All smiles are positive, but some smiles are more positive than others.

Messinger, Daniel S.; Fogel, Alan; Dickson, K. Laurie

doi:10.1037/0012-1649.37.5.642

Cited by 158 publications

(116 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…These very large effects are congruent with a growing literature indicating that these smiles index very high positive emotion (Dickson, Walker, & Fogel, 1997;Fogel, Nelson-Goens, Hsu, & Shapiro, 2000;Messinger, 2002;Messinger et al, 2001), and might be a marker for resiliency and optimal developmental outcomes Very large effects also characterized the perception of naturally occurring cry faces involving the co-occurrence of these three facial features as expressing more negative emotion than expressions without. This finding has parallels in the literature (Oster, 2000;Segal et al, 1995) and might be useful for the identification of reactions of extreme pain in infants in clinical settings.…”

Section: Perceived Positive and Negative Emotion In Naturally Occurrisupporting

confidence: 74%

“…In adults and infants, smiles involving eye constriction occur during circumstances (Ekman, Davidson, & Friesen, 1990), such as mother's smiling approach (Fox & Davidson, 1988), indicative of positive affect. Between 1 and 6 months, smiling with eye constriction and with mouth opening are both more likely during positive periods of naturalistic interaction (Messinger et al, 2001). Infant smiling involving both eye constriction and mouth opening, for example, occurred while the infant was gazing at his or her smiling mother.…”

Section: Positive and Negative Expressionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet digital editing must proceed with attention to ecological validity, the types of expressions that infants actually produce. Greater lip movement, eye constriction, and mouth opening tend to co-occur in naturally occurring infant smiles and similar factors are operative in cry faces (Messinger, Fogel, & Dickson, 1997Messinger et al, 2001;Oster, 2005;Segal et al, 1995). The strength of these associative tendencies is, however, variable (Fogel et al, cited in Messinger, 2002), so that the range of possible expressions is unknown (Cassel et al, 2005;Oster, 2000).…”

Section: Overview Of Digitally Edited Expressionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In infants, positive emotions are generally expressed by a smile (Messinger, Fogel, & Dickson, 2001;Sroufe, 1979) in which zygomatic major pulls the lip corners obliquely toward the cheekbones (Facial Action Coding System [FACS], AU 12; Ekman & Friesen, 1978). In smiles with eye constriction (cheek raise or Duchenne smiles), obicularis oculi, pars lateralis (AU6) raises the cheeks toward the eyes and tightens the skin lateral to the eyes (producing crow's feet in adults; Oster, 2000).…”

Section: Positive and Negative Expressionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Adult Perceptions of Positive and Negative Infant Emotional Expressions

Dinehart¹,

Messinger²,

Acosta³

et al. 2005

Infancy

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Adults' perceptions provide information about the emotional meaning of infant facial expressions. This study asks whether similar facial movements influence adult perceptions of emotional intensity in both infant positive (smile) and negative (cry face) facial expressions. Ninety-five college students rated a series of naturally occurring and digitally edited images of infant facial expressions. Naturally occurring smiles and cry faces involving the co-occurrence of greater lip movement, mouth opening, and eye constriction, were rated as expressing stronger positive and negative emotion, respectively, than expressions without these 3 features. Ratings of digitally edited expressions indicated that eye constriction contributed to higher ratings of positive emotion in smiles (i.e., in Duchenne smiles) and greater eye constriction contributed to higher ratings of negative emotion in cry faces. Stronger mouth opening contributed to higher ratings of arousal in both smiles and cry faces. These findings indicate a set of similar facial movements are linked to perceptions of greater emotional intensity, whether the movements occur in positive or negative infant emotional expressions. This proposal is discussed with reference to discrete, componential, and dynamic systems theories of emotion.Early positive emotional expressivity is associated with secure attachment (Cohn,

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Section: Perceived Positive and Negative Emotion In Naturally Occurrisupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Positive and Negative Expressionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Overview Of Digitally Edited Expressionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Positive and Negative Expressionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Adult Perceptions of Positive and Negative Infant Emotional Expressions

Dinehart¹,

Messinger²,

Acosta³

et al. 2005

Infancy

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Coders first identified lip corner raising (AU 12, referred to as lip corner pulling in FACS). This action is produced by the zygomaticus major and is the basis of both Duchenne (Ekman et al, 1990;Frank et al, 1993) and simple (Fogel et al, 2000) or non-Duchenne smiles (Messinger et al, 1999(Messinger et al, , 2001. It raises the lip corners and the infraorbital triangle (making the cheeks more prominent), and deepens the nasolabial furrow between the nose and cheeks.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Perspective on Neonatal Smiling: Differences Between the Judgments of Expert Coders and Naive Observers

Dondi

Messinger

Colle

et al. 2007

Infancy

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To better understand the form and recognizability of neonatal smiling, 32 newborns (14 girls; M = 25.6 hr) were videorecorded in the behavioral states of alertness, drowsiness, active sleep, and quiet sleep. Baby Facial Action Coding System coding of both lip corner raising (simple or non-Duchenne) and lip corner raising with cheek raising (Duchenne smile) was followed by a smile recognition task using 48 naive observers. Both types of smiles were detected in all behavioral states. Lip corner raising with cheek raising (Duchenne smiling) tended to predominate in active (rapid eye movement) sleep, suggesting a potential tie to early constituents of emotion. A significant portion of the typically briefer lip corner raising distinguished by expert coders was not recognized as smiling by the naive observers. These briefer actions may represent a motor phenomenon idiosyncratic to the neonatal period. INFANCY, 12(3),

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Using Microgenetic Designs to Study Change Processes

Lavelli¹,

Pantoja²,

Hsu³

et al. 2005

Handbook of Research Methods in Developmental Science

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The process of change represents a main, central issue for the study of development. Basic and applied researchers in developmental science have aimed their research work at answering several key questions related to the problem of change. How does change occur? What mechanisms produce change? What conditions are likely to promote the emergence of change in development? Another related question concerns the stability versus instability of new behavioral patterns that emerge as a consequence of an intervention. What are the relationships between variability and stability in developmental processes? Does the emergence of new behavioral patterns tend to suppress the old patterns or to coexist with them? Nevertheless, observing and understanding how change occurs has been recognized to be a quite difficult and challenging task (Miller & Coyle, 1999;Siegler & Crowley, 1991). This is despite recent advances in both theoretical perspectives and methods focused on change processes that have brought considerable progress in the research field (see "Microgenetic designs as promising tools," below). Part of the challenge is due to the complexity of conceptualizing change processes. It is our contention, however, that the main problem appears to come from the difficulty of devising and implementing appropriate methods for studying change while it is occurring (Fogel, 1990;Kuhn, 1995;Siegler, 1995), instead of comparing pre-and post-change behavioral patterns.In this chapter, we aim to illustrate a research design, referred to as microgenetic designs, specifically devised for documenting change processes in development. First, we discuss the limitations of traditional research designs to capture ongoing processes of change. We then present microgenetic designs through an illustration of their key characteristics. This is followed by a review of the theoretical foundations of microgenetic designs as well as some of the historical and current observational and experimental

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All smiles are positive, but some smiles are more positive than others.

Cited by 158 publications

References 36 publications

Adult Perceptions of Positive and Negative Infant Emotional Expressions

Adult Perceptions of Positive and Negative Infant Emotional Expressions

A New Perspective on Neonatal Smiling: Differences Between the Judgments of Expert Coders and Naive Observers

Using Microgenetic Designs to Study Change Processes

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