Technique 1.150         Decoding Emotions by Analysing Body Language (Speech, Body and Face)

Introduction
The ability to accurately perceive and understand the emotions of people around you is important in change management:
"... Accurately 'reading' other people's emotions plays a key role in social interaction..."
C. D. Kilts et al as quoted by Hugo Alberts, 2019
Furthermore, it helps to facilitate suitable responses and bonding.
"...the ability to correctly perceive and understand other people's emotions.....is associated with better personal and social effectiveness, and as such is a key aspect of optimal human functioning......expressions of emotion are universal, generalising across race and disparate cultures..."
Hugo Alberts, 2019
Three ways to decipher other people emotions:
i) facial expressions (there are universal facial expressions for anger, contempt, disgust, fear, joy, sadness and surprise, etc
"...the face is a dynamic canvas on which people display their emotional states, and from which they decode the emotional states of others. For instance, a person who is surprised may rise his eyebrows, opened his mouth wide and drop his jaw..."
Hugo Alberts, 2019)
ii) body language (numerous emotions like pride, shame, anger, fear, disgust, etc can be accurately deciphered from non-verbal body displays.
"...pride, for instance, is typically signalled by an expanded chest, upward head tilt and arms akimbo - either spread out from the body with hands on hips or raised above head with hands in fists..."
Hugo Alberts, 2019)
iii) speech (people use words to express a range of emotional states:
"...aside from the verbal information of speech, emotions are also expressed by non-verbal qualities speech, such as pitch, loudness and rate of speech..."
Hugo Alberts, 2019
"...the experience of fear may be expressed by saying 'I am afraid'. In other cases, figurative expressions are used, so that rather than literally naming the emotional state one is in, one relies on metaphors or analogies to express his or her subjective experience......in the English language, there are hundreds of linguistic expressions, used to talk about emotions. For example, 'trembling like a leaf', 'feeling trapped', and 'hitting rock bottom'..."
Hugo Alberts, 2019
NB These 3 characteristics of emotional expression, ie facial, bodily and verbal, tend to operate together rather than in isolation, ie the integration of all 3 is required to capture the full meaning of emotion.)
Steps
Step 1. Background
Use the introduction above as the overview on speech, body and face that are commonly influenced by emotions.
Step 2. Assign roles
Divide participants to groups of 4 and assign different roles to each person, ie
    i) speaker (selects and talks about an emotion that he or she has experienced strongly; the speaker does not identify the emotion, it's the job of others to identify it)
    ii) face decoder (carefully observes the speaker's facial expressions to determine the emotion being highlighted, eg are the speaker's eyes wide open in surprise, or drooping down in sadness?)
    iii) body decoder (carefully observes the speaker's body movements to decipher the emotion being talked about, eg how is a speaker using his/her hands to gesture while speaking, and what is his/her posture like?)
iv) speech decoder (carefully observes how speaker is talking to decipher the emotion being described; focuses on both verbal and non-verbal characteristics of the speech, eg what kind of words are being used, ie strong, bold, positive, negative, etc, and how is emotion shown in pitch, loudness, speed of talking?)
Step 3. Start the conversation
The speaker is given 5 minutes to share his/her emotional experience.
The decoders are just observers, ie they don't interact with the speaker; only record their observations.
Step 4. Share observations
Once the speaker is finished, the decoders share their observations with the group, ie
- What were the observations of the face decoder, body decoder and speech decoder?
- Can each decoder accurately identify the emotion displayed by the speaker?
Observation sheets for
        - Face decoder (carefully observe his/her facial expressions and record your observations in the observation column - include naming the emotion)

Notes
i) You may notice that the speaker's eyes wide open, lips are tense and cheeks flushed red
NB Usually facial expressions last between 0.5 to 4 seconds and involves the entire face; however, if you try to conceal your facial expressions, the immediate and uncontrollable facial
                - Body decoder (carefully observe his/her bodily expressions and record your observations in the observation column - include naming the emotion)

Notes
i) could include what is being said (eg you may notice that the speaker has a slumped posture, downward gaze, and closed chest)
        - speech decoder (carefully observe his/her speech and record in your observations in the observation column -  include naming the emotion)

Notes
i) "...you may notice that the speaker is using signalling words and terms like 'I felt trapped' or 'I was on a high' and note how the words are being said (ie is the speaker talking quickly, loudly or softly, and with a high or low pitch?..."
Hugo Alberts, 2019
Some emotions and their characteristics

Step 5. Exercise evaluation

Use the following questions to evaluate the exercise:
- What was it like to do this exercise?
- What aspects were challenging?
- What did you learn?
- What is your take-home message?
Optional step (involves switching around the roles to different participants in the group)
NB Another way of doing this would be to have a video recording of somebody providing an emotional outburst and ask people to observe what happens.
Some facial, body and speech expressions

(source: Seph Fontane Pennock et al, 2019)