Perception of emotions in drawings of faces: A developmental study
Stanley, Robert Anthony
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/22044
Description
Title
Perception of emotions in drawings of faces: A developmental study
Author(s)
Stanley, Robert Anthony
Issue Date
1995
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Hardiman, George W.
Department of Study
Art Education
Discipline
Art Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ed.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Education, Art
Fine Arts
Psychology, General
Language
eng
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate children's (4th graders and 7th graders) and young adults' (college undergraduates) ability to perceive the emotions of happy, sad, angry, and surprised contained in portrait drawings from art history. Differences in responses of the fourth graders, seventh graders, and college undergraduates were measured by using the chi square statistic. Facial expressions of emotion were examined through a viewing of 24 drawings. The first set of 12 are considered true emotions, and the second set are considered blends according to work done by Ekman (1975). The blends were identified by judges' inability to attach a single emotion to the drawing.
The most straightforward finding of this study that is relevant to previous research (Ekman & Friesen, 1971; Gates, 1923; Seifert, 1993, 1992) and art education is that subjects in the fourth grade, seventh grade, and college undergraduates can detect elicited emotions found in line drawings. Gender had virtually no meaningful effect between or within grade levels under current investigation. Overwhelmingly, subjects' selection of emotions were in direct correlation to those of the judges beforehand. Another important finding is that subjects preferred to use the mouth and the eyes as the determining factor in their selection of the emotional state of the person depicted in the drawing. As with other aspects of their development, younger children's artistic perceptibilities improve with age. Accordingly, older subjects made more comments on the artistic qualities of each drawing than younger subjects, whereas younger subjects relied more on the structural properties. In other words, the older the subject, the higher the tendency to notice specific artistic qualities in each line drawing.
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