Here are some resources to help you enrich your knowledge on facial expression.
Facial expressions in their context
To locate facial expressions in the context of emotional processes, you can read the downloadable document (in
French) by clicking
here. This document is based on the
first chapter of Philippot (2007). Following this reading,
if you wish to know more about emotion in general, we
recommend you the book by Paula Niedenthal, Silvia Krauth-Gruber and
François Ric (2008), which has been published in French and in English.
To know more about the decoding of the facial expressions
Since the book of Darwin "The expression of the feelings at
the man and the animal" in 1872 (fascinating reading on
http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F1142&viewtype=text&pageseq=1),
there is ample literature on the facial expression. The following
page of the APA website provides a synthetic synopsis over the history of
modern research on facial expression
http://www.apa.org/monitor/jan00/sc1.aspx. If you wish a much more
exhaustive approach, a classic book is certainly the one by Russell and
Fernandez-Dols (1997). A more contextual vision was proposed by
Fridlund (1994). This one is summarized in this reading:
http://www.bec.ucla.edu/papers/Fridlund_Facial_Expressions.PDF.
Finally, you will find (in french)
here a presentation summarizing a course on the decoding of facial
expressions.
How to identify the facial expressions
The better known system for identification of facial
expression is the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) designed by
Ekman and Friesen (1978). It is a coding system identifying 54
actions units, that is 54 different movements from the face. If you want
to know more about FACS, this page of wikipedia is reliable, detailed
and well documented:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facial_Action_Coding_System
Authentic or feigned smile? What the science teaches us…
If you want to becom an expert for deciphering authentic
(Duchenne) smiles from fake smiles, we recommend the excellent site of the BBC on the
subject. Make the test, it is eloquent:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/
After the test, scientific data allowing to decide between both
types of smile are exposed.
Facial expression and psychopatology
The research on the biases and the deficits in the recognition or in the expression of the emotion through the face has recently strongly developed. A synthesis has been proposed by Philippot, Coats and Feldman (2003). By clicking here, you will have access to a general chapter on the subject, and here to a chapter dedicated specifically to the decoding of the facial expressions by the persons suffering from anxiety disorders.
Références
Douilliez, C. & Philippot, P. (2006). Fearful face processing in anxiety. In. S. Campanella (Ed.). Fear in Cognitive Neurosciences. Nova Science Publishers.
Fridlund, A.J. (1994). Human facial expressions: an evolutionary view. San Diego, CA: Academic Press
Niedenthal, P., Krauth-Gruber, S., & Ric, F (2008). Comprendre les émotions : Perspectives cognitives et psycho-sociales. Wavres : Belgique, Éditions Mardaga.
Philippot, P. (2007). Emotion et psychothérapie. Wavre, Belgique : Mardaga.
Philippot, P., Coats E.J., & Feldman, R.S. (2003) (Eds.). Nonverbal behavior in clinical context. New York: Oxford University Press.
Philippot, P., Douilliez, C., Pham, T., Foisy, M.-L. & Kornreich, C. (2005). Facial expression decoding deficits in clinical populations with interpersonal relationship dysfunctions. In R. Riggio, & R.S. Feldman (Eds.), Application of Nonverbal Behavio (pp. 17-37). Lauwrence Erlbaum Associates.
Russell, J.A. & Fernandez-Dols, J. M. (1997). The psychology of facial expression. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press.
Updated : 25/02/2011 - Pierre Mahau