Identifying emotional Facial Expressions in Practice: A Study on Medical Students
Background: Successful identification of emotional expression in patients is of considerable importance in the diagnosis of diseases and while developing rapport between physicians and patients. Despite the importance of such skills, this aspect remains grossly overlooked in conventional medical tra...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/0253717620936783 |
| _version_ | 1818613258007871488 |
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| author | Alapan Bandyopadhyay Sarbari Sarkar Abhijit Mukherjee Sharmistha Bhattacherjee Soumya Basu |
| author_facet | Alapan Bandyopadhyay Sarbari Sarkar Abhijit Mukherjee Sharmistha Bhattacherjee Soumya Basu |
| author_sort | Alapan Bandyopadhyay |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: Successful identification of emotional expression in patients is of considerable importance in the diagnosis of diseases and while developing rapport between physicians and patients. Despite the importance of such skills, this aspect remains grossly overlooked in conventional medical training in India. This study aims to explore the extent to which medical students can identify emotions by observing photographs of male and female subjects expressing different facial expressions. Methods: A total of 106 medical students aged 18–25, without any diagnosed mental illnesses, were shown images of the six universal facial expressions (anger, sadness, fear, happiness, disgust, and surprise) at 100% intensity with an exposure time of 2 seconds for each image. The participants marked their responses after each image was shown. Collected data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Results: Participants could identify 76.54% of the emotions on average, with higher accuracy for positive emotions (95.6% for happiness) and lower for negative emotions (46% for fear). There were no significant variations in identification with respect to sex of the observers. However, it was seen that participants could identify emotions better from male faces than those from female faces, a finding that was statistically significant. Negative emotions were identified more accurately from male faces, while positive emotions were identified better from female ones. Conclusions: Male participants identified emotions better from male faces, while females identified positive emotions better from female faces and negative ones from male faces. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-16T15:59:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-96ae857436a94788aa08b6c99a5f0310 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0253-7176 0975-1564 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-16T15:59:15Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine |
| spelling | doaj.art-96ae857436a94788aa08b6c99a5f03102022-12-21T22:25:30ZengSAGE PublishingIndian Journal of Psychological Medicine0253-71760975-15642021-01-014310.1177/0253717620936783Identifying emotional Facial Expressions in Practice: A Study on Medical StudentsAlapan Bandyopadhyay0Sarbari Sarkar1Abhijit Mukherjee2Sharmistha Bhattacherjee3Soumya Basu4 Dept. of Community Medicine, North Bengal Medical College, Siliguri, West Bengal, India. Dept. of Community Medicine, North Bengal Medical College, Siliguri, West Bengal, India. Dept. of Community Medicine, North Bengal Medical College, Siliguri, West Bengal, India. Dept. of Community Medicine, North Bengal Medical College, Siliguri, West Bengal, India. Dept. of Psychiatry, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.Background: Successful identification of emotional expression in patients is of considerable importance in the diagnosis of diseases and while developing rapport between physicians and patients. Despite the importance of such skills, this aspect remains grossly overlooked in conventional medical training in India. This study aims to explore the extent to which medical students can identify emotions by observing photographs of male and female subjects expressing different facial expressions. Methods: A total of 106 medical students aged 18–25, without any diagnosed mental illnesses, were shown images of the six universal facial expressions (anger, sadness, fear, happiness, disgust, and surprise) at 100% intensity with an exposure time of 2 seconds for each image. The participants marked their responses after each image was shown. Collected data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Results: Participants could identify 76.54% of the emotions on average, with higher accuracy for positive emotions (95.6% for happiness) and lower for negative emotions (46% for fear). There were no significant variations in identification with respect to sex of the observers. However, it was seen that participants could identify emotions better from male faces than those from female faces, a finding that was statistically significant. Negative emotions were identified more accurately from male faces, while positive emotions were identified better from female ones. Conclusions: Male participants identified emotions better from male faces, while females identified positive emotions better from female faces and negative ones from male faces.https://doi.org/10.1177/0253717620936783 |
| spellingShingle | Alapan Bandyopadhyay Sarbari Sarkar Abhijit Mukherjee Sharmistha Bhattacherjee Soumya Basu Identifying emotional Facial Expressions in Practice: A Study on Medical Students Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine |
| title | Identifying emotional Facial Expressions in Practice: A Study on Medical Students |
| title_full | Identifying emotional Facial Expressions in Practice: A Study on Medical Students |
| title_fullStr | Identifying emotional Facial Expressions in Practice: A Study on Medical Students |
| title_full_unstemmed | Identifying emotional Facial Expressions in Practice: A Study on Medical Students |
| title_short | Identifying emotional Facial Expressions in Practice: A Study on Medical Students |
| title_sort | identifying emotional facial expressions in practice a study on medical students |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/0253717620936783 |
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