Effects of sad mood on facial emotion recognition in Chinese people

Abstract This study examined the influence of sad mood on the judgment of ambiguous facial emotion expressions among 47 healthy volunteers who had been induced to feel sad ( n = 13), neutral ( n = 15), or happy ( n = 19) emotions by watching video clips. The findings suggest that when the targets we...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychiatry research 2008-05, Vol.159 (1), p.37-43
Main Authors: Lee, Tatia M.C, Ng, Emily H.H, Tang, S.W, Chan, Chetwyn C.H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Asian Continental Ancestry Group - psychology
Asian Continental Ancestry Group - statistics & numerical data
Biological and medical sciences
Depressed mood
Depression
Depression - diagnosis
Depression - psychology
Emotions
Facial emotion
Facial Expression
Facial expressions
Female
Happiness
Humans
Judgment
Male
Medical sciences
Mood
Mood disorders
Orientation
Personality Inventory
Probability
Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Recognition (Psychology)
Sadness
Social Perception
Space Perception
Visual Perception
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Summary:Abstract This study examined the influence of sad mood on the judgment of ambiguous facial emotion expressions among 47 healthy volunteers who had been induced to feel sad ( n = 13), neutral ( n = 15), or happy ( n = 19) emotions by watching video clips. The findings suggest that when the targets were ambiguous, participants who were in a sad mood tended to classify them in the negative emotional categories rather than the positive emotional categories. Also, this observation indicates that emotion-specific negative bias in the judgment of facial expressions is associated with a sad mood. The finding argues against a general impairment in decoding facial expressions. Furthermore, the observed mood-congruent negative bias was best predicted by spatial perception. The findings of this study provide insights into the cognitive processes underlying the interpersonal difficulties experienced by people in a sad mood, which may be predisposing factors in the development of clinical depression.
ISSN:0165-1781
1872-7123
DOI:10.1016/j.psychres.2007.04.022