ABSTRACT
Expression, especially facial expression, provides one of the basic channels whereby emotional information is communicated. Psychologists as well as nonpsychologists have relied on expressive signals to provide diagnostic information concerning people's emotional state, and the diagnoses they make are usually thought to be relatively accurate under normal circumstances. In this chapter, I consider evidence for the common-sense view that particular expressive manifestations are symptomatic of different emotions, and for the argument that facial expressions in particular provide a universal biologically programmed language representing emotional meaning. I argue that the pre-wired aspects of expression are less important in everyday emotional episodes than is usually supposed, and that facial and postural displays find their full meanings only in the context of cultures, subcultures, and ongoing relationships. Furthermore, it may be that expressions serve to communicate information that is not simply or intrinsically emotional in many interpersonal settings. Finally, I move on from consideration of the index function of expressions to a discussion of the more counterintuitive idea, propounded in facial feedback theory, that expressive information can determine as well as reflect a person's emotional state. My intention is to integrate expression into the ongoing interpersonal process, rather than seeing the factor simply as cause or effect of emotion.
