Deck 5: Emotional Expression in the Face, Posture, and Voice

Question 1

According to one perspective on facial expressions of emotion, human nature provides a detailed template for the expression of each emotion; culture may tinker with the way the template is expressed, but the template itself is universal. This explanation of facial expressions is most closely aligned with which modern theory of emotion?

A) Basic/discrete emotions theory
B) Core affect/Psychological construction theory
C) The component process model
D) This explanation of facial expressions is not closely aligned with any of these theories.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

According to one perspective on facial expressions of emotion, complex facial expressions are made up of individual movements, each of which conveys a particular appraisal such as unexpectedness or certainty, rather than pre-defined "packages" of movement. This explanation of facial expressions is most closely aligned with which modern theory of emotion?

A) Basic/discrete emotions theory
B) Core affect/Psychological construction theory
C) The component process model
D) This explanation of facial expressions is not closely aligned with any of these theories.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

According to one perspective on facial expressions of emotion, facial expressions reliably convey the valence (positive-negative dimension) of emotional experience across cultures, but other aspects of expression are culturally learned, and may even be specific to an individual. This explanation of facial expressions is most closely aligned with which modern theory of emotion?

A) Basic/discrete emotions theory
B) Core affect/Psychological construction theory
C) The component process model
D) This explanation of facial expressions is not closely aligned with any of these theories.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which of the following theories predicts that emotions are expressed in exactly the same way, universally among humans throughout the world?

A) Basic/discrete emotions theory
B) Core affect/Psychological construction theory
C) The component process model
D) None of the theories above would make this prediction.

Question 5

Which of the following theories predicts that people's facial expressions of emotion are determined in part by universal human nature, and in part by social and cultural learning?

A) Basic/discrete emotions theory
B) Core affect/Psychological construction theory
C) The component process model
D) All of the theories above would make this prediction.

Question 6

Which of the following best describes the data Charles Darwin collected, in an effort to show that humans express emotions in similar ways throughout the world?

A) Darwin sent photographs of emotional expressions, posed by people in England, to acquaintances living in places throughout the world, and had the acquaintances ask native people to interpret the meaning of each expression.
B) Darwin wrote to acquaintances living in places throughout the world, and told them to photograph native people's expressions in various emotional situations.
C) Darwin wrote to acquaintances living in places throughout the world, and asked them whether native people express each emotion in a particular way, such as "do people express surprise by raising their eyebrows?"
D) Darwin wrote to acquaintances living in places throughout the world, and told them to ask native people what emotion they were feeling each time they showed a facial expression.

Question 7

Which of the following was NOT a limitation of Charles Darwin's original studies of emotional expression?

A) Darwin only collected data regarding the expressions of people in England; he did not investigate expressions in other parts of the world.
B) Darwin relied on his acquaintances' assumptions about the emotions of the people making the expressions, rather than measuring the emotions directly.
C) Darwin's questions were phrased in a way that told observers what the expressions should look like, rather than allowing the observers to describe the expressions in their own words.
D) All of the limitations described above were present in Darwin's original studies.

Question 8

The Facial Action Coding System assigns a number to:

A) each emotion that is expressed through patterns of facial muscle contraction.
B) every combination of facial muscle contractions that had previously been linked to a specific emotion.
C) each dimension of appraisal that leads to a change in facial muscle contraction.
D) the set of effects produced by contracting each facial muscle (or section of a muscle) on the appearance of the face.

Question 9

Paul Ekman's original cross-cultural study on facial expressions, conducted with participants in small villages in New Guinea, examined:

A) whether participants chose the expected verbal emotion term for each posed expression.
B) whether participants posed the expected expression after hearing a story about an emotional situation.
C) whether participants chose the expected posed expression as the best match for a story about an emotional situation.
D) whether participants displayed the expected expression when in a real-life situation in which an emotion would be expected.

Question 10

Which of the following conclusions is best supported by Ekman and colleagues' cross-cultural data on facial expressions of emotion, as described in your textbook?

A) People in many countries throughout the world agree on what the typical expression of several, specific emotions should look like.
B) People in many countries throughout the world interpret certain facial expressions as indicating the same or similar emotion states, at frequencies well above chance.
C) People in many countries throughout the world show similar facial expressions when asked to pose several, specific emotions.
D) People in many countries throughout the world have the same internal templates for producing facial expressions of several, specific emotions.

Question 11

A study by Adams and Kleck (2003) found that expressions are recognized at equal rates whether the expresser is looking at you or elsewhere, whereas expressions are recognized more easily when the expresser is looking somewhere else.

A) anger; fear
B) disgust; fear
C) fear; sadness
D) sadness; anger

Question 12

Biting one's tongue is a common expression of among the .

A) schadenfreude; Germans
B) litost; Czech
C) lajya; Orissa in India
D) hasham; Bedouin

Question 13

Which of the following best summarizes the results in the study by Wallace Friesen (1972) of emotional expression while watching disgusting videos?

A) Participants from both Japan and the United States expressed disgust when watching the video alone, but masked their disgust with a neutral face when watching it in the presence of a higher-status experimenter.
B) Participants from the United States expressed disgust whether they were alone or in the presence of an experimenter; Japanese participants showed a neutral expression whether they were alone or with the experimenter.
C) Participants from both Japan and the United States expressed disgust when watching the video alone; in the experimenter's presence, the Japanese showed a neutral expression, and the Americans smiled.
D) Participants from the United States expressed disgust whether they were alone or in the presence of an experimenter; Japanese participants showed a disgust expression when they were alone, but smiled when the experimenter was present.

Question 14

Research indicates that cultures higher on tend to have stronger display rules discouraging the expression of negative emotions.

A) individualism
B) collectivism
C) horizontality
D) dialecticism

Question 15

Hilary Elfenbein and colleagues (2007) have proposed that people in different cultures have different "accents" to their facial expressions of emotion. In order to demonstrate this phenomenon, they studied expressions of several emotions, as posed by participants in Quebec, Canada, and Gabon, Africa. Which of the following most accurately describes their findings?

A) The muscles moved by participants in the two groups were the same, but the movements by African participants were more intense than the movements by Canadian participants.
B) Poses by each group included muscle movements associated with the prototype expression of the emotion, but each group emphasized somewhat different sets of movements.
C) Muscles moved in poses by the two groups were completely different, although individuals within each culture could recognize the expressions accurately.
D) Results of this study are meaningless, because participants in the two groups spoke different languages.

Question 16

Which of the following best summarizes the implications of Hilary Elfenbein and colleagues' (2007) study of emotional expressions in Quebec, Canada and Gabon, Africa?

A) People in different cultures pose similar, but subtly different, expressions when asked to pose specific emotions; this is why people are somewhat better at recognizing expressions posed by someone from their own culture.
B) Although people in different cultures show identical expressions when asked to pose specific emotions, they are better are recognizing expressions from their own culture because the faces themselves look more familiar.
C) People in different cultures pose subtly different expressions when asked to pose specific emotions, but because they all approximate the universal template, they are no better at recognizing expressions pose by someone from their own vs. a different culture.
D) Although people in different cultures show identical expressions when asked to pose specific emotions, they are better are recognizing expressions from their own culture because poser and participant have the same emotion vocabulary.

Question 17

A set of studies by Hillel Aviezer and colleagues (2012) suggests that posture may be more important than facial expression for communicating , especially in intense emotional experiences.

A) valence
B) approach motivation
C) avoidance motivation
D) fear

Question 18

Which of the following muscle movements defines a Duchenne smile, as distinct from a non-Duchenne smile?

A) Lifting the inner and outer eyebrows
B) Parting the lips and opening the mouth wide
C) Wrinkling the nose
D) Contraction of the large muscle surrounding the eyes

Question 19

Evidence is strongest that which of the following positive emotions has a cross-culturally recognized facial and postural expression?

A) awe
B) compassion
C) love
D) pride

Question 20

According to evidence discussed in your textbook, people recognize emotions from which of the following categories at the highest rates, based on nonverbal vocal expression (e.g., vocal bursts) alone?

A) Positive-valence emotions, such as enthusiasm and contentment
B) Negative-valence emotions, such as anger and fear
C) Emotions about objects or events "out there" in the world, such as amusement
D) Emotions about relationships with other people, such as gratitude

Question 21

What is Möbius syndrome?

A) A neurodegenerative disorder in which people are unable to control their posture
B) A genetic condition in which people are physically unable to smile
C) A developmental disorder in which children do not learn to recognize others' emotional expressions
D) An inherited condition in which people's tone of voice is flat an inexpressive

Question 22

Which of the following best describes the facial feedback hypothesis?

A) Producing the facial expression of some emotion can facilitate actually feeling that emotion.
B) Displaying the facial expression of some emotion leads other people to give you feedback on your feelings.
C) Once a facial expression begins, it tends to continue in a positive feedback loop.
D) Displaying the facial expression of some emotion leads other people to treat you in a way that facilitates continued experience of that emotion.

Question 23

The study by Strack and colleagues (1998), in which participants held a pen in their teeth and rated the funniness of various cartoons, was designed to test which hypothesis?

A) The basic/discrete emotion hypothesis
B) The facial expression recognition hypothesis
C) The facial feedback hypothesis
D) The core relational theme hypothesis

Question 24

Which of the following emotions are often confused with each other in studies of recognition based on facial expression, posture, and nonverbal vocal expression?

A) Anger and fear
B) Surprise and happiness
C) Disgust and sadness
D) Fear and surprise

Question 25

Which of the following is the best definition of conceptual replication, as described in your textbook?

A) A new study that repeats the methods of an old study, to see whether the results are the same
B) A new study that addresses the same hypothesis as an existing study, but uses somewhat different methods
C) A study asking whether two measures of emotion are highly correlated with each other, suggesting that they measure the same concept
D) A situation in which two researchers agree on the theoretical principles behind their research

Question 26

Which of the following effects of "power posing," reported in the original study by Carney, Cuddy, and Yap (2010), has been replicated in subsequent research?

A) Feeling more powerful
B) Making riskier decisions in a gambling task
C) Showing increased testosterone and decreased cortisol
D) All of the effects above have replicated in subsequent research.

Question 27

During the mid-twentieth century, it was widely accepted throughout the social sciences that emotional expressions are mostly the product of cultural learning.

Question 28

The Facial Action Coding System assigns a numeric code to each combination of muscle movements associated with a particular emotion.

Question 29

Evidence from facial expressions of emotion indicates that there are exactly six basic/discrete emotions.

Question 30

In the United States it is considered less acceptable to show negative emotions to acquaintances than to family and close friends; in Japan, the opposite is true.

Question 31

Large-scale analyses of many studies indicate that people identify emotional expressions with somewhat greater accuracy when participant and poser are from the same culture, rather than different cultures.

Question 32

Evidence indicates that all positive emotions include a strong Duchenne smile.

Question 33

In both Fiji and the United States, people tend to assume that a person displaying pride has high social status.

Question 34

The rates at which people recognize the nonverbal expression of a given emotion tends to be consistent across the face, posture, voice, and touch.

Question 35

Evidence is strongly consistent with William James's theory that, if you are physically unable to produce an emotional expression, you will not feel that emotion.

Question 36

Findings from the Strack, Martin, and Stepper (1988) study with the pen and cartoons suggested that facial expressions can cause changes in emotional feelings.

Question 37

Describe one example of a "display rule" in your culture, not previously discussed in your textbook or in class.

Question 38

Explain why it has been important for researchers to study the nonverbal expression of emotions in many different cultures, including cultures that are relatively isolated from the modern world.

Question 39

Summarize the results of Hilary Elfenbein and colleagues' (2007) study of emotion expression and recognition in Quebec, Canada and Gabon, Africa.

Question 40

Explain what the facial feedback hypothesis is, and describe the methods and results of one study that has been used to test this hypothesis.

Question 41

Your textbook describes a complicated situation in the literature on the facial feedback hypothesis. On one hand, many studies conducted by several different research teams have supported this hypothesis. On the other hand, when 17 researchers conducted the original pen-in-the-mouth study by Strack, Martin, and Stepper (1988), the results failed to replicate the original study findings. In your essay, describe the facial feedback hypothesis, and suggest a way for researchers to decide whether it is correct or not in the face of this conflicting evidence.