecton between the ablty to recognze and produce facal expressons of emoton and subsequent socal wthdrawal was provded by Buck (1975) who found encodng ablty to be postvely correlated wth aggresson socablty and bossness and negatvely correlated wth shyness and nh b t on n a more recent nvestgaton amed at dentfyng dfferences n decodng accuracy between socally wthdrawn chldren and those who were more popular wth ther peers Edwards Manstead and MacDonald (1984) used a self-report

20 menta 1 sca.e askng groups of ohmdren (aged 8 to 11) how frendly they were wth each of ther classmates and seected those chldren scorng hghest and owest on ths measure for assgnment to one of two exper groups. Subjects were shown a seres of photographs depctng adults (taken from Ekman & Fresen 1975) or chldren (taken from Odom» Lemond 1972) demonstratng facal expressons of sx emotons: anger dsgust fear happness sadness and surprse. The pctures were presented one at a tme n the company of a lst of emotonal categores whch was both read and dsplayed and the subject was asked to ndcate the emoton beng portrayed by each. The authors found a sgnfcant man effect due to socometrc status wth the popular chldren demonstratng greater skll n dentfyng emotonal expressons than ther less socally successful peers. Lendng support to ths fndng are studes by Chrstenson Farna and Boudreau (1980) and Feldman Whte and Lobato (1982) whch found the ablty to attach meanng to the nonverbal cues of others to be an mportant component n successful socal functonng among female undergraduates and adolescents respectvely. The Present Study The prevous studes strongly suggest a relatonshp between the recognton of facal expressons and nterpersonal and socal effectveness. Yet one drawback

21 mary y-occur ng ng 12 Present n each of these nvestgatons s the use of posed rather than spontaneous natural r facal expressons as stmul for ther deood. ng tasks. Moreover the nvestgators focused on y on the ablty of varous groups of chldren to decode expressons and n dong so have gnored a queston of obvous mportance: Gven the fact that these socally wthdrawn chldren show a defct n the ablty to understand the nonverbal cues of others are they also less accurate n encodng ther own feelngs? n the present study groups of chldren demonstratng above and below average levels of socal competence were compared on ther accuracy n both decodng and encodng varous facal expressons of emoton. a seres of vdeotaped flm clps (each tested and shown to relably evoke a specfc type of reacton) were used to assess each subject's spontaneous encodng accuracy and scenes of others reactng to the same clps were used to measure y-occur tner skm ln decodng natura facal expressons of emoton. The followng questons were of pr nterest 1. Are chldren wth below average levels of socal competence actually less accurate n decodng the facal expressons of others? f so are they also less accurate n encod ng varous affectve states? 2. s encodng and decodng accuracy n chldren postvely correlated wth socal competence or could t n

22 13 ' nhlblt 3n '»«"v«-u..'. abulty to teract effectvely wth others? 3. Fnally does a ehlld'. gender o ay a sgnfcant role determ nlng hls or her enood accuracy? n g and decodng

23 Thrty-three subjects aged 9 to 1 2 CHAPTER Method Subjects from the classrooms of two publc elementary schools n a sma.1. New Engand town. Recrutment was acheved through the use of nformatonal packets maled to the parents of all chldren n grades 4 through 6. Each packet ncluded a letter descrbng the study ( Append x c ). a campus map descrbng the locaton of the experment a subject nterest form on whch parents ndcated ther wllngness to have ther chld partcpate n the study (Appendx D) and a postage-pad return envelope. Approxmately 30% of the famles solcted expressed an nterest n takng part n the study. Upon recept of the subject nterest form parents were contacted by phone and an appontment arranged for them to come" to the Unversty. Famles were pad for ther partcpaton. Mater a St mu Approxmately 50 moton pcture flm clps each two to three mnutes n length were selected for ntal evaluaton and plot testng. Each was chosen for- ts 14

24 15 antcpated effectveness n evokng one of f.ve types of emotons: anger d sadness. The dps were recorded n a randomzed order and sgust f ear /sur pr se happness or dvded nto overlappng groups each contanng sx or seven f m segments. Undergraduate students were then Presented wth a specfc group of clps and asked to rate the nature (category of emoton) and strength (on a seven- Pont Lkert-type scale) of ther reactons to each. They were also asked to note those aspects of the clps that were most responsble for ther reacton (see Appendx B). Each clp was evaluated by a mnmum of 20 undergraduates and those that proved most ef feet ve n elctng the desred emotonal responses were then rated (for category of emoton only) by a group of 11 boys aged 8 to 12. Ten clps (two for each category of emoton) were selected as stmul for the encodng task n the current experment. They were chosen for ther relatve purty (.e. ther effectveness n evokng a sngle category of emoton) and ther ablty to elct moderate levels of arousal n those who vewed them. "Fear/surprse" and "dsgust" scenes judged as extremely arousng by undergraduate raters were not shown to chld raters. Overall nterrater agreement for the clps selected ranged from 87 to 98 percent; for specfc age and gender groups the range was 85 to 100 percent.

25 16 Decodng st.um conssted of a set of 20 vewer reacton sequences show ng C.ps descred above. Pour encoders (two ma adu ts react ng to the fjlm es and two females) were vdeotaped and ther reactons to specf c 3 _ tc 5-second segments of the clp were rated by a group of undergraduates. All flve emotjona ^ represented by each of the four encoders. Reacton sequences selected as decodng st mu n me t the fo owng crtera: 1) the encoder depcted neachclp reported experencng the approprate type of reacton (.e. he or she reacted angrly to an anger nduc ng clp fearfully to a fear-lnduc.ng clp); and 2) raters labe.ed the encoder's reacton as a manfestaton of the approprate emotonal response more often then any other category (.e. "angerwas the label most commonly attached to the encoder's reacton to an anger- nduc ng clp and so on). Quest j onna re Subjects were assgned to one of two expermental groups based on ther level of nterpersonal functonng as ndcated by parental responses to tems on the Socal Competence scale of the Achenbach Chld Behavor Checklst (Achenbach & Edelbrock 1982). Ths scale assesses a chld's performance n areas such as peer and famly relatonshps school functonng and nvolvement n recreatonal actvtes. Each chld's raw score on the

26 ng 17 sca.e was converted to an age-adjusted ce rcentme SCQre and subjects were dvded at the 50th percent e nto groups demonstratng ether above- or be ow-avera 9 e eve s of sted n socal competence. Olograph c data on the oh dren are Append x A Procedure Subjects were tested n a laboratory room located n unlvers.ty psychology buldng. The room contaned a sma desk and char a v deocassette recorder (VCR ) a color a televson montor and two false speakers-one on each sde of the montor. nsde one of the speakers was a camera that was used to record the subjects' reactons to the flm clps. Most subjects knew that they were beng vdeotaped but dd not realze that the camera was actually n the room wth them. On the desk n front of the chld was a response form (see Appendces G and H) a folder contanng questons relatng to the flm clps and a remote control for the VCR so the chld could turn the machne on and off between clps. The lghtng was soft to ncrease the dramatc effect of the af f ect- nduc scenes and subjects were tested ndvdually to elmnate the rsk of ther responses beng nfluenced by the reactons of others. An adjacent room equpped wth a two-way mrror was used to observe subjects to be sure they were performng all tasks n the proper manner.

27 18 Encod nq The fol owng nstructons were read to a. subjects: ten M.. a xr"^h : bs*rr Br t mwt < showng people m n "utes dfferent long watch ta on ^ each clp very Want carefu? v you to close attenton to how t Vn L fl S especall v the clp has ended fse and you '- nce! ve about had chance t you w to l h*» thnk «h ether the S.e^p T^0%^?o^T *? you feel. f you take a look response a??ne form?od of n front 6 of you you'll 1? are fve emotons for thsre you to choose from them wth you Just to be sure we have 9 * hr Uflh meanngs response n mnd. defntons (Expermenter reads trough wth subject.) tte the Plot data obtaned from our undergraduate raters ndcated that many people tended to crcle "dsgust" when they were extremely angered by a clp but ddn't feel that the word "anger" was adequate n relayng the strength of ther reacton. To prevent such occurrences we followed the lead of Zabe (1979) n dfferentatng between the two categores. The nstructons contnue: Sometmes people confuse anger and dsgust Anger s how you feel when you see someone do or say somethng that you really don't lke somethng that makes you really mad. Dsgust s more physcal the way you feel when you see smell or taste somethng that s rotten or dseased anythng that makes you feel knd of sck to your stomach. Okay? (Expermenter gves examples.) You'll go through the same two steps for each clp you see. Frst you'll watch the clp and thnk about how t s makng you feel. Then once the clp has ended you'll pull out the queston sheet just far enough so that you can read queston #1 and once you've read t you'll crcle your answer to the

28 19 queston " after the SWer clp the has next questons ended about what you're Y U scddos^ V?" have an * they su are PP sed answered.) to do? ( f so> Okay two more thnas f +-h<=.-~ you woud rather not wa?=h. ee * 03 ree^o? ' that eyes or look away unt tuover your any And 1 problems or questons.! '^ d lf you h ave joor and oo^n?o'he P you " the the frst 11 one now. star * wth The encodng task requred an average of 35 mnutes to complete. am subjects were presented wth a set of ten affect- nducng scenes-two for each emotonal oategory of nterest- n a fxed randomzed order. Ther reactons were vdeotaped dur ng the screen ng and then shown to a group of undergraduate raters who tred to dentfy the category of emoton encoded by the subject. f a ratng matched the emotonal response reported by the subject at the tme of encodng then the subject was sad to have encoded an accurate response to that c judgment of a gven rater). p ( based on the Decod ng The followng nstructons were gven: Now 'm gong to show you some pctures of other people dong what you Just dd. They are watchng a set of move clps lke the ones you just saw Ths tme your job wll be to watch these people very carefully and to see f you can fgure out how they are feelng just by lookng at the expressons on ther faces. Once you thnk you know how they are feelng want you to look back at the same lst of

29 20 Do you understand S ' wha? feeln yos re 9- questons supposed 0 are answered to do? (A ny > t ab -ey r b y Sr^tr^u?C^y ^ ne ; e ; s%-rs T d S between these e clps so you probab \ n t'nled^o^ 3 * the tape as you're gong! alona Rut ; need to st op Mttle extra tme to?h > ' f nk n * a stop a the tape at any ree tme. to some of L e ^ard be ea " y?"> < '~o 8 n?s? hard and most wll ^T.rgSTL??; be somewhere n between?! * really mportant though that for you c re each eacn nnp ann Clrcle ll*' ^«+. an answer. one and not leave any lnes blank \e have to ank< lf guess that-* f no * you The decodng task requred an average of 5 to 10 mnutes to complete. 'Subjects were shownasllent tape contanng a se.ect.on of 20 vewer reacton sequences and asked to ndcate whch of the fve emotonal categores was beng dsplayed. The c ps were presented to a the chldren n a fxed randomzed order. a correct response was defned as subject agreement wth the responses made by a group of undergraduate Judges who had prevously rated each of the same clps. Four vewer reacton sequences were presented for each of the fve emotonal categores. Once the encodng and decodng tasks had been completed subjects and ther parents were debrefed and any questons answered

30 CHAPTER Resu ts Encodln q and Decodng Accuracy Accuracy scores (.n the form of percentages) were and calculated for each subject both overa separately for encodng and decodng. Scores were also calculated for specfc categores of emoton. For encodng a subject's accuracy score represented the percentage of raters that were able to dentfy a subject's emotonal states based on hs or her facal expressons. Decodng accuracy scores were smply the percentage of vewer reacton sequences that each subject labeled correctly. To obtan homogenety of varance and allow an analyss of varance all percentage scores were later transformed usng the arc sne transformaton (see Myers 1979). The major analyss conssted ofa2x2x2x5 mxed desgn analyss of varance. There were two between subjects factors (socal competence group and sex) and two wthn subjects factors (category of emoton and codng modalty). Category of emoton refers to the fve affectve states of nterest (anger dsgust fear/surprse happness and sadness); codng modalty ncdates whether the subject was encodng or decodng a gven category of emoton. When the results showed 21

31 a eve 22 sgnfcant ejects post hoc comparsons were earned out usng the Duncan New Multple Range Test (Duncan 1955). Results of the anayss of varance are presented n Table 1. As expected a sgnfcant ma n effect due expermental group was revealed wth the hgh socal to competence chldren showng a greater overall accuracy than ther less soc y sk. of. ed peers F(129) = 8-76 p<. 01. The same pattern was observed for both encodng and decodng (see Table 2). t should be noted however that the man effect for soca. competence eve was modfed by a sgnfcant nteracton between group and sex F(129) = 7.31 p <. Whereas males n both groups attaned mean scores that 05. were vrtua.y dentcal (57.0 and 57.4 percent respectvey) females showed relatvely large dfferences; those demonstratng above average levels of socal competence attaned a mean score of 62.9 percent whle the mean for the below average group was only 47.2 percent (see Fgure 1). Post hoc comparsons ndcated that the mean accuracy score for the socally sklled females was sgnfcantly greater than those atta ned by the other three groups. Smlarly the mean score obtaned by the less socally competent grls was sgnfcantly lower than all other groups. The man effect observed for socal competence level then s due largely to dfferences between the two groups of females.

32 TABLE 1 Analyss of Varance for Encodng and Decod ng Accuracy Source df MS Between Subjects Socal Comp. Group Sex (S) G X S Error Wthn Sub Jects Cod ng Moda ty C X G C X S C X G X S Error (C) (G) Q O 7 R O Q Category of Emoton (E) E X G E X S E X G X S Error C X E C X E X G C X E X S C X E X G X Error S * * * * * P <.05 P <.01 P <.0001

33 24 TABLE 2 Mean Encodng and Decodng Accuracy-by Groups <% Level of Socal Competence Encodng Decod Comb ned Above Average Below Average

34 FGURE 1 Mean Accuracy Scores by Sex and Level of Soc l Competence-Encodng and Decodng Combned 70% r Below Average Above Average Male Female

35 26 n addton to the sgnfcant m a n effect for soc a competence level and the group x sex nteracton a strong man effect was opserved for category of emoton F(4n 6 ) " ' < (see TaPle 3). Post hoc comparsons snowed that happness was by far the affectve state most accurately encoded and decoded sgnfcantly outsoorlng the other four categores»lth an overall mean of 89.6 percent. Next came a cluster of three emotons-sadness (58.5 percent d sgust ( percent ) and f ear/surpr se (53.0 oercent) none of whch dffered sgnfcantly from each other n terms of ther overall accuracy scores. Fnally anger proved to be the lowest-scorng emoton wth a mean of 31.4 percent sgnfcantly lower than each of the other four categores. Overall accuracy scores for all fve emotonal categores were at greater-than-chance eve s Lke the socal competence man effect the effect for type of emoton was also modfed by a sgnfcant nteract on n ths case between codng modalty and category of emoton F (4116) = 4.52 p <.01. For encodng the pattern of means was smlar to those dentfed for both codng modaltes combned. Happness was encoded wth sgnfcantly greater accuracy than the other four categores (79.2 percent); next came the cluster of sadness (48.1 percent) fear (46.2 percent) and dsgust (42.1 percent); and last was anger whch at 25.7 percent

36 27 TABLE 3 Mean Accuracy Scores-by Category of Emoton (*) Category of Emot on Encodng Decod ng Comb ned Anger D sgust Fear/Surpr Happ Sadness ness se 25. 7a 42. 1b 46. 2b 79. 2c 48. 1b 37. 1a 74. 2c 59. 8b Od 68. 9c 31.4a 58. 2b 53. Ob 89. 6c 58. 5b (Smlar subscrpts ndcate nonsgnfcant between means dfferences rerences n the same column.)

37 was encoded wth sgnfcantly ess accuracy than any of s 28 the other four categores. wth the except on of anger a emotons were encoded at greater-than-chanoe accuracy eve of Decodng accuracy showed a slghtly dfferent pattern. AM subjects successfully dentfed the four vewer reacton sequences representng the emoton of happness. Not surprsng y the mean for happness was greater than that of a other categores. Dsgust (74.2 percent) and sadness (68.9 percent) followed next wth both showng mean accuracy scores sgnfcantly greater than the remanng two emot ons fear/surpr se (59. 8 percent) and anger (37. percent. once agan anger proved to be the lowest-scorng category; 1 1 was decoded sgnfcantly less accurately than the other four emotons. All emotons were correctly decoded at greater-than-chance eve s Fnally a man effect was found for codng modalty F(129) =27.54 p< However ths fndng s spurous because the scales and procedures for measurng the two types of codng were not comparable. Errors 1Q Decod ng of Ch dren ' s Fac a Express ons The prevous results ndcate that overall chldren n the above average socal competence group were more

38 and 29 accurate than th.r be ow av erag e counterparts enc o dng and decodng the fve emot.ona categores of nterest -s nvestgaton. They a so pont to a sgnfcant -nteracton between soc females n the two expermental groups showng more a Sk s eve gender wlth dsparty than ma es. Yet ths nformaton does not Provde us wth an understandng of what went on when a relatvely nondecodabe expresson was exhbted by a gven ndvdual; specfcamy t does not reveal the presence of any s.gn.foant patterns n rater errors wth respect to Partcular soc a competence or gender groups. m an attempt to dentfy any SUC h patterns error frequences were calculated for each emotonal category (both overall and by socal competence level and sex) and a seres of ch-square analyses were carred out. n the frst analyss rater errors n decodng facal expressons of chldren n the two socal competence groups were compared. Results showed that the relatonshp between socal competence level and category of rater error was not statstcally s gn f cant er ror patterns were essentally the same for both groups (see Table 4). Smlar results were obtaned n an analyss comparng error patterns n decodng the expressons of males and females; although the emotonal label "happness" was msappled three tmes more often to males than to females (12.2 versus 4.2 percent) the overall relatonshp (across

39 30 TABLE 4 Frequency of Rater Errors n Decodng Chldren's Facal Express ons-by Group (%) Level of Soc a Competence Emoton Chosen by Raters Anger Dsgust Fear/Surp Happness Sadness

40 31 categores between the two varces was not statstc sgnfcant (see Table 5). An overall ana.ys.s (across categores) was also Performed wth the results dsplayed at the top of Table 6. n ths case the cem frequences obtaned represents a sgnfcant devaton from the expected value of 20 percent n each ^2(4 N ) p < l01l The "sadness- and " f ear /surpr se" were mstakenly appled at frequences sgnfcantly greater than would be expected by chance. Smlarly the use of "dsgust" and "happness" mslabelng faca. expressons occurred at frequences sgnfcantly less than chance. Errors nvolvng the label "anger" dd not devate sgnfcantly from the expected va ue of 20 percent Fnally ndvdual analyses (by category of emoton experenced) showed sgnfcant devatons from expected cell values for each of the fve emotonal categores (see Table 6) - Expressons exhbted by ndvduals experencng anger were most lkely to be labeled as "sadness" or "fear/surprse" and least lkely to be seen as "dsgust" or "happness" f 2 (3 N - 540) = p 001. Feelngs of dsgust were most often mstaken for "fear/surprse" or "sadness" and least often for "happness" ^2 (3 N = 356) = p <.001. Fear/surpr se responses were frequently seen as "sadness" but were unlkely to be mslabeled as "happness" 1^2

41 ons-by 32 TABLE 5 Frequency of Rater Errors n Decodng Chldren's Facal Express Sex (%) Sex Emoton Chosen by Raters Anger Dsgust Fear/Surp Happness Sadness 13 ' FSmale 21 '

42 33 TABLE 6 Frequency of Rater Errors n Decodng Chldren' Facal Expre.slons-.by Category of Emoton <% Encoder ' Response Emoton Chosen by Raters Anger Dsgust Fear/Surp Happness Sadness OVERALL Anger D sgust Fear /Surp Happ Sadness ness

43 ... nq 34 (3 N =. 366) = p < nm E Errors n dentfyng chdren's expressons of happness were ess common but onoe agan - fear/surpr and..sadness" we re th. categores moat often selected when an expresson was noorrecty decoded ^2(3 N ) < Fnally. sadness was mstaken most often for "anger- and "fear/surpr se" less frequently for "dsgust" and rarely for happness" ^ 2(3 N = 296) = p < Ch d r en ' s Decod Errors A second seres of ch-square analyses was carred out n an attempt to dentfy any potental patterns n the decodng errors made by chldren. m the frst the two socal competence groups were compared compared on the frequency wth whch specfc emotonal labels were ncorrectly used n dentfyng expressons of the fve affectve states (see Table 7) wth the results showng a sgnfcant relatonshp between these two varables ^2 (4 N = 187) = p <.05. Chldren n the below average group msappled the label "happness" three tmes as often as those n the above average group (19.2 as opposed to 6.4 percent); ndvduals n the latter group were much more lkely to choose "anger" when they were unable to accurately Judge a person's facal expressons (34.9 percent as opposed to 20.5 percent for the less

44 35 TABLE 7 Frequency of Chldren's Decodng Errors-by Group (%) Level of Soc a Competence Emoton Chosen by Chldren Anger Dsgust Fear/Surp Happness Sadness Above Average Be ow Average

45 hood sapp socally competent chldren) Frr^r Error c ' frequences for the remanng three emotonal cateanr^ categores revealed no sgnfcant dfferences between groups. 36 An ana.yss comparng the error patterns of males and females ndcated that the relatonshp between a chld's sex and h. s or her. ke of m sapp y ng a specfc emotonal label was nonsgnfcant (see Table 8). However the overall Pattern of error frequences (combnng al leves of sex and socal competence) revealed a sgnfcant devaton from the expected value of 20 percent n each of the fve cells Jz (4( N. 187) = n<08> f < ^ ^ Table 9 top). "Anger" and "sadness" were chosen at greater-than-chance frequences (28.9 and 26.7 percent respectvely) whereas the label "happness" was m ed less often than would be antcpated by chance representng only percent of the errors commtted. The frequency of errors nvolvng "dsgust" and "fear/surprse" fell wthn the expected range. Lastly ndvdual analyses (by type of emoton dsplayed) were carred out for four of the fve affectve categores wth three showng sgnfcant devatons from expected cell frequences (see Table 9). Expressons of anger were most often mstaken for "dsgust" and "sadness" and much less frequently for "happness" ^2 (3 N = 74) = p <.01. More than half the errors n mslabelng expressons of f ear /sur pr se were dentfed as "anger"

46 37 TABLE 8 Frequency of Chldren's Decodng Error by Sex «Sex Emoton Chosen by Chldren Anger Dsgust Fear/Surp Happness Sadness Ma e Fema

47 38 TABLE 9 Frequency of Ch dren's Decodng Errors-by Category of Emoton <*> Encoder ' Response Emoton Chosen by Chldren Anger Dsgust Fear/Surp Happness Sadness

48 on 39»«th "sadness" runnng a Cose second; m saop cat q( the abels..dsgust" and ^ ^ "happness" was qu t. rare f2 (3. N = 48). 89.6V. p<. 0Q1 ^ attempts at decodng expressons of sadness "anger" as : onosen at east twoe as often as any o f tne reganng three categores. hme -dsgust". an j nappness selectons were relatvely uncommon. Error patterns for the category of dsgust dd not devate sgnfcantly from expected values. Fnally. an error analyss was not performed for the last remanng category happness snce all chldren successfully dentfed the four vewer reacton seduences representng ths emoton.

49 a te a t sklls. es gn f cant y CHAPTER v D scuss on Consstent wth the fndngs of prevous studes -cokng at dsturbed soo y wthdrawn and peer-spurned chdren resuts of the current nvestgaton do ndeed suggest dfferences n decodng accuracy based on an ndvdual's nterpersona capab average socal competence sgnfcantly outperformed ther ; chdren of above -ess socal. y sklled peers on ths task. Dfferences were also observed for encodng accuracy wth the more socally sklled chldren agan showng a s degree of accuracy n conveyng affectve nformaton va greater facal expressons. Whle a chld's gender n and of tself does not seem to have much bearng on hs or her accuracy n encodng or decodng emotons there does appear to be a sgnfcant nteracton between sex and socal competence. Socally sklled females were more accurate n both codng modaltes but the oppos was true for those females demonstratng be ow aver age soc Among males encodng and decodng accuracy dd not appear to be closely ted to an ndvdual's level of socal competence. A sgnfcant nteracton between codng modalty and ether socal competence level or sex was notceably 40

50 Such fndngs do not support the hypothess that ch dre n kely 41 absent. TMs suggests that encodng or dec o d ng accuracy wth respect to spec < f < c emot ona categores dd not dffer as a functon of ether of these two varabes. wth beow average soc a. sk s mght be ess (or m ore) lkely to convey accurate nformaton about specfc nterna affectve experences than ndvduals who are more socally sklled. However t s dear that certan emotons were encoded and decoded more accurate y than others. General y speak ng happness was correctly dentfed and conveyed more often than the other four emotons whle anger was least to be successful ly recognzed or produced. Accuracy levels for specfc affectve categores dffered dependng on the cod ng modalty. These dfferences and a other major fndngs wll be dscussed n greater detal n the sectons that f o ow Ef fects Relat ng to Socal Competence Level and Sex The belef that nonverbal communcaton abltes play an mportant role n the development of general socal competence s wdely accepted and based on a large body of emprcal evdence (e.g. see Blanck Buck & Rosenthal 1986; Feldman 1982). Furthermore the work of Paul Ekman (1982) and others has shown that facal expressons both ther producton and recognton comprse an ntegral

51 eve s 42 component of nonverpa communcaton. Tnerefore thdemonstraton of! e. t y dfferent Qf and decodng accuracy by our two soo a oompetenoe grou ps Provdes even stronger evdence for the mportance of faca expressons as a means of communcatng nformaton to others. Results of the current study showed that chldren wth above average levels of socal competence were n fact more accurate not on y decodng faca expressons of emoton (as prevous studes have ndcated) but a so n encodjng such expressons n response to af f ect- nduc ng stmul. Ths fndng s partcularly noteworthy because of the nature of the stmul used to dentfy these dfferences. Rather than showng that chldren wth varyng socal capabltes dffer n ther ablty to produce posed facal expressons and to dentfy such artfcal expressons n others ths nvestgaton has shown that such chldren dffer n the degree of encodng and decodng accuracy demonstrated n response to natural ly-occurrnn st mu. As was prevously noted the combned effects of gender and socal competence level revealed sgnfcant dfferences among groups; females showed marked dspartes n ther overall accuracy scores dependng on ther level of socal effectveness whle males dd not. Ths fndng suggests that success at encodng and decodng facal

52 43 express ons centres much more to the genera competence of females than to male s. one DO s s exp anat.cn for thls that ma g ^ ^ b e h.v tradton. y been encouraged to refran from BrOVldn9 ^ exter " al «" ^n experencng strong affect; such behavor often seen as a sgn of weakness or vulnerablty especally as t relates to the expresson of fear or sadness. Females however are expected to behave more "emot ona y» and are therefore Provded more freedom to dsplay ther fee ngs both verbally and nonverbal ly. An alternatve explanaton for ths gender dsparty s suggested by the fact that males are often taught to behave aggressvely when attempt ng to commun cate ther thoughts and needs to those around them (Maoooby & Jack n 1974; Brooks-Gunn & Matthews 1979). Females on the other hand are expected to use more passve means to express themselves and may therefore rely more heavly on nonverbal communcaton channels such as facal expressons or body posture when nteractng wth others. Whle accuracy scores (both overall and separately for the two codng modaltes) were clearly affected by the combnaton of socal competence level and sex ths does not appear to be the case for errors made n encodng. Patterns n the m s dent f cat on of subjects' facal expressons were nearly dentcal for both the above- and

53 a competence ess ow 44 below-average soc groups. However sgn.f.cant dfferences were noted subjects' decodng errors. When unable to dentfy a n the nature of reacton sequence correctly C h d ren n the be average group chose the abe '"happness" three tmes as often as ther hghy socal ly sk led peers; ndvduals n the above average group were more lkely to select "anger." The observaton noted above s qute nterestng suggestng that when uncertan about the emotonal content of a gven faca expresson the soc a y competent ch dren were more kely to take an optmstc stance and assume that the affectve state beng conveyed was a Postve one. ndvduals n the hgh socal sklls group however when confronted wth a smlar stuaton generally chose a more negatvely connoted label. Whle at frst glance the former tendency mght appear more socally adaptve perhaps t s a less cautous approach to unknown stuatons such as ths that separates the below average socal sklls chldren from ther more successful peers ndvduals n the former group may n fact possess a certan degree of navete that allows them to vew others' st nonverbal cues n an unr ea ca y postve lght blndng them to the possble consequences of ntatng an unwelcomed nteracton.

54 ty 45 Effects Related to Category of Emoton As expected sgnfcant dfferences were a so observed n the accuracy Wlth whch specfc affectve states were dentfed and produced. Fo r encodng the category of happness was expressed wth the hghest degree of accuracy; next came the cluster of sadness dsgust and f ear /sur pr se ; and fnally anger proved to be the emoton least accurately conveyed. wth the excepton of the relatve non-encodab of anger the current results are baslcal ly consstent wth those obtaned n prevous nvestgatons. The most obvous explanaton for these fndngs relates to the socal acceptablty of openly expressng each of these emotons. Unless one s a funeral drector he or she has probably learned over tme that expressons of postve emotons such as happness are welcomed much more often than expressons of the remanng four emotons mentoned above. t therefore seems reasonable to assume that most ndvduals have had more practce dsplayng expressons of happness and would consequently have developed a greater sophstcaton n the ablty to convey such an emotonal state nonverbal ly. Smlarly snce anger s perhaps the least accepted form of emotonal expresson n everyday socal stuatons an ndvdual would have had sgnfcantly fewer opportuntes to develop hs or her skll n dsplayng ths emoton.

55 46 The accuracy patterns for decod ng ndcated that happness an d anger once agan occuped the top and bottom Postons (respect vey) for dent f ab ty. An apparent ce.ng effect was observed for the category of happness emoton. Un ke the resu ts obta ned w-th a chdren successfumy decodng expressons of th.s f or encodng the remanng three categores dd show some varaton n ther overall decodab ty wth dsgust attanng the second hghest accuracy ratng foowed by sadness and fear/surprse. Wth the excepton of the data on dsgust (whch has typcal y been found to be relatvely dffcult tc decode) these results are farly consstent wth the fndngs of past nvestgatons most of whch have dentfed happness and sadness as the easest emotons for chldren to decode and anger or fear (typcally not combned wth surprse) as the most dffcult (Odom & Lemond 1972; Feld & Walden 1982; K rouac & Dore' 1983). Dfferences n encodng and decodng accuracy for the emotons of dsgust and fear/surprse are well accounted for by the socal acceptablty hypothess. Whereas facal expressons of these emotons are farly dstnct (e.g. nose wrnklng and upper Uprasng for dsgust eye wdenng and mouth openng for fear/surprse) the open dsplay of these two emotons s generally not encouraged n our culture except under certan prescrbed crcumstances. Therefore the relatve ease wth whch

56 -..«U.t f6ar/surpr se wereaecodea opposed SnCOded) ^ bs due to -»«*. Of lncreasea d.scr^nty ana urease exper.ence n dsdlayng these emot ons 47 ^ The socal acceptablty hypothess can also be extended to explan the extreme scores obtaned for decodng accuracy wth respect to happness and anger: f these emotons are sgnfcantly more or less lkely to be expressed n socal stuatons then we wou. d expect dfferng levels of decodng expertse due to the amount of experence an ndvdual has had n tryng to dentfy SUC h expressons n others. On the other hand such an explanaton may be a bt too smplstc n that experences nvolvng ntense emotonal encounters (e.g. those nvolvng the expresson of anger) often seem to have a senstzng effect whereas exposure to mlder or more common forms of expresson (such as happness) probably would not have such a profound nfluence. Cone ud nq Remarks The fndngs of ths study coupled wth those obtaned n pror nvestgatons clearly demonstrate that a hgh degree of skll and understandng n the area of human facal expressveness s closely assocated wth general socal competence n chldren. For females n partcular knowledge of (and the skll to successfully

57 dren ef 48 oonvey such nonverbal cues may p ay an mportant roe ^ *- -Mty to nteract effectlve y w th socu envr nment And wh - lea mlted capab ty thls area Coe S not appear to have a detr menta f ect on males' ablmty to functon nterpersona y. both sexes wtn a gr eater understand COmUnlCat0n Channe ' S g of nonverba '" genera (and facla expressons n partcular oan on y serve to heghten ther senstvty to the thoughts and feelngs of those around them. Because the populaton of ch sampled n ths study was bascally anonollnca one the relatvely Poorer degree of accuracy demonstrated by the below average zab socal competence group may not be genera e to the nonverbal sk s of ch dren severely asocal ndvduals. future studles comparlng wth varyng levels of socal competence t mght prove useful to a so look at socally dysfunctonal ndvduals so that potental dfferences between chldren representng both extremes of the socal-asocal contnuum could be more clearly dentfed wth a hgher degree of certanty and would not need to be nferred. t would also be mportant to take subjects' ntellgence level nto account as a varable that could theoretcally effect the results obtaned n such an nvestgaton. Because the ntellectual capabltes of our subjects were not assessed we were not able to control

58 gat on 49 between ntel gence for ths factor and cannot rule t out as a Dn potentalt source of varance there s a sgnfcant relatonshp and a ch d's encodng and aecod accuracy the former could be oe Dar partally responsble for the ng dfferences observed between oetween the ha * two socal competence groups. Admnsterng an abbrevated verson of any standardzed.nte. gence test to a subjects wou d be one way of securng the necessary nformaton and avodng ths P rob em The results of the current study suggest numerous Potent any frultful avenues of Prcv.de us wth a better understandng of the development nvest that of nonverbal communcaton abmt.es n chldren. An examnaton of parents' (as well as ther chldren's) accuracy encodng and decodng varous faca express ons of emoton seems a reasonable next step. such an nvestgaton mght revea the presence of ntraf am a Patterns n the expresson and recognton of nonverba cues. For example do chldren tend to resemble ther same-sex parent n the way they express themselves nonverbally? Does one parent seem to have a greater nfluence on the development of a chld's nonverbal repertore? f so what about chldren n sngle parent f am l es? The ntensty wth whch a chld and hs or her famly members express themselves s another area worth pursung.

59 nterpersona d 50 Are certan members more ke y to ^ oppose to negatve feengs of emoton (or vce versa 3 tnere a correcton between verba and nonverba expressveness Does. there appear to be an op tma l9vel of expressveness for ma e s or fences aduts or chmdren? Fnally. tnere s the queston of tranng. can chldren who ar e demonst rab y acxng n effectveness be taught to dent fy and produce certan Prmary faca expressons of emoton? f so cou these new sklls actually enable them ( cuaue tnem to mprove ther soclometrc status? Of what would such a tr.m.. aucn a tranng program oonsst and n what settng should t occur? the ohl.d-3 home? At school? n the context of a therapeutc envronment? Clearly. there are many mpor tant quest stll to be answered. ons

60 APPENDX A DEMOGRAPHC DATA ON SUBJECTS Level of Socal Comptence Sex -Below Avg. _ Above Avg. ma e f ema Tota Age mean ( n years mn mum max mum Socal Competence Percent e Scores mean mn mum max mum Ethnc Background Amercan As an B ack Caucas an H span Other ndan Tota Annua ncome Fam My less than $10000 $10000 to $25000 $25000 to $50000 $50000 or more Tota

61 APPENDX B RATER RESPONSE FORM NTAL N T A «SELECTON C^ T OF ENCODNG STMUL Sex Age Group anger sgust fear happ ness ^ B) very weak very strong C) What aspects of the clp do you feel m * respons.ble for the reacton yos experenced?n? r hv S * WaS '* 3bOUt " he CMP h^t Sade you feel happy sad etc.? f you need may extra use the space P vo back of y U ths ' sheet. 52

62 APPENDX C TEXT 0F LETTER SENT T0 PARENTS OF POTENT AL SUBJECTS Dear Parent: reseat 'll^l^vs^zf ths project we wn be tooknn C ' Pat ' n Massachusetts. chldren and ther.!! ' at tne ablty of * ^clal^presstontof» ot!?*"» nd (SchJn 8 Research^e^w^rf ^ < PrlnC ' Pal) and *he permsson to recrut a sample of chldr n 5" V ' " 9 Ve " us n return for the tme 7 chldren from the school. Partcpaton n {he s?udv we h" VOlVed n the tool's ^naton of $ a -st a e j a hy m;t:s aw ly edu :n a faced procedure whch a da^ r should reour. S ata! co1 Acton tlme^ Your contrbuton \ ' ' n the frst e"^v?^" avlded we w nto as two phases: ^r:o^d'ou? a k vo.. Unversty to vtew a s e ^ and / our ch "d to come to the questonnares?h?s w«? LauVr^ and f ' ' ' Ut some mnutes. requre The second L! approxmately 90 the Unversty " eth?n yocr home?? - here at You and S your more c lldw S convenent ' other's responses dur n ts 7? \ vde tape contanng the you WM be^d^re^ «d an reactons accompanyng to the tape questonnare on requ re on y'abouttm! nu^s to compete 600 "" Pha»" ' " ' ' 1F enjoy^le^xper^nce '^r ^ --v. "both " '"* "«. and r: t ;: o ^"s'ss. 52? T' ou s20.u h " a o n Enclosed s a response form whch we your would comp.et.ng aporeclate to let us know whether or not nterested you n are par t. c pat ng. a pre-addressed envelope postage-pa d s 9 P enclosed for your convenence. ' f yo " have expressed an nterest n u. partcpatng w we contact you by phone to schedule a vewng at your appontment earlest convenence. Please be assured of that all the responses and nformaton you provde wll be held 53

63 54 APPENDX C (CONTNUED) n the strctest confdence ouest.ons feel free to CQn «u.'u??^^- «ny We S ncere y Robert J. Custrln Project Drector Robert s. Feldman Ph D Professor of Psychology

64 APPENDX D SUBJECT NTEREST FORM Partcpant nformaton For m Ch d's Name Grade n Schoo Classroom nstructor Parent Name(s) Address Phone Best Tme to Reach You Yes am nterested n partcpatng m the study descrbed n your letter. Please contact me to schedule a vewng appontment. No am not nterested n partcpatng. Name S gnature Date 55

65 APPENDX E NFORMED CONSENT FORM As partcpants n ths stunv 1 chld and l wll be shown a sem A* nderst and that ^ my and asked to record o ^otaped * f m c r t n ' p accompanyng questonnare.? JurJLr! a h n an other means of data understand co Mae «that vdeotapng ntervewng or add?? 0n^ h *! audlo ^P'ng ' 0nna res may ' ' be employed durng t he! rlt phase of ts"* that some of ou respons L L 6 experment and novce raters. All responses wttl be conf?dent?al? r UP f also grant permsson teacher for mv chm-c ~ at (School) cnld to fn s 0+ *. classroom shown to me on my >Jf s J^cl.^*"! n the classroom. m return for our partcpaton stpend **«>*»<> of ;;«;; wewl wn $20.00 from the re«ve UnTversUy «durlna th? ' Phase of ths t study n nd approxmately 7-2 Zlkl. partcpant s^udy SS^"^ «have been answered to mv satkf«rt«b questons had ^partcpaton s ^.StSj '^S" lf ece ^rt" ^y wthdraw consent and dscontnue partcpaton at any tme Sgnature of Mother sgnature of Father Name (please prnt) Name (please prnt) Date Date 56

66 FAMLY as co^": y^ Soss?S:r APPENDX Ch nf ormat on d Name of chld partcpatng n study: F NFORMATON FORM ^ f the ^no^n 9 quest.ons B P rthdate: ace of B rth Grade n Schoo Ethnc Background (please check one) Amercan ndan As an Black Caucas an H span c Other (please specfy): b?rt hr Ur M"W'ved hyou contnuous snce yes no f no who else has s/he lved wth and for how long? Parent nf ormat on Father's Name: Mother's Name: Date of Brth: Date of Brth: Place of Brth: Place of Bjrth Professon: Professon: Bologcal Father? _yes no Bologcal Mother? yes _no Estmated Yearly Famly ncome: less than $10000 $10000 to $25000 $25000 to $50000 $50000 to $75000 $75000 or more 57

67 se ness ness APPENDX G SUBJECT RESPONSE FORM-ENCODNG Anger D sgust Fear/ Surpr se - beng mad lrr+«*«w dlspleased'or lces o?. ann yed - seeng somethng that s «r.e An _ revoltng rotten or rea n y gross 9 ' ' b tf^. - beng frghtened startled or afrad surprsed terrfc by terrfed somethng. Happness - Sadness - beng pleased amused delghted joyful or seeng somethng that s humorous or funny" " sense" 'o^loss 30"0 ' Unha <»'"*«. O'.ef or a ************ ************* ******* ********* ***************** Crcle the best label 1 anger d sgust f ear/surpr se happ ness sadness 2. anger d sgust fear /surpr se happ ness sadness 3. anger d sgust fear /surpr se happ ness sadness 4. anger d sgust fear /surpr 5. anger d sgust fear /surpr se happ se happ l sadness sadness 6. anger d sgust fear /surpr happ ness sadness 7. anger d sgust fear /surpr se happ ness sadness 8. anger d sgust fear /surpr se happ ness sadness 9. anger d sgust fear /surpr se happ ness sadness 10. anger d sgust fear /surpr se happ ness sadness 58

68 l ness APPENDX H SUBJECT /RATER RESPONSE FORM DECOD NG Anger * * * D sgust Surmse ' ^Z^\^-JSSt^ afra ' Happ l ness - " eas ' amusetj f?. delghted seeng somethng joyful or that s humorous o? funny. Sadness " senn'o? 9 :^'' 0 "' Unha» ">*". «rl.f or a d ' ' ************* ************;' ***************************** What was the person n ths clp feelng? 1 anger d sgust f ear/surpr se happ ness sadness 2. anger 3. anger 4. anger d d sgust f ear /surpr se happ ness sadness sgust f ear/surpr se happ ness sadness d sgust f ear/surpr se happ ness sadness 5. anger d sgust fear /surpr l se happ l sadness 6. anger d sgust fear /surpr se happ ness sadness 7. anger d sgust fear /surpr se happ ness sadness 8. anger d sgust fear /surpr se happ l ness sadness 9. anger d sgust fear /surpr se happ ness sadness 10. anger d sgust fear /surpr se happ ness sadness 59

69 sgust sgust se se se se se se se se ness ness ness ness ness 60 APPENDX H (CONTNUED) anger d sgust t ear /surpr anger d sgust f ear/surpr l anger d fear /surpr anger d sgust fear/surpr anger d sgust fear/surpr happ ness sadness happ ness sadness happ ness sadness happ sadness happ ness sadness 16. anger 17. anger 18. anger d d d sgust fear/surpr se happ fear/surpr sgust fear/surpr 19. anger d sgust fear/surpr 20. anger d happ happ happ l sadness sadness sadness sadness sgust fear/surpr se happ l ness sadness

70 SELECTED BBLOGRAPHY Achenbach t m o Of ChM. M - Behav?o 982) "heck?^ ( - 1 Profle. Bur - ngton \ > T!lg c^fr 1 p.5~ ^^lehk^l of Vermont. Chlld Psychatry Un versty Blanck p. D> B k Non^ba communcaton' n tz^v ' Unversty TaTk pt 211 d cl 1 n 1 Press. ' PA: *' (1986 >- Pe ca 1 context "nsyvan7t-stt UnT^Ty Brooks-Gunn j. & Matthews w. (1 979 > Ho c^:^r of» Buck < c^ dr r: Jou^r rb :; Psychology 3J_ Persona " Socal Buck R. m ler r. e & r*. _ 1 Personalty' and 974 phys^og Se ca " *' var. h! communcaton of affect lv / arables n th «a Journal of or faclal Personal f! 12 «expresson. ty and Socal Psychology Chr.stenson D. Farna A. & Boudreau L ( 98Cn 55 DUn0^; s t<' p '? '' Mult P'«range tests. an d multple F Blometr w les EdWar M984)" Ma tead A S?? ' ' - " ' &MacDona«d c. " J. o^.* relatonshp between chldren's expessons ^ atu % and ^ " ty to recognze fac?a? p V P ;^ lons f emoton. European Psychology. Journal of Socal Ekman P. A. ( 1973). Cross-cultural studes of facal expresson. m P. A. Ekman (Ed.) Darwn and facal expresson: A century of research n rev ewtpp~t69~r 222). New York: Academc Press. Ekman P. A. (1976). Pctures of facal affect. Alto CA: Consultng Psychology Press. Palo 61

71 Ekman p. a. (Ed.) ( New York: n Pergamon the Press! human face. Ekman P. A. & Frlesen w v ng7m face. Englewood Clffs nj= ^ren? loelhatt 2^123 Ekman n972) A "Jl! ese "' W - * Ellsworth P. (Eds research SKTZn*. ntefff SulssUj^ fr Pergamon lntegratl " 21 fnd! ngs^ 62 Nw~ YoTHTT ^h^are^/reta^e contr but on^of r f ac P (982 >- h 127). New York: Pergamon PreT Feldman R. s. (Ed ) mq»9\ r>«n on?d^en. (1 N^^orr4p^ r^^^ Feldm sk;?s S B a;d W^eroa be^?r ' '-? (5-2..^;TS: Y^" ) nverbal Savor!n - on?!^ ' z = )- New York: Sprlnger-Verlag. ^''ljn.l"^ 6 "'? T A ' - ( 1982 >- Producton and al e *<"- ess M? ' ' "s by cndren. presohool ChJJ d Development Frdlund A. J. Ekman P. a. & Oster H. (1987). Facal Fe?d^! ns f em t0n n A W - - ' ' P H Se^ * 5 llt J ^! ds) Nonverbal ' behavor *nh communlca- M3-224) - A^cla P?es 52 Hllsda 'e^^aw7noe-etft^ zard c. E. (1971). The face of emoton. New York- App eton-century-crof ts Krouac G. &Dore F. Y. (1983). Accuracy and latency of Judgment of facal expressons of emotons. Perceptua and Motor Sk s Krouac G. Tremblay C & Dore F. Y. ( 1986). The recogn 1 1 on of adu ts and ch drens facal express ons of emot ons. Manuscrpt submtted for pub cat on Maccoby E. E. & Jacklln C. N. (1974). The psychology P_f sex d f f erences.- Stanford CA Stanford Unversty Press.

72 ' 63 c. b Barden R r n-. & Rosenberg ' m'qr-^ Carlson - adults' } recognton of soont.nl * Chlldren 's and expressons n young" " POSed ^tlona Psychology n"d yg Developmental emoton. D 5622-B. 1^^^ ' s r ttttn "LS?ao^Tn? * C 3 " ' y Bosed!.UnT^F^TWoroTfT^. 3ft. Odom R.. & Lemond c. M Mq7P1 dfferences n the percepton a d product?^?^"?" expressons. Chld Development. 43 SSQ-Hs 30 Walden T. A. & Feld T. M. (1982). faca D expressons' by preschool Deve opment chmdren'^^'chltd Walke nor m a chldren T^esearchT * ' * ' n d " turbed * nd YarCZ?^' M " Klbrde J- E. > & Hll +. 1 mtaton L. A and (1979) nhbton of faca Developmental expresses' P Psychology 1_ ns ' Zabel R H ' - - (19^9). Recognton of emotons n facal nnzltv : S b emotona >y dsturbed nondsturbed l chldren and chldren. Psychology n the V?

73