Expression and the Course of Life

It has long been recognized that behavior evolves as do other traits and that it may have great impact on evolution. It tends to be conservative when survival and fast responding are at stake, and because of that, similar patterns can be found across populations or species, typical in their form and intensity, and often also typical in context and consequence. Such fixed stereotypic patterns that evolved to communicate are known as displays, and their phylogenies can virtually be traced. In this chapter, we contrast and discuss two coexisting trends in the study of the meaning and origins of human facial expression: one, with a tradition of exploring cross-cultural commonalities in the recognition of facial expression, that may indicate species-specific displays of emotion (prototypical facial expressions) and another that builds upon the growing evidence that such expressive prototypes are outnumbered by a diversity of facial compositions that, even in emotional situations, vary in relation to culture, context, group, maturation, and individual factors. We present behavioral studies that look at links between basic emotion and facial actions in both human and non-human primates and discuss the role of multiple factors in facial action production and interpretation.

Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 1981

This study tested the possibility that individual differences in nonverbal expressiveness may function as a mediating factor in the transmission of emotion through social comparison. In a quasiexperimental design, small groups consisting of one expressive person and two unexpressive people were created in which the participants sat facing each other without talking for two minutes. Self-report measures of mood indicated that tile feelings of the unexpressive people were influenced by the expressive people but the expressive people were relatively unlikely to be influenced by the unexpressive people. The findings have implications for the role of nonverbal communication in the emotional side of group interaction. Certain individuals such as tile "life" of tile party, tile charismatic politician, and tile terrified patient sitting next to you in the dentist's waiting room seem especially able to communicate their feelings to others. Tile presence of such an individual may, on tile one hand, arouse emotion in those nearby and may incite them to join in collective action such as a panic. On tile other hand, such an expressive person may, if calm, provide reassurance or induce relaxation. Feelings may, in part, be affected by tile moods of others through the process of social comparison (Schachter, 1959). In their pioneering work on emotion, Schachter and Singer (1962) started from Maranon's findings that people injected with

Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 1980

The meaning of personality traits for social interaction was investigated by exploring the personality correlates of abilities to pose emotions. This framework focuses on individual differences in socio-emotional skills. Thirty one males and 37 females were videotaped while attempting to communicate seven basic emotions nonverbally (i.e., using standard content communications), and sending success was measured by showing edited videotapes to judges. Hypothesized relationships between "acting" ability and scores on the Jackson Personality Research Form and the Eysenck Personality Inventory were then examined. The findings were seen to have implications for predicting individual strengths and weaknesses in social interaction as a function of certain personality traits and for understanding person perception. AIIport (1961) strongly urged increased attention to expressive behavior, claiming that "the expressive manner and style of the other is an important (perhaps the most important) factor in our understanding of personality" (p. 494). In social interaction, we observe how people behave, not what they are thinking. Proper "manner" is a key element of social adjustment. Although AIIport dealt in depth with expressive behavior, he, like many personality Howard S. Friedman,

Non-verbal signs of personality: Communicative meanings of facial expressions, 2022

There is a lot of evidence that most people are capable of recognizing emotions by facial expressions. What information does a facial expression usually provide? Can emotions be shown without facial expressions? Can there be facial expressions without a corresponding emotional state? Are there individual facial expressions? The studies of various aspects of non-verbal communication show both similarities and differences in non-verbal behavior. It is argued that similarities are most evident at the individual level, when the focus is on the objective, formal features of behavior, while differences are more likely to be found when the analysis focuses on the relationship between individuals and interpersonal meanings of behavior. Despite the rapid expansion of research on non-verbal communication, most of it describes simple differences in the display of non-verbal signals. Although they differ in almost every other respect, most facial measurement methods focus on what is seen, on what the researcher can identify when seeing some facial movements. Most of the research methods applied are not sufficient for the study of this complex, multidimensional issue. Like all basic studies of communicative processes, proxemics is more about how than why, and more about structure than content. The article focuses on the question whether non-verbal behavior reflects cultural similarities or differences, and whether different levels of analysis allow to observe both cultural homogeneity and diversity inherent in most acts of non-verbal behavior. The authors consider the data of laboratory experiments on the relationship between emotions and adults’ facial expressions: some studies confirm the high consistency between fun and smiling, and from the low to moderate consistency between other positive emotions and smiling. The available evidence on surprise and disgust suggests that these emotions are accompanied by their ‘traditional’ facial expressions or even some components of such expressions only in a minority of cases. The American anthropologist, one of the founders of kinesics, Birdwhistell introduced this term for the complex study of facial expressions, poses, gait, and visible movements of arms and body. Birdwhistell argues that body language is determined by cultural environment rather than universal genetic programs. Birdwhistell defines kinesics as “the study of body-motion as related to the non-verbal aspects of interpersonal communication”. He argues that communication with body motion is systemic, socially learned and communicative unless proven otherwise. The article considers in detail the works and theories of Birdwhistell who often had to admit that some of his ideas were controversial. The authors conclude that Birdwhistell’s works have serious mistakes, and other researchers failed to develop his theory of kinesics. Thus, the authors consider the research in this field focusing on the so-called recognition of the communicative meanings of facial expressions.

Journal of Personality, 1977

American Psychologist, 2009

In his book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Charles Darwin (1872/1965) defended the argument that emotion expressions are evolved and adaptive (at least at some point in the past) and serve an important communicative function. The ideas he developed in his book had an important impact on the field and spawned rich domains of inquiry. This article presents Darwin's three principles in this area and then discusses some of the research topics that developed out of his theoretical vision. In particular, the focus is on five issues--(a) the question of what emotion expressions express, (b) the notion of basic emotions, (c) the universality of emotion expressions, (d) the question of emotion prototypes, and (e) the issue of animal emotions--all of which trace their roots to Darwin's discussion of his first two principles.

PROOFS FOR THE MEANING OF THE EXPRESSION Many of the results of the researches may lead towards a generality of the expressions. When we interpret the emotions experienced by other people, we tend to focus on the nonverbals, most important being the face. The facial expression is one of the most difficult to evaluate if there are not other appearances such as body position or movements of the body. THE IMPORTANCE OF PAUL EKMAN Paul Ekman researched the expression of the face while being in Papua New Guinee. Based on this studies, he diescovered the similarities between the emotions, and affirmed that there are several universal facial expressions. The unviersality of emotional expressions is being interpret in the social-biological categories. He used the envolvment of the facial muscles in participation of displaying the emotions, and the links with the automatic nervous system. During these researches, the participants were asked to employ several muscles to display the indicated emotion. When it was tryed to employ several muscles which were not accordingly to the given expression, then the automatic nervous system reacted by modyfying the temperature of the body and the heart rhythm. Also this helped to establish the quality of the emotions. To increase the changes of the autonomic nervous system, the participants were asked to imagine an event accordingly to the emotion provided. The information gathered indicated that the facial expression is essential and in fact is a basic factor which triggers the emotion and even influences the neurophysical conditins. Accordingly to those researches, there are 36 facial muscles involved form 80. These 36 muscles are engaged in most of the facial expressions. Most important of these muscles are frontal muscles, for frowning situated above the eyebrows, the muscles around the nose, around the eyes, the zygomatic muscles, those around the mouth, those of the quadrilateral lips, and those which are lowering the corners of the mouth. The expressive component allows to distinguish the emotions from other conditions but also to observe the difference between the emotions themselves.1 Accordingly to the above, the emotions may have proper indicators indifferent the culture. Accordingly to this, we may affirm that there are separate indicators of facial expressions such as fear, distress, anger, disgust and happyness. There are weak evidences regarding the versatility of the curiosity, contempt and shame. It must be emphasized that not always the experienced emotion has such distinct external displays, such as when recalling the events, the expression is rather weak, due to the processes of imagery and memory. The proper indicators of the given emotions does not appear alone. There are proper patterns that the indicator alone may reveal itself in many other emotions, but the model which consists in the configuration of the indicators has a proper specific. The phylogenetic development indicates the apparition and manifestation of different and even separated forms of facial expressions. Paul Ekman emphasized Darwin's statements regarding the development and functions of emotional expression and its versatility. Emotions are a part of our biological luggage. This form of expression which does not appears in the phylogenetic cycle, can't be treated as an universal form, proper to all humankind. Although there are signs regarding the outer influences of sepcific forms of facial expression, the basis is being provided mostly by the biological luggage.2

… of the New York Academy of …, 2003

Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 2003

The articles in this special issue provide important, new insight into the evolutionary roots of expressive behavior. Across the three articles, a strong argument is made for behavioral mimicry, expressivity, and laughter providing adaptive value to ancestral humans that is still reflected in our modern world. The place of an evolutionary analysis in the development of a broader functional approach to nonverbal communication is described and discussed. Each article proposes specific dynamics through which expressive behaviors predispose receivers to respond in a manner benefitting the sender. The mediating mechanisms advanced in the articles are examined more closely and modifications in the proposed processes are considered.

Throughout the history, the interest in ability of recognizing diverse facial movements did not disappear. Face conveys many clues about the complexity of personal emotional state, however , as much as a face can reveal, it can also hide and cover. In this article I explore the argument that facial expressions are reliable indicators of an ongoing emotional experience, and that their precise recognition can be used as a tool for improvement of social interactions and observations of psychotherapeutic sessions. In the next pages I will address the contraversal question wheter some facial expression are universal, and examine the power of cultural influence on facial behaviour. Discussions about social influence on facial expressivness have remained a subject of disputes in many scientific fields. There is no doubt that accurate interpretation of facial behavior requires extensive knowledge in many interdisciplinary fields as psychology, neurobiology and cultural anthropology.