Bertrand,
Kelly (4/11) The recognition of emotion from facial expressions: are trained
clinicians better at judging affect? (Howard McGuire, Ph.D.; Philip Wong, Ph.D.;
Nicholas Papouchis, Ph.D.)
This study investigated clinical
psychologists' recognition of emotion from facial expressions. The importance
of correctly attending to facial affective displays is emphasized in the
clinical literature and is a basic assumption that trained clinicians possess
the ability to accurately and expeditiously appraise emotion. To investigate
this assumption, doctoral-level clinical psychology students, trained clinical
psychologists, and non-clinical lay professionals were presented with a movie
of faces which gradually changed by using morphing techniques from neutral to
one of four emotions: happy, anger, fear, and sad. Participants judged when
they first perceived the emotion, which emotion they saw, and their confidence
in their judgment. Participants then judged a static image of that emotion face
at 100% intensity and again determined which emotion they saw and their
confidence in that judgment. Results indicated that all participants,
regardless of training or experience, identified emotion at the same speed and
required the same amount of time to judge which emotional expression appeared
on the face. Contrary to expectation, graduate students were more accurate
judging anger when fewer physiological change cues were available than
experienced clinicians and non-clinical professionals but not for faces
displayed at full intensity. Surprisingly, experienced clinicians expressed
less confidence in their judgment of facial emotional expression than graduate
students and non-clinical professionals. Implications for graduate training models
were discussed.
