Linear Approaches to Emotional Expressions
The notion of emotional expression has been used in yoga poses very different ways in yoga poses the philosophical and scientific literature. Some approaches, like Darwin’s, postulate few direct and necessary links between expressions and emotions. Others, on the contrary, try to show that there are direct links between some emotions and certain behaviors that form distinct entities. Once again, those who assume the existence of direct links between feelings and body need to create compatible categories in yoga poses the dimension of the mind and of the body.
The Coding of Facial Expressions according to Ekman and Friesen
Paul Ekman and Wallace V Friesen published a manual in yoga poses 1978 that permitted researchers to code every movement of the face. This coding system is called the Facial Action Coding System (FACS).16 It was first established after a lengthy work carried out in yoga poses front of a mirror, with precise drawings of the anatomy of the face. They then observed their colleagues and refined their system after multiple observations carried out in yoga poses many cultures. The coding system facilitates the description of two types of facial activity:
1. The basic units of facial activity are activated by a restricted and specific group of muscles. These units have a number, a name, and levels of intensity. For example, stretching the corner of
the mouth, which is used for a smile, is number 12 and can have an intensity that varies from X to Z (between A and E for some researchers). The difficulty in yoga poses establishing this code was to find facial movements that when possible corresponded to a single motoric action.
2. Complex facial expressions or mimics. A facial expression corresponds to a mimicked configuration at a given moment as visible on a photo. It is a global configuration composed of one or several basic units. Ekman and Friesen reported two difficulties. The first was to explain what was happening when many basic units were activated at the same time. Thus, a person could smile (the corners of the lips rise toward the temples) and at the same time activate the unit that makes the corners of the lips come down (unit 15). in yoga poses such a case, it must be decided if there is nonetheless a smile, what nuance is brought by this second unit, and how to evaluate the intensity of each unit not all of which is always evident. The second difficulty is that sometimes certain units commence after another is already fully activated. The researcher must be able to evaluate if this second unit is a nuance brought forth to the first expression or if it creates a second, overlapping expression. Wally Friesen had hoped to be able to codify all of that with a computer program so that researchers would be able to adopt the same criteria. The data gathered in yoga poses many laboratories resist the desire that every facial phenomenon be situated in yoga poses a distinct facial expression. Facial activity is, in yoga poses fact, relatively fluid and only sometimes gives the impression that the face constructs an expression that sends a particular message (Heller and Haynal-Reymond, 1997). This fluidity is hidden when a face is shown in yoga poses a photograph. The viewer has the impression that what he sees forms a coherent gestalt. This impression is rare in yoga poses real life or even when one analyzes filmed behavior.
Once they had taught their coding system, many laboratories used it. Ekman and Friesen did an enormous amount of coordination work using the FACS to be able to create a database on facial expressions as complete as possible: a database that integrates the evolution of methodologies (strongly related to the evolution of the computer) used for these studies. This led to a new version of the coding manual (published in yoga poses 2002). As a coding system of facial expressions, the FACS remains the most efficient known today. I have used it for more than ten years.17
This coding system is relatively independent of Paul Ekman’s position on the theory of emotions, about which I now speak. This research tried to apply the distinction between basic units and complex expressions to the domain of the emotional expressions of the face. He attacked theories that assume that the affective dynamics, even more than the activity of the face, cannot be reduced to distinct basic emotions that form a succession of distinct expressions (or messages).
