Linda A. Camras

Children's understanding of emotional facial expressions and verbal labels

Preschool, kindergarten, first and second-grade children were told twelve stories describing emotion-inducing events. After each story the subjects were presented either with three emotion labels (e.g., “happy,” “sad,” “surprised”) or with facial expressions of three emotions. Subjects were asked to choose the label or expression appropriate for the storys main character. Data analysis showed that childrens accuracy increased with age. Performance was high on both response measures but recognition of labels exceeded that of facial expressions. Some of the six emotions studied (e.g., happiness and sadness) were recognized more easily than others (surprise, fear, and anger), with disgust being correctly identified least often.

Recognition of emotional expression by abused children

This study compared 17 abused and 17 matched, nonabused children on their ability to identify six facial expressions of emotions and on teacher ratings of social competency. Abused children were less skilled in decoding facial expressions of emotions and were rated less socially competent than nonabused children. The findings suggest a strategy for studying the development of emotion recognition skills by abused and nonabused children.

Expressive development and basic emotions

Abstract One important emotion theory currently postulates an innate tie between specific infant facial expressions and a set of discrete basic emotions. The arguments and evidence relevant to this assertion are reviewed. New data are presented from a naturalistic study of one infants early expressive development and a judgement study of infant facial, vocal, and body activity. These data challenge the innate tie hypothesis. Based on dynamical systems systems theory, an alternate conceptual framework is presented that may allow us to usefully retain the concept of basic emotions while accommodating the data on infant expressive development.

Production of Emotional Facial Expressions in European American, Japanese, and Chinese Infants.

European American, Japanese, and Chinese 11-month-olds participated in emotion-inducing laboratory procedures. Facial responses were scored with BabyFACS, an anatomically based coding system. Overall, Chinese infants were less expressive than European American and Japanese infants. On measures of smiling and crying, Chinese infants scored lower than European American infants, whereas Japanese infants were similar to the European American infants or fell between the two other groups. Results suggest that differences in expressivity between European American and Chinese infants are more robust than those between European American and Japanese infants and that Chinese and Japanese infants can differ significantly. Cross-cultural differences were also found for some specific brow, cheek, and midface facial actions (e.g., brows lowered). These are discussed in terms of current controversies about infant affective facial expressions.

Emotional Facial Expressions in Infancy

In this article, we review empirical evidence regarding the relationship between facial expression and emotion during infancy. We focus on differential emotions theory’s view of this relationship because of its theoretical and methodological prominence. We conclude that current evidence fails to support its proposal regarding a set of pre-specified facial expressions that invariably reflect a corresponding set of discrete emotions in infants. Instead, the relationship between facial expression and emotion appears to be more complex. Some facial expressions may have different meanings in infants than in children and adults. In addition, nonemotion factors may sometimes lead to the production of “emotional” facial expressions. We consider alternative perspectives on the nature of emotion and emotional expression in infancy with particular focus on differentiation and dynamical systems approaches.

Emotional facial expressions in European-American, Japanese, and Chinese infants.

Abstract: Charles Darwin was among the first to recognize the important contribution that infant studies could make to our understanding of human emotional expression. Noting that infants come to exhibit many emotions, he also observed that at first their repertoire of expression is highly restricted. Today, considerable controversy exists regarding the question of whether infants experience and express discrete emotions. According to one position, discrete emotions emerge during infancy along with their prototypic facial expressions. These expressions closely resemble adult emotional expressions and are invariantly concordant with their corresponding emotions. In contrast, we propose that the relation between expression and emotion during infancy is more complex. Some infant emotions and emotional expressions may not be invariantly concordant. Furthermore, infant emotional expressions may be less differentiated than previously proposed. Together with past developmental studies, recent cross‐cultural research supports this view and suggests that negative emotional expression in particular is only partly differentiated towards the end of the first year.

DO INFANTS EXPRESS DISCRETE EMOTIONS? ADULT JUDGMENTS OF FACIAL, VOCAL, AND BODY ACTIONS

Adult judges were presented with videotape segments showing an infant displaying facial configurations hypothesized to express discomfort/pain, anger, or sadness according to differential emotions theory (Izard, Dougherty, & Hembree, 1983). The segments also included the infants nonfacial behavior and aspects of the situational context. Judges rated the segments using a set of emotion terms or a set of activity terms. Results showed that judges perceived the discomfort/pain and anger segments as involving one or more negative emotions not predicted by differential emotions theory. The sadness segments were perceived as involving relatively little emotion overall. Body activity accompanying the discomfort/pain and anger configurations was judged to be more jerky and active than body activity accompanying the sadness configurations. The sadness segments were accompanied by relatively little body movement overall. The results thus fail to conform to the predictions of differential emotions theory but provide information that may contribute to the development of a theory of infant expressive behavior.

Differentiation, Dynamical Integration and Functional Emotional Development

In recent decades, considerable progress has been made in our understanding of emotional development. Yet no single current theory can fully encompass all of the empirical findings. Herein I propose that aspects of several theoretical approaches can be incorporated into a novel view that is informed by the dynamical systems perspective.

Children's Understanding of Conversational Principles.

Sixteen preschool, first-, and third-grade children were presented with short stories ending with a verbal statement by a story character. Two alternative ending statements were provided. One alternative violated a postulate (H. P. Grice, 1975, in P. Cole & J. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and Semantics (Vol. 3), New York: Academic Press) or a reasonable request condition ( D. Gordon & G. Lakoff, 1971, Conversational postulates, papers from the seventh regional meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, University of Chicago, Department of Linguistics), while the other alternative did not. The childs task was to choose the “funny or silly“ ending, i.e., the violation. Data analysis showed that 100% of the third-graders, 83% of the first-graders, and 19% of the preschoolers performed with significant (P < .02) accuracy. These results suggest that childrens understanding of conversational principles improves considerably between preschool and first grade. There were no significant differences among four types of conversational principles examined.

Parental sensitivity to infant distress: what do discrete negative emotions have to do with it?

Parental sensitivity, a crucial element of attachment theory, refers to the ability to correctly interpret and respond appropriately to infants’ signals. The question of whether infants’ emotional expressions communicate discrete negative emotions has been widely debated in the literature on infant emotional development, but it has rarely been discussed in the parental sensitivity literature. This article explores how insights from the parental sensitivity literature and from evolutionary and dynamical systems perspectives on infant emotion expressions can be brought together to enhance our understanding of parental responsiveness to infant distress. The current research concludes that sensitivity does not rely on reading discrete negative emotions in infant signals, but rather on an integration of complex, graded distress expressions with contextual factors and iterative interaction processes.