Emotion Recognition of Facial Expressions Presented in Profile.

AIM OF THE RESEARCH: The literature on emotion recognition from facial expressions shows significant differences in recognition ability depending on the proposed stimulus. Indeed, affective information is not distributed uniformly in the face and recent studies showed the importance of the mouth and the eye regions for a correct recognition. However, previous studies used mainly facial expressions presented frontally and studies which used facial expressions in profile view used a between-subjects design or children faces as stimuli. The present research aims to investigate differences in emotion recognition between faces presented in frontal and in profile views by using a within subjects experimental design. METHOD: The sample comprised 132 Italian university students (88 female, Mage = 24.27 years, SD = 5.89). Face stimuli displayed both frontally and in profile were selected from the KDEF set. Two emotion-specific recognition accuracy scores, viz., frontal and in profile, were computed from the average of correct responses for each emotional expression. In addition, viewing times and response times (RT) were registered. RESULTS: Frontally presented facial expressions of fear, anger, and sadness were significantly better recognized than facial expressions of the same emotions in profile while no differences were found in the recognition of the other emotions. Longer viewing times were also found when faces expressing fear and anger were presented in profile. In the present study, an impairment in recognition accuracy was observed only for those emotions which rely mostly on the eye regions.

Correlations between TSIA and TAS-20 and their relation to self-reported negative affect: A study using a multi-method approach in the assessment of alexithymia in a nonclinical sample from Italy.

The 20 item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) has been set as the golden standard in assessing alexithymia despite its limitation due to its self-report structure. Overcoming this bound is the main reason that in 2006 brought Bagby, Taylor and Parker to develop the Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia (TSIA): a structured interview composed of 24 questions with the purpose of assessing four dimensions of alexithymia: Identifying emotional feelings (DIF), Describing emotional feelings (DDF), Imaginal processes (IMP), and Externally oriented thinking (EOT). The present study aimed to confirm the validity of the TSIA in the assessment of alexithymia, using internal consistency (alpha) and convergent validity (comparing TSIA and TAS-20). Since it has been demonstrated an association between alexithymia, measured with the TAS-20, and negative affect, an additional goal was to evaluate the correlation of TSIA with two measures of depression and anxiety (BDI-II and STAI-Y2). Our results showed a significant capability of the TSIA in assessing alexithymia while clearing the limitation of the TAS-20 in keeping aside partially overlapping construct such as depression and anxiety. The final suggestion is that a reliable assessment of alexithymia might come from the application of both a self-report and an observer-rated instrument.

Facial expressions of emotions: recognition accuracy and affective reactions during late childhood.

The present study examined the development of recognition ability and affective reactions to emotional facial expressions in a large sample of school-aged children (n = 504, ages 8-11 years of age). Specifically, the study aimed to investigate if changes in the emotion recognition ability and the affective reactions associated with the viewing of facial expressions occur during late childhood. Moreover, because small but robust gender differences during late-childhood have been proposed, the effects of gender on the development of emotion recognition and affective responses were examined. The results showed an overall increase in emotional face recognition ability from 8 to 11 years of age, particularly for neutral and sad expressions. However, the increase in sadness recognition was primarily due to the development of this recognition in boys. Moreover, our results indicate different developmental trends in males and females regarding the recognition of disgust. Last, developmental changes in affective reactions to emotional facial expressions were found. Whereas recognition ability increased over the developmental time period studied, affective reactions elicited by facial expressions were characterized by a decrease in arousal over the course of late childhood.

Alexithymia, verbal ability and emotion recognition.

Although previous studies seem to indicate that alexithymic individuals have a deficit in their ability to recognize emotional stimuli, none had studied the relationship between alexithymia and verbal and non verbal abilities and their possible role in emotion recognition. The aim of the present study is to further investigate the relationship between alexithymia and emotion recognition ability. In particular we studied whether this relationship is mediated by verbal ability. Thirty-five students were selected from a group of 91 University students previously screened for alexithymia (Toronto Alexithymia Scale; TAS-20). Participants were shown black and white slides depicting facial expression of the following emotions: anger, sadness, disgust, surprise, happiness and fear. Compared to low alexithymic participants, and, more importantly, taking verbal IQ into account, high alexithymic and low alexithymic participants did not differ in emotion recognition.

Greater pressor reactivity in women with pre-eclampsia is not related to specific psychological or emotional stressors.

To investigate whether emotional or psychosocial factors could be significantly related with the development of pre-eclampsia, 15 pregnant women with early diagnosis of pre-eclampsia and 15 normotensive pregnant controls of comparable age (23-37 yr.), gestational age (10-37 wk.), parity (70% primiparous), amount of instruction, and marital status underwent a blood pressure monitoring during a specific psychological assessment based on a semistructured interview followed by the administration of three different questionnaires: the Symptom Checklist 90-Revised, the Perceived Stress Questionnaire-Recent, and the Questionnaire about Social Relationships. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate were measured at 2-min. intervals by an automatic device both during the interview and the questionnaires' administration. Both systolic and diastolic responses were significantly increased in both groups during the interview (deltaSBP = 15 vs. 10%; deltaDBP=28 vs. 15.8%), whereas no differences were observed in blood pressure while answering questionnaires. Conversely, differences in questionnaire responses between groups were not statistically significant. Present results confirm a greater pressor reactivity in these women with pre-eclampsia but does not specifically support that this was related to psychological or emotional stress.

Adult attachment styles and psychological disease: examining the mediating role of personality traits.

The aim of the present study was to examine differences in anxiety and depression related to differences in attachment models of the self and of others and whether personality traits mediate this relationship. The authors assessed attachment styles, anxiety, depression, and personality traits among 274 adult volunteers. Participants were classified into 4 attachment groups (secure, preoccupied, fearful, and dismissing-avoidant) according to K. Bartholomew's (1990) model. The present authors found significant differences among attachment groups on anxiety and depressive symptoms with attachment styles involving a negative self-model showing higher scores than attachment styles characterized by a positive self-model. The authors also found that differences between attachment styles in anxiety and depression remained significant when personality factors related to attachment prototypes were entered as covariates. Results indicate that secure attachment in adults was associated with better mental health, while insecure attachment styles characterized by negative thinking about the self were associated with higher depression and anxiety scores. Our findings seem to evidence that attachment and personality are only partly overlapping and that attachment cannot be considered as redundant with personality in the explanation of psychological disease.

Watching emotional movies: affective reactions and gender differences.

Previous studies have found that unpleasant film clips depicting mutilated bodies or injuries evoke a sustained heart rate deceleration which has been interpreted as reflecting a stimulus-specific aversive response or as increased orienting and attentional processing that varies with stimulus significance. Few studies, however, have examined cardiac changes during the viewing of high arousal pleasant films. To clarify this issue, the present study assessed evaluative, facial and autonomic reactions in both men and women during the viewing of highly arousing pleasant, as well as unpleasant, films. Results indicated a similar skin conductance increase and heart rate deceleration which were greater than those observed during the viewing of a neutral film. Compared to men, women rated both films as less pleasant and rated the unpleasant film as more arousing. The present findings suggest that sustained exposure to pleasant and unpleasant stimuli elicit similar cardiac orienting when stimuli are equated for subjective report of emotional arousal.

Emotion recognition and expression in young obese participants: preliminary study.

This study of the presence of alexithymic characteristics in obese adolescents and preadolescents tested the hypothesis of whether they showed impaired recognition and expression of emotion. The sample included 30 obese young participants and a control group of 30 participants of normal weight for their ages. Stimuli, 42 faces representing seven emotional expressions, were shown to participants who identified the emotion expressed in the face. The Level of Emotional Awareness Scale was adapted for children to evaluate their ability to describe their emotions. Young obese participants had significantly lower scores than control participants, but no differences were found in recognition of emotion. The lack of words to describe emotions might suggest a greater prevalence of alexithymic characteristics in the obese participants, but the hypothesis of a general deficit in the processing of emotional experiences was not supported.

Facial emotion recognition in trait anxiety.

The study investigated the relationship between recognition of emotional facial expressions and trait anxiety. A nonclinical sample of 19 participants with high-trait anxiety was selected, using the trait version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and compared with a sample of 20 participants with low-trait anxiety on a facial expression recognition task. Visual stimuli were 42 faces, representing seven emotional expressions: anger, sadness, happiness, fear, surprise, disgust and neutral. Participants had to identify the emotion portrayed by each face. Results showed that participants with high-trait anxiety recognized fear faces significantly better while the two groups did not differ in recognition of other facial expressions.

Narcissism versus proneness to shame and guilt.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlations between the narcissistic personality trait, measured with the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, and proneness to shame and guilt, measured with the Shame-Guilt Proneness Scale. Participants were 165 students (83 men, 82 women), aged 19-30 years. Pearson product-moment correlations, with computations comparing NPI Total score with each of the Shame-Guilt Proneness Scale subscales, were negative for scores on narcissism and shame and for those on narcissism and guilt. These data are consistent with previous findings, which suggest that the "overt" type narcissist is immune to feelings of guilt and may be characterised by a negation of the experience of shame.