1. Effects of Attending an All-Women’s College on Women’s Recognition of Facial Emotional Expressions in Males and Females Alexandrina M. Gomes Petya D. Radoeva Psychology 200 Mount Holyoke College

2. Introduction I. Effects of going to a Single-Sex School –The environment is not like "the real world” (Dale, 1971, 1974). –Co-ed schools better prepare youth for cross gender interaction and integration into society (Dale, 1971, 1974). –Co-ed students report higher job-related skills as compared to students from single-sex colleges (Kim & Alvarez, 1995).

3. Introduction (cont.) II. Recognition of Emotional Expressions (Thayer & Johnsen, 2000) –Females are better than males recognizing emotional expressions. –Females recognize emotions equally well from male and female faces.

4. Hypothesis Women in an all-women's college (as compared to women in a co-ed school) would: a)be less accurate in recognizing emotions in male vs. female faces. b)take longer to recognize the emotions in male vs. female faces.

5. Variables Independent Variables: –Gender of the face (Male or Female) –School (Single-Sex or Co-ed) Dependent Variables: –Accuracy (percent correctly recognized emotions) –Reaction time

6. Method Participants: 40 females: –20 Mount Holyoke students –20 Amherst students Age: 17-30 All assigned to the same conditions (i.e., male and female faces expressing different emotions)

7. Method (cont.) Materials: 70 faces (35 female, 35 male) expressing six different emotions (i.e., happiness, fear, disgust, sadness, surprise, anger) and a neutral expression Faces taken from the Pictures of Facial Affect Database (Ekman & Friesen, 1976)

8. Method (cont.) Materials (cont.): Consent Form Computer in the Lab (MHC); Laptop (Amherst) 7 keys on the Keyboard, labeled with the 6 emotions and the neutral expression Program (Presentation) exposed the stimuli and recorded the responses of participants Questionnaire Debriefing statement

9. Method (cont.) Procedure: Experimental procedure explained Male and female faces presented on a computer screen Three blocks of faces: –One practice block (14 faces) –Two experimental blocks (56 faces total) –Each face shown once –The order of faces randomized

10. Method (cont.) Procedure: Each face exposed on the screen for 5 seconds Participants pressed a key as soon as they recognized the emotion Questionnaire completed after the computer test Debriefing given to the participants upon completion of the study

11. Results Accuracy (percent correctly recognized emotions): Significantly influenced by the gender of the face, F(1, 38) = 6.83, MSE = 36.10, p < 0.05. Accuracy 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 Percent Correct Female Male MHC Amherst

12. Results (cont.) Reaction Time: Main effect of the gender of the face, F(1,38) = 42.37, MSE = 0.017, p < 0.001. Interaction between gender and school, F = 11.727, p = 0.001.

13. Results (cont.) Mixed Design ANOVAs For Mount Holyoke: Significant interaction between semester and gender, F(1,19) = 3.601, p < 0.05. For Amherst: No significant interaction between semester and gender, F(1,19) = 0.791, p > 0.05.

14. Discussion Participants at both schools were less accurate and slower in recognizing emotions from male faces as compared to female faces. MHC participants were slower than Amherst participants in recognizing emotions in male faces. The longer participants spent at Mount Holyoke, the less accurate they were in recognizing male emotions.

15. Discussion (cont.) Possible problems: Used a laptop at Amherst and a regular computer at Mount Holyoke Lines on the screen at Mount Holyoke but not at Amherst

16. Discussion (cont.) Future Research: Run more participants Test approximately equal numbers of freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors Revise the questionnaire Longitudinal Study (e.g., test the same students during their 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th, years in college)

17. References Bruce, V. (1988). Recognizing Faces. Lawrence Erbaum Associates, Publishers. Dale, R. R. (1971). Mixed or single-sex school?: Vol. 2. Some social aspects. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Dale, R. R. (1974). Mixed or single-sex school?: Vol. 3. Attainments, attitudes, and overview. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Ekman, P. (1980). The Face of Man. Expressions of Universal Emotions in a New Guinea Village. Garland STPM Press. Ekman, P. (1972). Emotion in the human face. Second edition. Cambridge University Press. Fridlund, A. J. (1994). Human Facial Expression. An Evolutionary View. Academic Press, Inc. Izard, C. E. (1971). The Face of Emotion. Appleton-Century-Crofts, Educational Division, Meredith Corporation. Kanner, L. (1931). Psychological Monographs: Judging Emotions from Facial Expressions. Psychological Review Company.

18. References (cont.) Kim, M., Alvarez, R. (1995). Women-only colleges- some unanticipated consequences. Journal of Higher Education. 66, 641-&. Ekman, P. & Friesen W.V. (1976). Pictures of Facial Affect. © Paul Ekman Russel, J. & Fernandez-Dos, J. M. (1997). The Psychology of Facial Expression. Cambridge University Press. Thayer, J. F. & Johnsen, B. H. (2000). Sex differences in the judgement of facial affect: A multivariate analysis of recognition errors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 41, 243-246.

19. Questions?