A cross-cultural comparison of U.S. and Japanese mental health trainees' ability to recognize facially expressed emotions

• Main Author: Hutchison, Ashley N.
• Other Authors: Gerstein, Lawrence H.
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Facial expression > Cross-cultural studies; Counselor trainees > United States; Counselor trainees > Japan
• Online Access: http://cardinalscholar.bsu.edu/handle/123456789/197784; http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1738933

This study investigated the ability of U.S. counseling psychology and Japanese clinical psychology trainees to recognize facially expressed emotions. Sixty U.S. counseling psychology students and 60 Japanese clinical psychology students viewed photographs of U.S.-Caucasian and Japanese individuals expressing seven basic emotions: anger, contempt, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. Participants completed a survey that assessed their ability to recognize emotions and their intensity ratings of these emotions. Two four-way mixed factors ANOVAs were performed to examine the effects of participant nationality, participant gender, poser nationality, and poser gender on emotion recognition accuracy scores and emotion intensity ratings. A significant three-way interaction effect for participant nationality, poser nationality, and poser gender on accuracy scores was discovered. Two significant interaction effects for intensity ratings involving poser nationality and participant nationality, and poser gender and participant nationality were also found. Results are discussed in light of prior research on emotion recognition and intensity ratings. Implications for counseling psychology and future research investigations are also presented. === Access to thesis permanently restricted to Ball State community only. === Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services