DHB Testing a Dynamic Theory of Social Emotions using Infrared Imaging

情绪在认知、动机、身份认同过程和社会互动中发挥着关键作用。然而，关于情感在互动过程中如何展开的研究却很少。这种空白源于缺乏不引人注目且可靠有效地测量情绪的技术，而不是理论发展的空白。事实上，最近的理论进展表明，研究情绪转变和对情绪排序做出明确预测的重要性。目前的研究测试了这样一种预测，即某些情绪转变在情感上比其他情绪转变更容易实现，这表明存在连接各种情绪状态的“最佳”转变路径。对于任何两种情绪，这些最佳路径指定了理想连接它们的中间感觉状态，通过这些中间状态的过渡，使它们之间的移动更容易。本研究改进并验证了利用红外热像仪测量面部温度的区域变化来区分不同的情绪状态，并利用这一技术来检验关于社会互动中情绪排序的理论推导假设。最初的实验解决了如何使用面部特定区域的相对温度来测量情感的三个核心维度：影响、效力和活动。这些实验开发了区分(1)积极和消极影响的热成像程序；(2)精力充沛、心情放松；(3)强弱情感。随后的实验使用这些新技术来测量正在进行的互动中情绪状态的变化，测试个人从一种情绪状态转换到另一种情绪状态时所经历的情绪顺序的理论预测。该项目将通过测试时间敏感和非反应方式的动态模型来推进关于社会互动中情绪的理论知识。这些理论知识在临床环境、教育领域和工作场所都有潜在的应用。此外，该项目改进的测量技术为研究各种各样的社会环境中的情绪提供了希望。最后，该项目为作为项目团队成员的研究生和本科生研究人员提供了直接的教育和指导机会。

Emotions play a key role in cognition, motivation, identity processes and social interactions. Yet, there is little research on how emotions unfold over the course of interaction. This void stems from a shortage of techniques that are unobtrusive and that reliably and validly measure emotions, rather than a void in theoretical development. In fact, recent theoretical advances suggest the importance of studying emotional transitions and make clear predictions about emotion sequencing. The current research tests the prediction that certain emotional transitions are affectively easier to make than others, suggesting that there are "optimal" paths of transformation that connect various emotional states. For any two emotions, these optimal paths specify the intermediary feeling states that ideally connect them, making it easier to move between them by transitioning through these intermediary states. The current research refines and validates the use of infrared thermography for measuring regional changes in facial temperature to discriminate different emotional states and then employs this technique to test theoretically derived hypotheses about the sequencing of emotions in social interaction. Initial experiments address how the relative temperature of specified regions of the face can be used to measure the three core dimensions of emotion: affect, potency, and activity. These experiments develop thermographic procedures for differentiating (1) positive and negative affect; (2) energized and relaxed affect; and (3) strong and weak affect. Subsequent experiments use these new techniques to measure changes in emotional states during on-going interaction, testing theoretical predictions about the sequencing of emotions that individuals experience when moving from one emotion state to another. The project will advance theoretical knowledge about emotions in social interactions by testing dynamic models in temporally sensitive and non-reactive ways. This theoretical knowledge has potential applications in clinical settings, educational arenas, and the workplace. Further, the measurement techniques refined by this project hold promise for the study of emotions in a wide-variety of social settings. Finally, this project provides direct educational and mentoring opportunities for a diverse and interdisciplinary set of graduate and undergraduate researchers who serve as members of the project team.