Nonverbal Communication of Emotion

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Nonverbal Communication of Emotion

• How can we tell what someone is feeling without a
  direct verbal expression (i.e., Im mad)?

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Do Now

• Do you think there is a science behind being told
  to smile even when you are clearly in no mood to
  smile???

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Izards Facial Feedback Theory

• The muscles in your face move to form an
  expression
• Your brain interprets the muscle movement
• You feel an emotion
• You demonstrate observable behavior
• Bottom Line Your facial expression can actually
  change your experience, or the way you feel.
• Examples???

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Nonverbal Emotions

• What are some ways that we convey our emotions
  without actually having to explicitly state them?
• Facial Expressions
• Body Language
• Voice Quality
• Personal Space
• Explicit Acts
• Emblems/Gestures

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Facial Expressions

• Most obvious emotional indicators
• Many facial expressions are innate (not learned)
• evolutionary and adaptive- our ancestors used
  them to defend themselves, win mates, and compete
  for status (Ekman, 1992 Tooby Cosmides, 1990)

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Facial Expressions

• Facial Expressions and Genuine Smiles
• BBC Online- Spot the Fake Smile

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Body Language

• Second most useful form of nonverbal
  communication
• We can tell how someone is feeling by the way
  they hold themselves
• Relaxed state- stretching back in a chair
• Tense state- stiff and upright
• Why is this helpful??
• College interviews, walking off of the bus for a
  sporting event, drama club production
• Beier videotaped subjects acting out emotions-
  most could only act 2 out of 6 emotions (Anger,
  fear, seductiveness, indifference, happiness,
  sadness)

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Body Language Exercise
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(No Transcript)
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Voice Quality

• Consider the following scenario
• Jay walks into the kitchen and his mother is
  unloading the dishwasher. Rather than helping, he
  sits down and starts snacking on Cheetos and
  checking facebook.
• Jays Mom I hope you are enjoying those Cheetos,
  Jay.
• Jays Moms words do not express how she is
  feeling. How might her tone?

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Voice Quality

• We know from the tone of ones voice, as well as
  the expression behind it, how a person feels.
• Many times, we do not need hear or express
  directly with words how or what we or someone
  else is feeling.
• Other examples??

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Role play!!!

• Round 1 How do we stand next to people who are
  our friends? Those who are not?
• Round 2 How does our personal space change when
  we are scared? Angry?

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Personal Space

• Defined as the distance people maintain between
  themselves
• Varies between nature of activity and emotion
  felt
• closer anger or affection
• farther fear or dislike
• Normal conversing distance between people varies
  from culture to culture
• Invasion of personal space DISCOMFORT!

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Explicit Acts

• Outward expression of emotion
• Examples slamming a door, punching a wall,
  kicking a chair, slapping high five, etc.
• Are sometimes tricky
• Sometimes we demonstrate the wrong behavior
• Laughing and crying often look similar
• Crying can signify happiness or sadness
• Lying can fool many of us!!
• In a study of several hundred lie catchers
  (government officials, Secret Service members,
  judges, psychiatrists, lie detector experts),
  only Secret Service performed at a rate that was
  better than chance
• Lie to Me
• Masking, Neutralizing, Intensification,
  Deintensification

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Emblem

• Fancy name for a type of gesture used as
  replacement for words
• Examples Wink, Nod, Hand-wave, O.K. hand
  gesture
• Culture-specific
• An emblem that is common in one place may be
  highly offensive in another
• Be careful of replacing gestures with words
• Examples?

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Emblems/Gestures Exercise
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Display Rules

• Circumstances under which it is appropriate for
  people to show emotion
• differ greatly from culture to culture
• Experiment Japanese and American college
  students were shown videos
• Round One Students were alone in the room and
  displayed similar emotions (disgust)
• Round Two Students were in a room with an
  experimenter. When with the experimenter,
  Japanese faces were more neutral or pleasant,
  while Americans continued to display disgust
• It is a display rule among the Japanese to
  avoid displaying strong negative emotion in the
  presence of a respected elder. (Ekman, Friesen,
  and Ellsworth, 1972)

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Empathy vs. Sympathy

• Sympathy- To recognize someone elses emotions
  and appreciate them.
• Empathy- To recognize someone elses emotion, as
  well as to identify with the emotion another is
  experiencing, as if to also take on that emotion.
• Examples??

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Summary

• What are the most effective nonverbal cues?
• Are all emotional expressions universal?
• Can you hypothesize what is going on in the
  following picture

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Gender and Emotion

• Ladies Do you ever feel like a guy doesnt
  understand how you feel and you dont get how
  they can shut off their emotions?
• Gentlemen Have you ever experienced an instance
  when a girl is way too emotional for you?
• Are girls really more emotional than guys? (the
  question that plagues every relationship)

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Gender and Emotion

• Common observation Men display different
  emotions than woman
• Science or Stereotype?
• Eisenberg and Lennon, 1983
• When exposed to people in distress, women
  expressed more feelings of concern. However,
  physiological responses were the same.
• Conclusion Men inhibited their emotion.

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Gender and Emotion

• OLeary and Smith, 1988
• Boys are trained to suppress unmanly emotions,
  such as sympathy, sadness, empathy, and distress,
  at a young age
• Perhaps this is why females sometimes dont get
  the response they are looking for when seeking
  for comfort in their partners

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Gender and Emotion

• Females have stronger emotional reactions when
  they self-generate a thought
• Ex Think of your dog running away.
• The emotional centers of the brain are more
  activated in females than males in these
  hypothetical situations
• Ladies Stop thinking too much! ?

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Gender and Emotion

• Reactions to a hypothetical situation of being
  double-crossed
• Women betrayed and hurt (how could you do this
  to me??)
• Men- anger (watch your back)
• Men often outwardly express emotions
• 4x as likely to be violent
• Women often look inward
• More likely to be depressed

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Gender and Emotion

• Holding anger in is extremely unhealthy
• People who feel more hostile were three times
  more likely to die during study than those who
  were not (Julius, et. Al. 1986)
• Venting and experiencing bouts of anger
  appropriately is essential to our survival!
• Healthy ways to express anger??

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Gender and Emotion

• Males and females differ in the way they
  interpret nonverbal cues of emotion
• Women can decode facial expressions, body cues,
  and tones of voices more efficiently
• Evolutionary and/or a result of child rearing
  (practice)
• People are more sensitive to the emotions of
  their leaders
• Historically, men have been more powerful
• Women hold emotionally laborious occupations

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Culture and Emotion

• Many cultures share similar emotional reactions
• Death sadness Attack fear
• Many emotions depend the culture
• Cultures that emphasize the individual- you are
  more likely to feel proud
• Cultures that emphasize the collective- you may
  not feel as proud (say, of a job promotion)

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Culture and Emotion

• The English language has endless words for
  self-focused emotions (multiple words for one
  emotion!)
• Angry, mad, infuriated
• Sad, upset, hurt
• The Japanese language has more words for
  other-focused emotions
• i.e. words for empathy and sympathy

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Culture and Emotion

• Matsumoto, et al 1988
• American college students experienced emotions
  that lasted longer than Japanese students
• Collectivist cultures put an emphasis on emotions
  that help the flow of society as a whole
• Stop dwelling because youre not doing anyone any
  good!

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Culture and Emotion

• Ekman and facial expressions
• Happiness, anger, surprise, sadness, anger, fear,
  disgust
• Are universal across cultures

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Culture and Emotion

• Once again, display rules come into effect when
  expressing emotions
• Masking, Neutralizing, Deintensification,
  Intensification
• Members of different cultures follow different
  rules for when it is appropriate to express
  emotion
• When is it okay to show that you are mad?
  Disgusted? Angry?
• Etre et Avoir clip (111)

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Review

• Format
• 15 Multiple Choice
• 4 Matching
• 1 Short Answer
• 1 Essay
• Use Chapter 9 terms sheet for review
• Questions/Comments??
• Monday- JEOPARDY