In his most recent book, Emotions
revealed: recognizing faces and feelings to improve communication and emotional
life, Paul Ekman examines the uniqueness of each emotional experience,
trying to fit those recent investigations with general conclusions on what he
dubbed "basic emotions".

By way of introduction, Ekman
exposes research and collaborations that have allowed him to establish that
there are seven emotions, each associated with a distinct, universally
recognizable, facial expression: sadness, anger, surprise, fear, disgust,
contempt and happiness. He has also built a general framework: every sensory
organ provides inputs to the automatic-appraising mechanisms in the brain —
called "autoappraisers" — that are continuously scanning the world
for the variations that allow some triggers — called "themes" — to become
quickly interpreted. "Themes" are given or selected over the course
of evolution and only their variations and elaborations are learned. The
difference between "species-constant learning" explanations and
"evolution-based" explanations of universal themes is function of
when specific things happen.

According to this framework, Ekman
describes universal situations that allow detecting when emotions are
triggered and accessible: to become aware of the operation of the autoappraisers
or of the reflective appraisal that clicks on them, to remember or to imagine
an emotional experience, to talk about a past emotional event, to empathize or
to be instructed by others, to violate the social norms or to voluntarily
assume the appearance of emotion. Whereas changes in terms of what to
become emotional about (and how this takes place) depend on:

·       
The "closeness" to the evolved "theme": the
closer the learned trigger is to the unlearned theme, the harder it will be to
decrease its power;

·       
The resemblance between the current instance of the triggering
event and the original situation;

·       
How early the trigger was learned in a person’s life: the earlier
the trigger was learned, the harder it will be to weaken it;

·       
The initial emotional charge: the stronger the emotions that were
experienced when the trigger was first learned, the harder it will be to weaken
its impact;

·       
The frequency of the experience: the repetitive occurrence of
highly emotionally charged episode during a short period of time;

·       
The affective style of the individuals: speed and stretch of
emotional responses.

  Despite these universals, Ekman
explains that one emotion has a unique "affect program" that is a
single story, pattern of sensation and signal. Behavioral management,
reappraisal of what is occurring, interruption or reduction of the facial and
vocal signal has to focus on the involuntary emotional responses, and does so
by being acquainted or "attentive" to sensations during an emotional
episode. The last five chapters present information on universal triggers, descriptions
of emotion’s expression in us and in others and discussions about using or not
information from the expression of each of the five themes: sadness and
agony, anger, surprise and fear, disgust and contempt, and enjoyable emotions.

Sadness and agony can be triggered by different types of
losses, by a very intense joy that overwhelms the emotion system, by depression
or hopelessness and, even if it is not deliberately intended to do so, the
expressions of sadness and agony can cause others to feel concern. As it is not
certain whether a person wants others to know how he or she is feeling, Ekman
advises us to be aware of when the expression of sadness occurs in others
(during a conversation or before) and to be aware of intrusiveness and lack of
concern when we express sympathy.

Anger is triggered by interference
with intentions and goals, disappointment or frustration, depending on an
irritable mood or hostile personality. There may often be fear before, during
or after anger. Ekman argues about different kinds of violence and ways to
temper it. Discussion with angry individuals depends on the specifics of the
situation and persons.

Surprise is triggered by unexpected
events whereas fear can be triggered by sudden events as well as frightening
thoughts or memories. Surprise and fear are usually negative emotions that can
be positive in the sense that some people enjoy them. Reactions of comfort or
of fear depend on the intensity of fear or surprise expression detected in
others and also on the situation.

Disgust is often triggered by the
thought of how something repulsive might smell but universal triggers of
disgust are bodily products. Contempt is related but different from disgust and
often involves an element of condescension toward the object of contempt. Ekman
advises trying to know the target of disgust or contempt through sympathizing
or talking with the one experiencing those emotions before any reaction.

There are more than a dozen
enjoyable emotions: enjoyment, happiness, sensory pleasure, amusement,
contentment, excitement, relief, wonder, ecstasy, "fiero", "naches",
elevation, gratitude, or "schadenfreude", all triggered either by
reunion with persons, sexual intercourse, subjective well-being, personality
traits or attitudes. As using information from enjoyable expressions rarely
creates a problem, Ekman doesn’t develop the point.

The five chapters contain descriptions designed to
help us recognize each emotion in us by remembering an event in the past or a
characteristic situation and/or by watching a picture where an emotion is
expressed while becoming attentive to our physiological feedback and facial
expression in a mirror. Using his daughter’s picture in order to describe
partial — upper and lower part — facial expressions of each emotion, Ekman
distinguishes eyes, eyelid, mouth, jaw and lip positions and movements in order
to distinguish and recognize each emotional "theme". The book also
contains a final test with twelve pictures to improve readers’ recognition.

Compiling more than forty years of
investigations, experiments and results from psychology, psychiatry or
sociology, with new picture descriptions, Ekman plans to explain how emotions
influence us and how to recognize their symptoms in ourselves and others in
order to help readers to better understand and improve their emotional life. It
is observable that even if there are universals about emotions, there are
particulars concerning recognition and expressiveness that change basics.

 

© 2004 Sarah Ben Daoud

 

Sarah Ben Daoud is a Ph D student at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences
Sociales (France) and at Université de Montréal (Quebec), on cognitive
science and philosophy with a focus on emotion.
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Categories: General, Psychology