SOC 104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Santa Barbara City College
Document Summary
Belief that the primary emotions conveyed by the face are universal. The idea that all human beings everywhere encode or express these emotions in the same way and can decode or interpret them with equal accuracy - Encode - to express or emit nonverbal behavior, such as smiling or patting someone on the back. Decode - to interpret the meaning of the nonverbal behavior other people express, such as deciding that a pat on the back was an expression of condescension and not kindness. Darwin believed that nonverbal forms of communication were species-specific and not culture-specific. He believed that facial expressions were vestiges of once-useful physiological reactions. Facial expressions then acquired evolutionary significance: being able to communicate emotional states had survival value for the developing species. Ekman found - facial expressions of emotions are universal for 6 major emotions: Anger, happiness, surprise, fear, disgust, and sadness. These are part of being human, and not a product of people"s cultural experience.
