3-209 - Are Emotional Facial Expressions Really That Important?

Session Type: Conversation Roundtable

Integrative Statement

Several prominent contemporary theories of emotion have proposed a set of prototypic facial expressions that serve to communicate emotion in everyday life. Recognition of these expressions is commonly considered to be a foundational component of emotion competence and, thus, is emphasized in socioemotional learning programs for at-risk children. Yet there is reason to believe that the communicative role of such prototypic facial expressions may be more limited than is often assumed. If so, investigators may need to redirect their scholarly efforts, and the many programs designed to advance skills for at-risk children may want to appropriately adapt their procedures to better reflect the realities of emotion communication.

In this Conversation Roundtable moderated by Dr. Vanessa Castro, four panelists (Drs. Joseph Campos, Seth Pollak, Amy Halberstadt and Linda Camras) and the audience will discuss evidence related to the role of prototypic facial expressions in emotion communication and implications for future research as well as the development of socioemotional learning programs for disadvantaged children. Several specific questions will be addressed: 1.) Are prototypic expressions invariably linked to their corresponding emotions? If not, what is their communicative value? 2.) If prototypic expressions play a limited role in emotion communication, how (and why) do children learn to recognize them? and 3.) What is the association between facial expression recognition and emotion competence? What role should facial expression recognition play in socioemotional learning programs, especially those targeted toward at-risk children?

Sub Unit

• Social, Emotional, Personality

Moderator

• Vanessa L. Castro, Northeastern University

Panelists

• Joseph J. Campos, University of California, Berkeley

• Seth Pollak, University of Wisconsin

• Amy Halberstadt, North Carolina State University

• Linda Camras, DePaul University