How Different Age Groups Have Different Emotional Expressions - Research Paper Example

A Research on How Different Age Groups Have Different Emotional Expressions Kathren Hami Oakland There are three approaches describing emotions in humans. The James-Lange theory, Cannon-Bard theory, Schachter-Singer approach, and Opponent Process Theory have great application. The approaches help to explain the age effect on emotional recognition. The paper contains three studies that support the hypothesis. The study is done on two participants who are tested on their ability to recognize different facial and vocal emotion expressions. The research follows the standard social research procedure that includes formulating a consent form for the participants. The study found out that, older people have a greater ability to recognize positive emotions than negative emotions. On the other hand, younger people can identify negative feelings more accurately than the negative emotions. The research concludes that as age increases, individuals tend to display more positive than negative emotions. A Research on How Different Age Groups Have Different Emotional Expressions Introduction In psychology, emotion is described as a complicated state of feelings that usually results from psychological or physical changes that affects behavior and thought. Human emotions according to author David G. Meyers (2007) involve expression of behaviors, psychological arousal, and conscience experiences. The mainstream explanation of emotion is that it refers to a feeling that comprises thoughts, physical expressions, and mental changes. There are four theories of emotion. The first is the James-Lange theory. It states that perception of an event does not directly cause feelings but causes the bodily experience of the event. It means that we first experience the physical event for us to have an emotional response. An example when I meet a big scary dog my heart starts to race, then my brain figures that am experiencing fear (Barbalet, 2001). The second theory is the Cannon Bard theory. In his research Cannon Bard found out that in animals such as cats, emotions can occur when the brain was separated from the physical responses. He argues that, same bodily responses can accompany so many different emotions. For instance, when my heart was racing it could have meant that I was excited, but it could also have meant than I was angry. The third theory is the Schachter-Singer theory. It argues that, for one to experience an emotion, one needs not only the bodily responses, but also an interpretation of the current situation. An example, when my heart was racing when I met a big dog, I interpreted that as fear. When my heart was racing when I met the person I love, I understood that as an excitement. The fourth approach is the Opponent Process Theory. It argues that, an emotional experience affects our bodily state of balance. It also argues that each emotion has its opposite. Example, I felt a lot of fear when I met a big dog, but after running away from it, I got relieved, that is the opposite of fear (Barbalet, 2001). There are several studies done that support my hypothesis. They first concluded that older people can regulate their emotions more effectively than younger people. Additionally, they maintain more positive feelings than negative ones (Gross, Carstenses, Pasupathi, Tsai, & Skorpen, 1997). Another study by Deiner and associates (2008) concluded that there is a decreased in the degree of self-reported emotional experience with old age. A third study by Laura Carstensen (2011) found out that, in the interaction between young and old people, there is a reduction in the ability to recognize emotional expressions. The primary aim of this study is to examine the age difference in recognizing vocal and facial emotional expressions by using a cross-section of data from different age groups. In other words, the purpose is to replicate and expand previous researches by studying which emotions, and between which age groups does emotional expression recognition merge. The study will include three participants from three different age groups. Although there is much research on the age difference emotion recognitions, there is no accurate certainty that this is a general phenomenon in analyzing emotional responses. My measure of emotional response includes standardized faces from the Japanese and Caucasian Neutral Faces (JACNeuF) and the Japanese and Caucasian Facial Expressions of Emotion (JACFEE) (Mill, Allik, Realo, & Valk, 2009). My hypotheses are; a) emotional recognition in different age groups will merge in most basic emotion with the negative emotions showing the largest difference. (b) Age difference in emotional recognition will not be affected by personality traits. (c) Vocal and facial expression will show the age difference in emotional recognition. Methods Participants There are three members from three age groups: the first a ten year old boy from Oakland, the second an eighteen year old girl from New York, and a thirty year old man from Boston. All participants participated in the research without pay and provided voluntary consent (see Appendix A). Materials Facial expression was measured with the help of 32mm slides from the JACFEE and the JACNeuF. The slides showed basic emotions like anger, fear, disgust, contempt, surprise, happiness, and sadness. All the slides were shown to the participants for five seconds. The members were then asked to write down the emotion that they thought was being expressed. To ensure validity, Facial Action Coding System was used. It also ensured comparability of the emotion intended in the slides. Vocal expressions were measured through audio recordings of male and female voices expressing the various emotions mentioned above. Both male and female voices were used to ensure gender sensitivity in the research. Procedure All the participants underwent the same protocol in the experiment. First the emotional recognition test that included the facial emotional expression test and the vocal emotional expression test was used. In the facial emotions recognition, the participants were shown slides showing different emotions and asked to write down what they understood. Then in the vocal emotions recognition test, audio tapes were played expressing different emotions. . The sounds were played to the participants twice. The level of recognitions of these emotions was recorded by the participant writing down which emotion they thought was being expressed. . Each participant took these tests alone so that they do not influence each other. No assistance was offered to any of the members in recognizing the different emotions expressed. From the data collected analysis of how age difference affects both the facial and vocal emotional recognition was conducted. Separate analysis of variance was also performed. Results and Discussion The mean facial emotional recognition was approximately seventy percent for all the participants. It is less than the ninety percent credit levels of the same faces in the U.S sample. However, there is a high correlation between the sectors of realization between the Estonian sample and the U.S. samples. Earlier studies have also found that the degree of recognition in the Estonian sample is lower than the U.S. sample (Mill, et al., 2009). The mean vocal and facial recognition scores were relatively correlated. It indicates that the participants who were most successful in identifying the facial emotional expressions were also more successful in recognizing the vocal emotional expressions. It was also found that the younger participants had a higher recognition of sadness and anger than the older participant. This recognition rate steadily decreased in older age groups. The recognition of anger and sadness facial displayed a negative correlation with age. In the other emotional expression categories, including neutral feelings, the level of attention remained approximately the same in the three age groups. Similar to the recognition of facial sadness and anger, the probability of the participant to correctly recognize vocal expression of grief and anger, was negatively correlated with age. Anger recognition displayed a modest decrease across the age groups, but still significant. Happiness also showed a negative correlation with age in understanding of the facial expressions. The variance analysis of both the facial and vocal recognitions produced the following results. Sadness recognition was relatively safe in all the age groups, but decreased as age increased. For anger, the younger participants displayed a better performance than the older members. In the recognition of fear, the older participants showed a poorer performance than the younger members. This pattern is also shown in the recognition of disgust. However, for contempt recognition, the younger participants demonstrated a poorer performance than the older members. Using the vocal emotional expressions, variance analysis yielded the following results. Happiness, anger and fear recognition tests showed that the younger participants performed better than, the older participants. The aim of the study was to analyze the effects of the age difference in recognizing emotions both for the facial and vocal emotional expressions. The results showed that the largest difference in emotional recognition was in the negative emotions. Age differences were also displayed in vocal and facial emotional expressions recognition, but they were not affected by the participant’s personality traits. Limitations The major limitation to this research is that the different age groups were not sufficiently represented. Also, the gender issues were not considered in the study knowing that gender can affect emotional recognition performance. Conclusion The research has gone a long way to expand the existing body of knowledge on emotional recognition performance across different age groups; a ten year old, eighteen year old and a thirty year old. The research had three participants of different ages who were required to identify different visual and audio emotional expression. Their performances were recorded and comprehensively analyzed. The study results showed that emotional recognition performance is significantly determined by the age of the individual. Appendix A CONCENT FORM PROJECT NAME: RESEARCH ON HOW DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS HAVE DIFFERENT EMOTIONAL EXPRETIONS. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: The study aims to examine the age difference in recognizing vocal and facial emotional expression by using a cross-section of data from different age groups. The participants in the study will be exposed to various emotional expressions in both vocal and facial state. PARTICIPANTS: There will be three randomly selected members from three age groups: the first one in early childhood, the other one in the adolescent stage and the last one being an adult. The participants are required to be volunteers, and there would be no payment from participating in this research. The participants in this study will remain anonymous in all stages. POTENTIAL HAZARDS: There are no physical, emotional, or psychological harm expected to occur to the participants. DECLARATION The information provided above is to the best of my knowledge and I believe to be accurate The applicant’s signature ……………………………….. Applicant’s Guardian signature ……………………………….. Date ……………………………….. References Barbalet, J.M. (2001). Emotion, social theory and social culture: a macro sociological approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Carstensen, L.L., et al. (2011). Emotional experience improves with age: evidence based on over 10 years of experience sampling. Psychology and Aging, 26(1), 21-33. DOI: 10.1037/a0021285. Diener, E., Kesebir, P., & Lucas, R. E. (2008). Benefits of accounts of well-being—For Societies and for Psychological Science. Applied Psychology, 57, 37-53. DOI: 10.1037/a0045323. Gross, J.J., Carstenses, L.L., Pasupathi, P., Tsai, J., Skorpen, G.C, & Hsu, Y.C.A. (1997). Emotion and aging experience, expression, and control. Psychology and Aging, 12(4), 590-599. DOI: 10.1034/ a0036372. Mill, A., Allik, J., Realo, A. & Valk, R. (2009). Age-related differences in emotion recognition ability: a cross-sectional study. American Psychological Association, 9(5), 619-630. DOI: 10.1037/a0016562. Read More