Emotional Expressions Beyond the Face and Conflict Intervention

Dating back to Charles Darwin’s observations of how humans express certain basic emotions, such as happiness, fear, and anger, the prevailing view among social scientists has been on the correspondence between certain emotions and discrete patterns of facial cues that communicate these emotions. Receiving far less attention is the question of whether there is any similar correspondence between certain emotions and the vocal and/or bodily expression of these emotions. In this chapter, we explore the research on this fundamental question. We begin by addressing the nature of emotions and the range of emotions we experience, including those emotions that are not associated with any corresponding facial activity. Additionally, we consider the role that the context plays in the bodily and vocal communication of emotion. For instance, we focus on how and with what effect we use our bodies and voices to express emotions most prevalent in the context of interpersonal conflict. We extend that analysis to questions of how non-facial expressions of self-conscious emotions impact the need for and process of conflict management interventions.