Abstract
Two experimental studies were performed to examine the effects of categories of emotion and posers' sex on the facial expressions posed by 25 participants who ranged in age from 65 to 84. Following a coding system (MAX: Izard, 1979), the photographed expressions of seven primary emotions and neutral faces were analyzed by two coders in Study 1, and in Study 2, expressions were rated by 30 student raters using the seven primary emotion scales. It was found that the expressions of happiness, sadness, anger, surprise were accurately conveyed, while fear, disgust, and contempt were not. It was also noted that the difficulty in posing expressions varied among emotions, and that females tended to express fear, surprise, and contempt better than males. Results were discussed in terms of aging on neuromuscular systems and effects of display rules of the aged.
