The Communication of Emotion: Current Research from Diverse Perspectives

When emotions were seen as highly individualistic feeling states with no clear-cut patterns of "expression," they were naturally poor candidates as important vehicles of communication. Then, in the 1970s, when the seminal studies on judgments of facial displays across cultures were conducted, a dramatic change took place in the zeitgeist. On the basis of these studies it was widely believed that facial patterns clearly communicate the same emotions to anyone in any culture, as long as rules governing emotional display (display rules) do not interfere with the veridical expression of emotion. The chapters in this volume of the New Directions for Child Development series reflect some movement away from that positivist stance - a changing zeitgeist. No longer are we content to assume that facial, vocal, or other signals clearly communicate the same emotion in all contexts to all individuals. However, neither do we assume that all facial, vocal, and other signals are random, unrelated to emotion, or uncommunicative to others. The chapters in this volume reflect a diversity of viewpoints - a dynamic systems approach, an emotional security approach, a self- and other-schema approach, and a functionalist approach. Yet all of the chapters in this volume discuss ways in which emotion-relevant responses communicate important information to others.