Traumatized South African university students : the way in which they interpret facial expressions.
Files
Date
2009-11-20T09:50:38Z
Authors
Van Olst, Sarah Jane
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
There has been a recent burgeoning of research exploring mechanisms involved in human facial affect recognition. Much of this research has tended to focus on emotion recognition, attributions, and perhaps on communication aspects. With the ever-increasing traumatization rates in South Africa, the question arises as to what potential impact victimization, and traumatization could have on facial affect recognition. The present study explored facial affect recognition accuracy differences between traumatized and non-traumatized students from the First Year Psychology classes at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. A sample of 632 students participated in this correlational study by responding to a series of questionnaires, and by rating the affect on a series of faces on the DANVA-2-AF. Results suggested that traumatized students were more likely to be anxious. However, while research suggests that anxiety is related to over-reporting of negative affect (such as fear, anger, and sadness) on the DANVA-2-AF, this finding was not replicated in this study. However, traumatized people with high anxiety levels were overall more likely to misinterpret the facial expressions, when compared with both non traumatized individuals and with traumatized individuals with low anxiety. Implications of the findings, as well as recommendations for further research are discussed.