Universals in Facial Expression

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,7, University of Duisburg-Essen, course: Non-verbal aspects of communication , language: English, abstract: This essay deals with the question whether facial expressions are universal meaning
that all cultures use the same mimics for expressing a certain feeling. Are these
expressions innate or do they have to be learned?
First, I will give an overview of Charles Darwin¿s theory about the universality of facial
expressions because he was the first who dealt in detail with this issue.
The chapter is subdivided in three parts: the first part describes the relationship
between the facial expressions of nonhuman primates and human primates. The
following part deals with Darwin¿s observations of the facial expression in infants and
children including those children that have no opportunity to learn facial expressions
from others. Finally, Darwin¿s method of cross-cultural study in order to provide
evidence for his claim will be presented.
The second chapter depicts the behaviourists¿ position that in contrast to the
Universalists¿ point of view is based on the belief that all facial expressions are
learned and culturally bound.
The main chapter represents the most current and detailed research of facial
expressions. The studies of Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen refer mainly to Darwin
but also consider the cultural aspect. They introduce a neurocultural theory of
emotions, showing that the facial behaviour itself is determined by biological factors
as well as by social factors. Further, I will give a summary of three important
experiments Ekman and Friesen conducted in order to proof that the facial
expressions for the six basic emotions are universal.
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