On the Dimensions Preschoolers Use to Interpret Facial Expressions of Emotion

Dimensions of the meaning attributed to facial expressions of emotion were studied in preschoolers (nineteen 4-year-olds, twenty-one 3-year-olds, and thirty-eight 2-year-olds) plus thirty adults. Subjects indicated the similarity or dissimilarity between different emotions by placing photographs of emotional facial expressions into preordained numbers of groups. For each age group, multidimensional scaling of the pairwise similarities yielded a two-dimensiona l structure in which the expressions fell in a roughly similar circular order. Its dimensions could be interpreted as degree of pleasure and degree of arousal. Four-year-olds and adults also produced a third dimension, tentatively interpreted as assertiveness versus taken aback. As adults, we are highly skilled at reading facial expressions of emotion. We can interpret expressions in terms of such basic categories as anger, fear, happiness, surprise, and the like. We can also interpret expressions in terms of such basic bipolar dimensions as pleasure-displeasure and arousal-sleepiness. But in what terms do children at various ages interpret facial expressions? Does the message derived from a particular expression vary with age? Knowing how children of different ages interpret facial expressions should give us an important clue about the development of the skills involved in the interpretation of emotion in general. In this article, we examine one aspect of this issue: whether 2-, 3-, and 4-year-olds interpret facial expressions in terms of dimensions of pleasure and arousal. Degree of pleasure and degree of arousal are clearly the major dimensions (although not the only dimensions) underlying the way in which adults interpret emotions—their own and those of others. Research from several domains supports this conclusion (see Dittman, 1972). One source of evidence is multidimensionalscaling studies of the similarity perceived between emotions expressed in the face (Abelson & Sermat, 1962; Royal & Hays,

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