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1997 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

A preliminary study of the facial expressions and the communication of emotion of the old.

Research Project

Project/Area Number 08610072
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

Allocation TypeSingle-year Grants
Section一般
Research Field 実験系心理学
Research InstitutionUtsunomiya University

Principal Investigator

NAKAMURA Makoto  Utsunomiya University, Faculty of international Studies, Associate Professor, 国際学部, 助教授 (50231478)

Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) MASUTANI Makoto  Keiwa College, Faculty of Humanities, Associate Professor, 人文学部, 助教授 (00257437)
Project Period (FY) 1996 – 1997
Keywordsthe old / facial expression / emotion / communication
Research Abstract

Few studies have been done which investigated the communication of emotion through facial expressions among olders. We performed three studies to obtain the basic knowledge about the basic features of the communication of emotion among the old.
In the first sutdy, we asked 20 subjects aged 65 and older about the extent of expression of emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, fear.disgust, surprise, and contempt. It was found that happiness was the most expressed emotion which was followed by fear, and sadness among female subjects. There were sex differences in happiness and contempt, that is, females reported to express happiness more than males and males reported to express contempt more than females.
In the second and third studies, we asked 25 subjects to pose the seven emotions described above and a neutral face and take their own pictures by photo and video camera. The photographs of each posed expressions were coded by the investigators using a coding system, MAX and rated by 30 college students along the seven emotion scales. What was found is that only 20 posed expressions among 175 were determined to signal pure emotions. The rest of expressions did not transmit any specific emotions or fuzzy signals. The ratings by the college students revealed that they could recognize happiness, sadness, anger, and surprise but could not recognized disgust, fear, and contempt.
Comparing the preceding studies about the expression of college students, the subjects in the present studies could pose less emotions. Further studies are needed to examine the reasons of the differences, which could be the change of muscles and nervous systems of the old with aging processes and the differences in the rules of expressions between generations.

  • Research Products

    (6 results)

All Other

All Publications (6 results)

  • [Publications] 中村 真: "高齢者の表情と感情コミュニケーションI-感情表出の程度と他者との接触" 日本社会心理学会第38回大会発表論文集. 266-267 (1997)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Publications] 益谷 真: "高齢者の表情の分析" 新潟心理学会会報. 24(印刷中). (1998)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Publications] Masutani, M & Nakamura, M.: "A study on the expression of emotion among the old : An empirical examination of the differences in emotion recogntion among different age groups." The gerontology report 1996. No.2. 91-98 (1996)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Publications] Masutani, M & Nakamura, M: "An exploratory study on the expression of emotion of the old." The proceedings of the 9th annual meeting of the Society of Japanese Health Psychology. 48-49 (1996)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Publications] Nakamura, M & Masutani, M.: "Facial expressions and the communication of emotion of the old I : The extent of emotion expressions and the contact of others." The proceedings of the 38th annual meeting of the Society of Japanese Social Psychology. 266-267 (1997)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Publications] Masutani, M & Nakamura, M.: "An analysis of the expressions of emotion of the old." The Bulletin of Niigata Psychological Association. No.24 (in press).

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より

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Published: 1999-03-16  

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