ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the expressive, nonverbal correlates of three affective states: anxiety, depression, and anger. Theoretical discussions of emotions typically are concerned with fear rather than with anxiety and with sadness rather than with depression (e.g., Ekman, 1972, 1978). Unfortunately, much of the existing research on the expressive correlates of fear and sadness involves feigned, or simulated, emotions that may tell us more about the theatrical stereotypes associated with these emotions than about their veridical correlates. The number of existing studies on the veridical expressive correlates of fear and sadness are limited, in part because of the ethical problems involved in inducing such negative states. By way of contrast, there are many studies on the expressive correlates of anxiety, and fewer, but still a substantial number of studies, on naturally-occurring depression. Whatever the distinction between anxiety and fear may be—which is a matter of considerable debate—no one questions that anxiety is an affective state. The same is true, of course, about depression.
