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Errors in Identifying and Expressing Emotion in Facial

Expressions, Voices, and Postures Unique to Social
Anxiety

Article  in  The Journal of Genetic Psychology · July 2011

DOI: 10.1080/00221325.2010.535224 · Source: PubMed

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 The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 2011, 172(3), 293–301
Copyright
C Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Errors in Identifying and Expressing

Emotion in Facial Expressions, Voices,
and Postures Unique to Social Anxiety

AMY S. WALKER
St. John’s University

STEPHEN NOWICKI
Emory University

JEFFREY JONES
LISA HEIMANN
Beyond Words Center for Social Skills Training, Atlanta, Georgia

ABSTRACT. The purpose of the present study was to see if 7–10-year-old socially anxious
children (n = 26) made systematic errors in identifying and sending emotions in facial
expressions, paralanguage, and postures as compared with the more random errors of
children who were inattentive–hyperactive (n = 21). It was found that socially anxious
children made more errors in identifying anger and fear in children’s facial expressions and
anger in adults’ postures and in expressing anger in their own facial expressions than did
their inattentive–hyperactive peers. Results suggest that there may be systematic difficulties
specifically in visual nonverbal emotion communication that contribute to the personal and
social difficulties socially anxious children experience.
Keywords: nonverbal communication, social anxiety, social emotional learning

The purpose of the present study was to see if there was a systematic pattern of
errors in identifying and sending emotion in facial expressions, paralanguage, and
postures associated with high anxiety in children referred to a social skills treat-
ment center. Processing receptive and expressive nonverbal emotional information
is a skill theorized to be essential for effective social interaction (Lipton & Now-
icki, 2010), an assumption that has been supported amply by empirical research.
A general difficulty in communicating emotions nonverbally has been associated
with lower popularity (Custrini & Feldman, 1989), low self esteem (Nowicki &

Address correspondence to Amy S. Walker, St. John’s University, Department of Psychology,

8000 Utopia Parkway, Queens, NY 11439, USA; amy.walker09@stjohns.edu (e-mail).

293
294 The Journal of Genetic Psychology

Duke, 1994), depression (Nowicki & Carton, 1997), and social anxiety (McClure
& Nowicki, 2001), the focus of the present study.
Although higher anxiety and poor nonverbal communication skill is related,
the association is by no means a clear one, especially in regards to which particular
emotions or specific nonverbal modalities are involved. Part of the reason for the
inconsistent findings is that researchers have used a variety of test stimuli lacking
adequate construct validity support and given participants widely differing lengths
of time to view them, ranging from 2 to 60 s.
For example, Melfsen and Florin (2002) asked 8–12-year-old socially anxious
children to identify emotion in child and adult facial expressions presented for 60 s.
The nonverbal stimuli lacked evidence of reliability or validity. Social anxiety was
assessed via self-report and interview. Socially anxious children failed to make
more errors in identifying emotions than did typical peers, but they more often
attributed an emotion to a neutral expression and took more time to report their
answers.
Battaglia et al. (2004) used black and white photos of boys’ and girls’ facial
expressions without reporting reliability or validity evidence. Social anxiety was
assessed by teachers’ ratings. Second- and third-grade children higher in social
anxiety more often saw emotion in neutral facial expressions, made more overall
errors, and saw angry facial expressions as disgust.
Walker (1981) found that socially anxious children had more difficulty iden-
tifying emotion in facial expressions. Anxious-depressed children (n = 15; age
range = 9–13 years) made more errors on faces than did control subjects and were
more likely to give positive or neutral emotion labels to negative expressions they
missed and to misattribute fear and sadness for surprise and curiosity. The stimuli
used in this study were taken from a standardized cross-cultural test of emotion
recognition.
Unlike the previous studies that used only facial expressions, McClure and
Nowicki (2001) used receptive paralanguage (identifying emotion in tone of voice)
stimuli from a standardized test instrument (Nowicki & Duke, 1994). High-anxiety
typical children between 8 and 10 years old made more total errors and more often
misattributed sad for missed fearful and fearful for missed sad voices in comparison
to peers lower in social anxiety.
Because previous researchers have primarily used receptive facial expressions,
little is known about the possible associations, if any, between social anxiety and
the identification and expression of emotion in other nonverbal modalities. Other
associations are possible because intermodal correlations are significant but low
(e.g., Nowicki & Duke, 1994).
Posture was evaluated in the present study. It differs from other nonverbal
modalities in that it allows for the gauging of the emotional states of others from a
distance. The only study of social anxiety and postural cues of emotion (Pitterman
& Nowicki, 2004) used a standardized test and found more errors related to higher
social anxiety.
 Walker et al. 295

Children with attention-deficit and hyperactivity problems were used as a

comparison group. This allowed children with social anxiety to be compared to
same age peers who have been shown to have similar adjustment difficulties. In
addition, because children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
make nonverbal errors randomly (e.g., Cadesky, Mota, & Russell, 2000) they also
could be used to evaluate whether socially anxious children make nonverbal errors
systematically.
In summary, previous results suggest an association between general recep-
tive processing deficits as measured primarily by facial expressions and social
anxiety. Researchers have yet to investigate the possibility that there are associa-
tions between high social anxiety and other aspects of nonverbal communication
such as receptive posture and expressive faces and voices. Based on a theoretical
perspective that suggests socially anxious children are oversensitive to fear (Rapee
& Heimberg, 1997) and empirical findings supporting that perspective (McClure
& Nowicki, 2001; Walker, 1981), we predicted that they would make more errors
in identifying fear and misattributing fear missed emotions.

Method

Participants

Participants were clients at a social skills training center diagnosed with

social anxiety or ADHD and scored in the clinical range on the social anxi-
ety and inattentive–hyperactivity scales of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL;
Achenbach, 1991), respectively. Written parental consent was obtained for all
participants.
Children with both a Social Anxiety and ADHD diagnosis were excluded
from the study. For the present study data from 47 participants between the ages
of 7 and 10 years of age were selected for analysis. There were 26 children (19
boys and 7 girls) in the socially anxious group (M = 8.81, SD = 1.10) and 21
children (15 boys, 6 girls) in the ADHD group.

Measures

Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy Scale–2. The Diagnostic Analysis of

Nonverbal Accuracy Scale–2 (DANVA2; Nowicki, 2009; Nowicki & Duke, 1994)
was designed to evaluate an individual’s ability to accurately process happy, sad,
angry, and fearful emotions in facial expressions, paralanguage, and postures.
Data from over 300 studies support the construct validity of the DANVA2 (Now-
icki). Internal consistency estimates range from the low .70s to the low .80s. Five
receptive subscales (adult facial expressions, child facial expressions, adult par-
alanguage, child paralanguage, and adult postures) and two expressive subscales
296 The Journal of Genetic Psychology

(facial expressions and paralanguage) were used in the present study. To be se-
lected for inclusion in the DANVA2, receptive test stimuli had to be identified as
a specific emotion by at least 80% of raters who ranged in age from 8 to 21 years.
Raters intensity scores were ranked into high or low intensity based on ratings
ranging from 1 (low intensity) to 5 (high intensity).

Receptive facial expressions. The Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy–

Adult Facial Expressions (DANVA2-AF) and the Diagnostic Analysis of Non-
verbal Accuracy–Child Facial Expressions (DANVA2-CF) each consisted of 24
photographs of equal number of high- and low-intensity male and female facial
expressions (Nowicki & Carton, 1997). Internal consistency estimates ranged from
.73 to .87 (Nowicki, 2010).

Receptive adult paralanguage. The Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy–

Adult Paralanguage (DANVA2-AP; Baum & Nowicki, 1997) consists of 24 audio-
taped items in which two professional actors repeat a neutral sentence to reflect an
equal number of high- or low-intensity emotions. Internal consistency estimates
from the original study ranged from .73 to .79. Internal consistency estimates
from studies completed since the original studies ranged from .77 to .86 (Nowicki,
2010).

Receptive child paralanguage. The Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy–

Child Paralanguage (DANVA2-CP; Rothman & Nowicki, 2004) consists of 24
trials in which child actors said a neutral sentence to reflect an equal number of
high- and low-intensity emotions. Participants hear each sentence and answer with
one of the four emotions. Based on reports by Rothman and Nowicki (2004) and
the DANVA manual (Nowicki, 2010), internal consistency estimates ranged from
.70 to .81.

Receptive adult postures. The Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy–Adult

Postures (DANVA2-POS; Pitterman & Nowicki, 2004) consists of 24 photographs
of an equal number of standing and seated high- and low-intensity postures with
faces covered. Internal consistency estimates ranged from .74 to .79, as reported
by Pitterman and Nowicki (2004) and Nowicki (2010).

Expressive facial expressions subtest. For the expressive facial expression subtest
(Nowicki & Duke, 1994), there are eight trials (two for each emotion) in which
participants are asked to make a facial expression of an emotion consistent with
a description of a situation read to them (e.g., “You have received a gift for your
birthday that you have always wanted. You feel happy.”). Facial expressions are
rated on 5-item Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (inaccurate) to 5 (most accurate)
by two staff. Internal consistency estimates ranged from .69 to .77 (Nowicki, 2010).

Expressive paralanguage subtest. In the expressive paralanguage subtest (Nowicki

& Duke, 1994), there are eight trials (two for each emotion) in which participants
 Walker et al. 297

are asked to say a neutral sentence (“I’m going to get my bike now.”) in response to
a situation that reflects one of the four basic emotions. Each said sentence is rated
on a 5-item Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (inaccurate) to 5 (most accurate) by
two staff. Internal consistency estimates ranged from .67 to .72 (Nowicki, 2010).

Child behavior checklist. The CBCL (Achenbach, 1991) is a standardized be-

havior checklist for parents (with a separate form available for teachers) to re-
port the frequency of 120 problem behaviors (Achenbach & Resclora, 2001).
Pertinent to the present study, the subscale measuring anxiety–depression prob-
lems had a test–retest reliability (r) of .80 and coefficient alpha of .72 and the
inattention–hyperactivity scale had test–retest reliability of .93 and a coefficient
alpha of .84.

Procedure

Participants’ data were obtained from the social skills training center’s
records. Parents completed the CBCL and children the DANVA2 as part of
the intake procedure. Staff were trained to give the receptive subscales of the
DANVA2 (Nowicki, 2010) and the expressive subscales of the DANVA (Nowicki
& Duke, 1994) based on instructions from the Manual for the Diagnostic Analysis
of Nonverbal Accuracy–2 (Nowicki, 2010). The DANVA2 was administered indi-
vidually. The clinician faced the child and was in control of the photographs and
cassette player. The two receptive facial expressions subtests were administered,
then the two paralanguage subtests, followed by the expressive subtests. Rest
breaks were given to each child on an as-needed basis. Instructions were read
aloud to the child before each subtest. Photos were presented for 2 s. Children
are given time to respond with an emotion. At the end of the receptive subtests,
the expressive faces and voices subtests were administered and the responses of the
children videotaped and recorded for rating later by two staff members. Ratings
correlated as .77 between the two observers.

Results

Means and standard deviations for significant errors made on all subtests of the
DANVA2 by both groups can be found in Table 1. Testing for lack of homogeneity
(Levene’s test) and normality were not significant. With the basic assumptions of
normality and homogeneity of variances between the samples were met indepen-
dent means t tests were computed to compare mean number of nonverbal errors
between children high in social anxiety and those high in inattention–hyperactivity
with the significance level set at .05. A Bonferroni correction was made to adjust
the p value for multiple comparisons. All significant results remained at the .05
level after the correction.
Table 1 reveals that socially anxious children made more errors on total and
high-intensity adult faces than did children with ADHD, but did not differ on any
298 The Journal of Genetic Psychology

TABLE 1. Means and Standard Deviations for Significant Errors Made on

All Subtests of the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy Scale–2 by
Those Children Who Are Socially Anxious and Those Who Have Attention-
Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Social Anxiety ADHD

Response M SD M SD

Receptive adult faces

High intensity∗ 2.12 1.48 1.24 1.00
Total∗ 6.96 2.76 6.14 1.98
Receptive child faces
Angry∗ 2.73 1.56 1.67 1.32
Fearful∗ 1.62 1.30 0.71 0.56
High intensity∗ 1.88 1.28 1.05 1.28
Low intensity∗ 3.31 1.64 2.10 1.41
Total∗ 5.19 2.48 3.14 2.29
Receptive postures
Angry∗ 1.46 1.30 0.76 0.70
High intensity∗ 3.50 1.58 2.38 1.02
Total∗ 5.96 2.63 4.19 1.66
Expressive faces
Angry∗ 3.38 1.12 4.05 0.84
Total∗ 13.50 2.22 15.02 2.31
∗p ≤ .05.

of the specific emotions. On child facial expressions socially anxious children

made more total, high-, and low-intensity errors as well as more errors on the
specific emotions of fear and anger than children in the inattention–hyperactivity
comparison group. When socially anxious children missed fear, they more often
responded with happy (M = 1.35, SD = 1.29; M = 0.67, SD = 0.48), t(45) = 2.27,
p < .05, and when they missed anger they were more likely to have mistakenly
chosen sadness (M = 1.85, SD = 1.19) as compared with the comparison group
(M = 0.90, SD = 1.26), t(45) = 2.63, p < .05.
Although there were no significant differences were found between the two
groups in their ability to recognize emotion in either child or adult voices, Table 1
shows that socially anxious children made significantly more total, high-intensity,
and decoding angry errors on adult postures than did children in the comparison
group. Misattributions were not significant.
On the expressive test (Table 1), children with social anxiety made signif-
icantly more total errors when attempting to express emotions in faces in gen-
eral, and when trying to send anger in specific, than did the children with high
 Walker et al. 299

inattention–hyperactivity. There were no differences between the groups on ex-

pressing emotion in voices.

Discussion

Socially anxious children were found to have greater difficulty in

comprehending and executing nonverbal emotional cues visually than their
inattention–hyperactive peers. Overall, their greatest difficulties occurred on child
faces and postures (specifically when identifying emotions of anger and fear on
child facial expressions), when identifying anger in postures, and when expressing
anger in facial expressions.
The findings are consistent with a cognitive–behavioral model of social anx-
iety described by Rapee and Heimberg (1997) which suggests that high levels
of social anxiety are likely to distort, among other things, processing receptive
information. Distorted perceptions may, in turn, lead socially anxious individuals
to evaluate social situations erroneously. In the present study, the greater num-
ber of errors made by socially anxious children occurred primarily in the visual
channels of faces and postures. These findings are consistent with previous stud-
ies that showed socially anxious children to have difficulties reading emotions in
child facial expressions (Battaglia et al., 2004; Custrini & Feldman, 1989; Walker,
1981).
The use of multiple nonverbal modalities showed that socially anxious chil-
dren had difficulty identifying and expressing anger in faces and postures as well
as systematically misreading anger as sadness. This is an important error because
sadness and anger pull for opposite social interactive responses. Sadness generally
invites whereas anger pushes away others, warning them to stay away. Mistaking
anger for sadness, as socially anxious children do, increases chances for social
failure.
Not only did socially anxious children have trouble identifying anger, they also
had difficulty recognizing another negative emotion, fear that they systematically
saw as happiness. This kind of misattribution may actually be a way for socially
anxious children to think they are having a positive impact on others when they
are not. Custrini and Feldman (1989) also found this kind of error in children with
lower as opposed to higher ratings of social competence.
The tendency of socially anxious children to misread anger cues in faces and
postures and to express it inaccurately in their facial expressions would make
interacting with peers more problematic. Even the potential advantage of reading
the feelings of others at a distance via postural cues is turned to a disadvantage
by the tendency of socially anxious children to misread them. Making same-
age friends, one of the most important goals for elementary school students and
difficult even when emotions are communicated accurately, becomes even more
difficult when emotions are misread and missent (Youniss, 1980).
300 The Journal of Genetic Psychology

Socially anxious children did not differ in their ability to pick up and send
emotions paralinguistically. The vocal channel may be a more reliable one to
gauge what others are feeling for sending personal feelings as well.
In conclusion, findings should be taken cautiously because the study was
cross-sectional in design, used nonverbal stimuli without social context, and only
surveyed the four core emotions of happy, sad, angry, and fearful. Because of these
shortcomings, generalization to actual social situations may be lacking. However,
if findings are replicated and shown to be related to adjustment, socially anxious
children may benefit from interventions to directly teach them how to read and
send nonverbal cues of emotion.

AUTHOR NOTES

Amy S. Walker is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in clinical psychol-

ogy (child track) at St. John’s University in Queens, New York. She received a
Master of Arts degree from New York University in general psychology. Stephen
Nowicki is the Candler Professor of Psychology at Emory University. He is a
graduate of Purdue University and completed his clinical psychology internship
at Duke University. Jeffrey Jones earned his doctorate in clinical psychology at
Emory University in 1986 and established Beyond Words Center for Social Skills
Training in 1996. At Beyond Words, he and a staff of psychologists, teachers,
therapists, and assistants work with children who are struggling with a variety of
psychological and social concerns. Lisa Heimann earned her doctorate in clinical
psychology at Emory University in 1984 under the direction of Stephen Nowicki.
She currently works with children, adolescents, and families at Beyond Words
Center for Social Skills Training.

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Original manuscript received September 4, 2009

Final version accepted September 17, 2010
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