Nonverbal behavior in psychotherapy research.

Abstract

The importance of body movement and facial expression during psychotherapy has long been recognized by the practitioner; yet, until recently systematic study of this mode of behavior has been conspicuously absent from research in psychotherapy. Films of psychotherapy sessions or other interviews have more often served as a basis for generating interesting clinical hypotheses or as i2triguing demonstrations than as a subject of systematic measurement.At least three factors have led to this neglect. A long history of contradictory results in experimental studies requiring judges to determine the affect carried by a nonverbal stimulus has led to skepticism about whether this mode of behavior carries much reliable or valid information. These studies have been criticized elsewhere (Bruner & Tagiuri, 1954), and we (Ekman, 1965) have suggested that the positive results obtained in recent years have been due in part to a shift in focus from posed to spontaneous interactive nonverbal behavior, where the behavior is sampled during a verbal conversation. A second source of discouragement was the finding that judges derived little or no information 'Part of the research reported here, and the preparation of this article, were

Vocal indicators of psychiatric treatment effects in depressives and schizophrenics

“…In order to study body movement and facial expression in relation to emotion, mood, and psychopathology, they obtained sound motion picture film records of a standardized interview conducted at the time of admission and near the time of discharge from a mental hospital with patients diagnosed as depressive and schizophrenic (cf. Ekman and Friesen, 1974). Further details on the interview schedule, diagnoses, types of therapy, self-rating data, and findings on body movement can be found in Ekman and Friesen, 1968, 1974, and Kiritz, 1971.…”

“…Ekman and Friesen, 1974). Further details on the interview schedule, diagnoses, types of therapy, self-rating data, and findings on body movement can be found in Ekman and Friesen, 1968, 1974, and Kiritz, 1971.…”

The Neural Basis of Self-Touch in a Pain-Free Situation

“…In adults, nonverbal "selfadaptors" are unintentional movements that involve self-touching behaviors such as stroking or rubbing one's own hand, and are associated with a lack of conscious awareness, occurring in response to situational anxiety and stress [4][5][6][7][8]. In another example, we often grasp a painful hand with the other hand to reduce the pain.…”

Effects of the duration of expressions on the recognition of microexpressions

“…The lower limit of duration of microexpressions should be determined by physiological constraints (how fast the facial muscles can make a complete expression) and the threshold of conscious perception (how long an expression must last for people to consciously perceive it). Ekman and Friesen (1974) developed a test called the brief affect recognition test (BART), in which one of the six emotions (happiness, disgust, anger, fear, surprise, and sadness) was presented for 1/100th to 1/25th of a second (it was processed subconsciously). In the present study, we employed this paradigm, which we called the BART condition, to measure a person's ability to recognize brief expressions.…”