Facial Expressions Impact on Stress
In the article “Grin and Bear it: The Influence of Manipulated Facial Expressions on the Stress Response” the study is done to explore whether shaping facial expressions will impact cardiovascular and response to stress. Prior to this study scientist have done a great deal of research on the connection between physical and psychological health. Many scientist have proposed that facial expressions influence emotions. It is believed that there is 50 different types of smiles, but most studies dealing with facial expressions focuses on two types, a “standard” smile which triggers your zygomaticus muscles and a “genuine” smile which triggers both your zygomaticus and orbicularis oculi muscles. Research showed …show more content…
The dependent variable is cardiovascular stress measured by heart rate. Participants in the genuine smile group were trained to stimulate the zygomaticus major and orbicularis oculi muscles. All participants were assisted in positioning before and throughout the study. The participants were then told it was a “multitasking study” as a cover story. Because they were also studying the participants awareness of smiling half of the participants in each smiling facial expression group were told to smile during the instructions. The participant would complete a few basic questionnaires and then have their heart rate monitored by wearing a cuff that inflated about every 90 seconds throughout the study. The participant rested for 10min prior to completing a star tracing task for two minutes. This task called for the participant to trace a star with their non-dominant inside of a box while they’re only able to view mirror image of the star and their hand. To increase stress the participants were greatly encouraged to be accurate and were also miss informed about performance standards. They were promised chocolate if they could match the unrealistic goal of eight tracings with less than 25 errors. This task was then followed by a 5min rest time. Next their hand was submerged in ice water, 2-3 °C for one minute. After each task and at baseline stress, facial muscle fatigue, difficulty and state affect were measured. A baseline stress measurement was taken along with a measurement of how stressful the participant found the tasks. The results showed that smiling groups overall had lower heart rate levels during recovery than the neutral groups. The results are similar to the hypothesis in the sense that smilers have a positive effect but there was not a large difference as was expected. The largest
In the article “Grin and Bear it: The Influence of Manipulated Facial Expressions on the Stress Response” the study is done to explore whether shaping facial expressions will impact cardiovascular and response to stress. Prior to this study scientist have done a great deal of research on the connection between physical and psychological health. Many scientist have proposed that facial expressions influence emotions. It is believed that there is 50 different types of smiles, but most studies dealing with facial expressions focuses on two types, a “standard” smile which triggers your zygomaticus muscles and a “genuine” smile which triggers both your zygomaticus and orbicularis oculi muscles. Research showed …show more content…
The dependent variable is cardiovascular stress measured by heart rate. Participants in the genuine smile group were trained to stimulate the zygomaticus major and orbicularis oculi muscles. All participants were assisted in positioning before and throughout the study. The participants were then told it was a “multitasking study” as a cover story. Because they were also studying the participants awareness of smiling half of the participants in each smiling facial expression group were told to smile during the instructions. The participant would complete a few basic questionnaires and then have their heart rate monitored by wearing a cuff that inflated about every 90 seconds throughout the study. The participant rested for 10min prior to completing a star tracing task for two minutes. This task called for the participant to trace a star with their non-dominant inside of a box while they’re only able to view mirror image of the star and their hand. To increase stress the participants were greatly encouraged to be accurate and were also miss informed about performance standards. They were promised chocolate if they could match the unrealistic goal of eight tracings with less than 25 errors. This task was then followed by a 5min rest time. Next their hand was submerged in ice water, 2-3 °C for one minute. After each task and at baseline stress, facial muscle fatigue, difficulty and state affect were measured. A baseline stress measurement was taken along with a measurement of how stressful the participant found the tasks. The results showed that smiling groups overall had lower heart rate levels during recovery than the neutral groups. The results are similar to the hypothesis in the sense that smilers have a positive effect but there was not a large difference as was expected. The largest