Search

A program was developed for the improvement of social competence in general among professionals with the improvement of the accuracy of decoding emotions from facial expressions as the specific focus. It was integrated as a laboratory experience into traditional lectures at two German universities where studies were conducted to assess the effectiveness of the program, evaluate the program through participant responses, test the relative effectiveness of individual work and cooperative learning conditions, and study gender effects. Subjects were 49 education students at a university where the lecture was a requirement and 31 students at a university where the program lecture was elective. The lecture included theoretical background knowledge about nonverbal aspects of communication, training based on training modules for expressions of affects and blends of expressions, practice decoding emotions from facial expressions in photographs, and discussion after the posttest. The posttests, administered 1 week after training, were based on 54 portraits of women and men. Results show considerable and statistically significant improvements in the accuracy of both intuitive and analytic judgments in decoding affects from facial expressions as a result of the training. Analytic ability appeared to be enhanced by cooperative learning conditions, and no significant gender effects were observed. (Contains 78 references.) (SLD)

This study investigated effects of gender, emotion, and family expressiveness on preschool children's reactions to narrative characters' emotion expressions. Forty-five preschool children rank-ordered playmate preferences for male and female story characters who expressed happiness, anger, sadness, fear, and neutrality and indicated how much they liked such characters. The effect of children's family expressive environments on their responses was also assessed. Findings indicated that liking ratings were based solely on the nature of the emotion being expressed, with happy characters being liked the most and angry characters the least. Children did base some of their playmate preference rankings of the characters on gender stereotypes of emotion expression, and family expressiveness played a role in these preferences, with children from low-expressive homes making gender-stereotypic preferences more than children from high-expressive homes. (Contains 44 references.) (Author/EV)

This study examined individual differences in young children's understanding of emotion and potential correlates in the domain of family experiences. Participating in the study were 49 children, ages 40 to 75 months from a predominately white, middle to upper class sample. Self-report questionnaires concerning the expression of emotion, management of marital conflict, and marital satisfaction were obtained from the mothers of children who had been given an assessment of their ability to label negative emotions and talk about hidden negative emotions. Children's facial expressions to the presentation of an emotionally evocative puppet vignette were also assessed. The results indicated that individual differences in children's understanding of negative emotions were related to specific dimensions of family experiences. The data provide support for the notion that specific family experiences are related to key aspects of early emotion understanding. (Contains 12 references.) (Author/KB)

This paper presents suggestions for a 60-hour course in intercultural communication that develops cognition skills needed to understand life in foreign countries. The initial part of the course is intended to heighten the participant's awareness of his or her own "home-culture"; the latter part concentrates on assumptions, values, and behaviors of the "target-culture." Although the course described herein is designed for culturally homogeneous classes in the Middle East, it can serve as a model for multicultural groups anywhere. The paper is divided into the following sections: "Considering Parameters"; "Part One: Topics and Sequencing"; "Defining Culture"; "Human Needs"; "Cultural Expectations and Behaviors"; "Identity Symbols"; "Rituals"; "Methodology: The Students Teach the Teacher"; "Part Two: Understanding Target-Culture Behavior"; "Nonverbal Communication"; "Basic Reality-Assumptions"; "Home-Culture Values--Proverbs"; "Cultural Heroes"; "Cognition as Culturally Determined"; "Stereotyping--Roadblocks to Understanding"; "Culture Shock and Adjustment"; "Critical Incidents"; and "Pedagogical Approach." (BB)

A literature review examined the potential impact of a multicultural applicant's nonverbal behavior (specifically, proxemics and kinesics) in a selection interview. Proxemics refers to the perception and use of personal and interpersonal space, which varies from culture to culture. The review indicated that in an interview situation, the chairs should be able to be moved, with the optimum distance about three to four feet between interviewer and interviewee and the exact distance being that most appropriate to the background of the person being interviewed. Kinesics refers to the pattern of body movement in human interaction, or "body language," which incorporates nonverbal behavior such as body position, body orientation, facial expression, gesture, and posture. Across cultures, distinct differences occur in postural demands during interaction. For example, in certain cultures, bowing before elders rather than shaking hands conveys respect while in other cultures, sitting at the elders' feet conveys respect. Because most new applicants to the workforce in the next decade will be either female or members of minority groups, employers can respond more effectively to the cultural values and do a better job of attracting, hiring, and retaining workers by understanding the influence of culture on the work force (Contains 34 references) (KC)

The face is a small part of a human, but it plays an essential role in communication. An open hybrid system for facial animation is presented. It encapsulates a considerable amount of information regarding facial models, movements, expressions, emotions, and speech. The complex description of facial animation can be handled better by assigning multiple input accessories. These input accessories may be a simple script, a multi-input musical keyboard, a gesture dialogue from the DataGlove, or some other type of interactive physical or virtual device. Integration of all means of control offers flexibility and freedom to the animator. The scope of such an open system is tremendous. The system described is written in C with the interface built on top of the Fifth Dimension Toolkit. The various input components are independent processes running on UNIX workstations. Communication between the processes is done through sockets in stream mode using Internet protocol. A figure illustrates the system processes. (Contains 17 references.) (MAS)

Vagal tone, a measure of the neural modulation of heart rate, has been associated with greater emotional expressiveness during infancy, but with a decrease in facial expressivity in preschool children. This study examined the relationship between vagal tone and the emotion regulation abilities of preschool girls and boys. The study population included 25 girls and 29 boys with a mean age of 67 months. Three minutes of resting cardiac activity was obtained while children listened to an emotionally neutral story, and vagal tone was computed from a measure of cardiac interbeat interval. Spontaneous facial expressions were recorded as the children watched a set of emotion-eliciting films. In general, children with high vagal tone displayed fewer facial expressions while watching the films than children with low vagal tone. Children with high vagal tone exhibited fewer happy expressions and fear expressions than children with low vagal tone. Gender differences were also identified. Girls were more facially expressive and tended to show more fear expressions than boys. Girls with high vagal tone displayed fewer anger facial expressions than girls with low vagal tone, while boys with high vagal tone exhibited somewhat more anger expressions than boys with low vagal tone. Results support the hypothesized relationship between vagal tone and emotion regulation abilities. (AC)

Evidence suggests that the neurological substrate of emotional behavior is lateralized by brain hemisphere early in life. A study examined the emotional expressions of preterm infants, some of whom had unilateral periventrical echodensities (PVE), as a model for addressing this issue. The study population of 25 preterm infants was videotaped at 3 months and again at 12 months corrected age during 3 situations designed to illicit joy, surprise, or anger. The group included 9 children with right or left hemisphere PVE, most of whom also had bilateral intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), 5 with IVH only, and 11 with no ultrasonographic abnormalities. The infants' facial expressions were coded, and positions of the brows, eyes, and mouth were noted every second for 10 seconds following stimulus onset. At each age a number of comparisons were made to test whether one cerebral hemisphere dominated the control of all the emotional expressions or whether dominance was a function of the valence of the expression. Comparisons also focused on the impact of IVH, additional medical complications, and mothers' affect. There were few significant differences in any of the comparisons at 3 months, though data suggested support for the hypothesis that the right brain hemisphere predominates in control of anger and the left hemisphere controls joy expressions. At 12 months, there were many more significant differences than at 3 months, but data did not support theories of lateralized control of expressivity. (Author/AC)

In the drive to facilitate inclusion in the classroom, one often overlooked factor that affects the environment of all classrooms is nonverbal interaction. This study was conducted to identify some specific nonverbal messages that are often culturally bound; to help educators and others involved in education understand nonverbal signals and avoid inadvertently sending negative messages; and to validate the voice of diverse populations in the classroom. Individuals (N=22) from several cultures (European American, African American, Native American, Asian American, and Hispanic American), who reside in an urban area in Minnesota, were either interviewed or asked to respond to a questionnaire. Results are presented as a synthesis of culturally specific nonverbal behaviors gathered from respondents with respect to: eye contact, personal space, touch, voice, use of gestures, facial expressions, engaging behaviors, symbols, time, directness, educational attitudes, economics, and the function of language. Based on this information, it was concluded that successful integration of knowledge about nonverbal messages is a key component in the initial stages of multicultural education. (Contains 15 references.) (LL)

This study examined children's popularity with peers and the emotional cues that were observed during parent-child interactions. Twenty-eight 4- and 5-year-olds were observed in their preschool classroom and categorized as popular or rejected. The children then participated in a two-person game with each of their parents. The play was videotaped, and facial and vocal cues were coded into 14 emotional and interactional categories. The total number of seconds that each participant displayed the cue in each category was tallied for mothers, fathers, and children. Tallies showed that parents of rejected children displayed more anger and neutral cues than other parents. Parents of popular children displayed more affective instruction cues and apologetic cues. Rejected children showed more neutral cues, and popular children more happy and laughing cues. Anger cues of rejected children correlated to a greater degree with the anger cues of their fathers than with the anger cues of their mothers. (ME)

Four studies were conducted on how well teachers at various stages of development can decode a student's nonverbal behavior, particularly that which communicates a lack of comprehension. Participants in the studies were novice (n=9), advanced beginner (n=10), and expert (n=10) elementary school teachers. In the first study, the teachers viewed a tape, without sound, showing fourth-grade students responding to a test. The teachers were informed that the test items were designed to elicit problem-solving behavior, that the students had the ability to accurately assess what they did and did not know, and that the students were chosen because they might emit accurate nonverbal clues as to whether or not they had comprehended the question being asked. Study 2 focused on assessment of students' past performance as well as on nonverbal clues; study 3 repeated the test using as interpreters only the children who appeared in the tapes; study 4 used two preservice classes of teachers and sought information on how experience with children in social situations and self-ratings of social intelligence might affect performance. The major findings were that accuracy in decoding student comprehension from nonverbal clues is trainable and that classroom experience and knowledge of the child's personality, typical behavior, and past performance increase the accuracy of a teacher's assessment of a child's nonverbal behavior. (JD)

This article examines research that indicates the ways in which victims express their emotions during a bullying episode can play a crucial role in the responses of peers. It concludes that victims of bullying typically demonstrate deficits in their display and regulation of emotion and fail to produce pre-emptive responses. (Contains references.) (CR)