Facial emotion recognition ability: psychiatry nurses versus nurses from other departments

Purpose: Facial emotion recognition is a basic element in non-verbal communication. Although some researchers have shown that recognizing facial expressions may be important in the interaction between doctors and patients, there are no studies concerning facial emotion recognition in nurses. Here, we aimed to investigate facial emotion recognition ability in nurses and compare the abilities between nurses from psychiatry and other departments. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, sixty seven nurses were divided into two groups according to their departments: psychiatry (n=31); and, other departments (n=36). A Facial Emotion Recognition Test, constructed from a set of photographs from Ekman and Friesen's book “Pictures of Facial Affect”, was administered to all participants. Results: In whole group, the highest mean accuracy rate of recognizing facial emotion was the happy (99.14%) while the lowest accurately recognized facial expression was fear (47.71%). There were no significant differences between two groups among mean accuracy rates in recognizing happy, sad, fear, angry, surprised facial emotion expressions (for all, p>0.05). The ability of recognizing disgusted and neutral facial emotions tended to be better in other nurses than psychiatry nurses (p=0.052 and p=0.053, respectively) Conclusion: This study was the first that revealed indifference in the ability of FER between psychiatry nurses and non-psychiatry nurses. In medical education curricula throughout the world, no specific training program is scheduled for recognizing emotional cues of patients. We considered that improving the ability of recognizing facial emotion expression in medical stuff might be beneficial in reducing inappropriate patient-medical stuff interaction.

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Facial Emotion Recognition Ability in Psychiatrists, Psychologist and Psychological Counselors

European Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.eurpsy.2017.01.2024 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 41 (S1) ◽

pp. S157-S157

Author(s):

M. Dalkiran ◽

E. Yuksek ◽

O. Karamustafalioglu

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Recognition Test ◽

Facial Emotion Recognition ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

Specific Training ◽

Emotional Cues ◽

Demographic Questionnaire ◽

Recognition Ability ◽

Emotion Recognition Ability

ObjectivesAlthough, emotional cues like facial emotion expressions seem to be important in social interaction, there is limited specific training about emotional cues for psychology professions.AimsHere, we aimed to evaluate psychologist’, psychological counselors’ and psychiatrists’ ability of facial emotion recognition and compare these groups.MethodsOne hundred and forty-one master degree students of clinical psychology and 105 psychiatrists who identified themselves as psychopharmacologists were asked to perform facial emotion recognition test after filling out socio-demographic questionnaire. The facial emotion recognition test was constructed by using a set of photographs (happy, sad, fearful, angry, surprised, disgusted, and neutral faces) from Ekman and Friesen's.ResultsPsychologists were significantly better in recognizing sad facial emotion than psychopharmacologists (6.23 ± 1.08 vs 5.80 ± 1.34 and P = 0.041). Psychological counselors were significantly better in recognizing sad facial emotion than psychopharmacologists (6.24 ± 1.01 vs 5.80 ± 1.34 and P = 0.054). Psychologists were significantly better in recognizing angry facial emotion than psychopharmacologists (6.54 ± 0.73 vs 6.08 ± 1.06 and P = 0.002). Psychological counselors were significantly better in recognizing angry facial emotion than psychopharmacologists (6.48 ± 0.73 vs 6.08 ± 1.06 and P = 0.14).ConclusionWe have revealed that the pyschologist and psychological counselors were more accurate in recognizing sad and angry facial emotions than psychopharmacologists. We considered that more accurate recognition of emotional cues may have important influences on patient doctor relationship. It would be valuable to investigate how these differences or training the ability of facial emotion recognition would affect the quality of patient–clinician interaction.

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