Emotion recognition 101

That person sitting at the next table is happy, right? Obviously!

But how do I know?

·       They just told the person with them “I’m happy you’re here”

·       Their voice went up in pitch

·       They look relaxed

·       The corners of their mouth are turned up in a smile and their eyes are sparkling

·       Now I’m smiling too

These are just some of the cues people use to understand others’ emotional experiences. Some cues require interpretation and inference, e.g., a shift in voice tone, a combination of facial movements. Others are more direct, as in the literal interpretation of the phrase “I’m happy”. Emotional empathy is a form of direct understanding in which just observing a happy person’s behaviour can trigger a mirrored experience of happiness in the observer.

Some research on emotions suggests that there are several basic emotions that can be recognized across many cultures: happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust and surprise. Most of us can pick out these basic emotions when shown in photographs. However, mixtures of emotions and subtle shades of emotions occur in real life that can complicate social communication. In life we encounter situations where:

·      Signs of several emotions can flicker across a person’s face within seconds, as when someone is processing unexpected news

·      The cues to a person’s experienced emotion are conflicting, e.g., “I’m happy to see you”, accompanied by a deep frown

·      Contextual cues are ambiguous: “I love that you took my sunglasses without asking”

At these times, we need all available cues to interpret emotions efficiently and accurately. Emotion recognition skills are fundamental to our ability to enjoy successful and meaningful relationships with others.

So where am I going with this?  As a psychologist and a human being, I’m deeply interested in the topic of emotions.  As a neuropsychologist, I am invested in objectively measuring my clients’ ability to recognize emotions. Difficulties in accurately recognizing others’ emotions can have various causes, including

·      Less well-developed cognitive abilities

·      Autism spectrum disorder

·      Severe anxiety disorders or psychosis

·      Acquired brain injury

By understanding a client’s strengths and weaknesses in exploiting the different pathways to emotion recognition, I am better able to recommend treatment options that make sense for that individual. Some people develop strong skills in processing emotion-related cues that are enough to compensate for weaknesses in one of the pathways. Ultimately, the purpose of assessment is always to bring clients closer to achieving the goals they have established as meaningful for themselves.