Name: _David Dai_____ Period: _____2___ Date: 2/10/2012_________

PsychSim 5: EXPRESSING EMOTION

In this activity you will learn about the role of facial expressions in the nonverbal communication of
emotion.
Primary Affects
What emotions are generally considered primary affects? How do they relate to facial expressions?
Research on the types of emotioanl experiences that show themselves in facial expressions suggests that
there are a limited number of distinct emotion is called primary affacts. One commom list of primary affacts
goes like:happniess, sadness, surprise,fear,anger,and disgust. Each of these basic emotions can be
experienced alone or in a blend of several emotions.
The Facial Code
Using the table below, describe the characteristic positions of the eyebrows, eyes, and mouth for
each of the six primary affects.
EYEBROWS
EYES
MOUTH
1Surprise

2Fear

3Disgust

4Anger

The eyebrows aere

raised and curved.

The eye are open wide The jaw droped, but

the lips are relaxed.

The eyebrows are

raised with the inner
corner of brows
drawn together,
straighening the
brows and prodecing
short horizontal
wrinkles on the
forehead.

The eyes are

openwide ,with the
upper eyelid raised
and the lower
eyelidtense and
slightly raised.

The mouth is open by

tense,with the corner
of the lips drawn back
slightly

The eyebrow are

lowered, while the
lower eyelid is raised
slightly, reducing of
the amount of the eye
is visible

the eye is visible

The upper lip is

raised, and the lower
lip is also raised and
pressed against the
upper lip

The nose is wrinkled,

and the cheeks are
raised.

Both eyelids are tense,

The brows are
producing a hard stare
lowered and drawn
together so that
vertical wrinkles often
appear between the
brows.

The lips are pressed

firmly together, or are
opened in a tense,
square shape.

5 Happiness

6Sadness

The brows and

forehead are relaxed

The inner corner of

the eyebrow are
raised, producing
wavy horizontal
wrinkled on the
forehead.

The cheeks are raised,

producing small
wrinkled below the
lower eyelids

The inner corner of

the eyelids are raised,
producing an
inverted-v wrinkled in
the upper eyelid.

The corners of the lips

are drawn back and
slightly up, and a
wrinkled runs from
each side of the nose
to the corner of the
lips
The corner of the lips
are often turned down
and / or the lips are
may be trembling.

How does the expression of disgust differ from the other primary affects?
Disgust require the nose wrinkle.

Emotional Blends
What are emotional blends? How do people generally express them?
Emotional blend is a combination of the facial codes associated with the experienced emotion.
If the codes specify conflicting positions for the eyebrows and lips, usually people display one
emotion in the upper region of the face and the other in the lower.
Masking Emotion
How are people able to mask emotions?
Depending on the number of facial muscles involved in the facial expression and the
complexity of their movements, it may take a second or more the facial expression to
be fully formed.