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Identification of Emotionally Ambiguous Interpersonal Stimuli Among Dysphoric and Nondysphoric Individuals

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Abstract

This study examined whether dysphoria influences the identification of non-ambiguous and ambiguous facial expressions of emotion. Dysphoric and non-dysphoric college students viewed a series of human faces expressing sadness, happiness, anger, and fear that were morphed with each other to varying degrees. Dysphoric and non-dysphoric individuals identified prototypical emotional expressions similarly. However, when viewing ambiguous faces, dysphoric individuals were more likely to identify sadness when mixed with happiness than non-dysphoric individuals. A similar but less robust pattern was observed for facial expressions that combined fear and happiness. No group differences in emotion identification were observed for faces that combined sadness and anger or fear and anger. Dysphoria appears to enhance the identification of negative emotion in others when positive emotion is also present. This tendency may contribute to some of the interpersonal difficulties often experienced by dysphoric individuals.

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Notes

  1. We examined reaction time data to determine whether participants had longer latencies to identify the ambiguous morphed faces than the prototypical emotion expressions. In short, facial expressions in the middle of the continuum took significantly longer to identify than the prototype emotions, suggesting that those images were indeed more ambiguous.

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Acknowledgment

Preparation of this article was facilitated by a grant (R01MH076897) from the National Institute of Health to CGB.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, A800, Austin, TX, 78712, USA

    Christopher G. Beevers, Tony T. Wells, Alissa J. Ellis & Kathryn Fischer

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  1. Christopher G. Beevers
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  2. Tony T. Wells
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  3. Alissa J. Ellis
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  4. Kathryn Fischer
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Correspondence to Christopher G. Beevers.

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Beevers, C.G., Wells, T.T., Ellis, A.J. et al. Identification of Emotionally Ambiguous Interpersonal Stimuli Among Dysphoric and Nondysphoric Individuals. Cogn Ther Res 33, 283–290 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-008-9198-6

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