Details:
Background to the topic of this assignment
In this assessment you will start to critically evaluate the scientific literature on the topic of the universality of facial displays of emotional expression.
Faces are a rich source of information that have been studied by psychologists in order learn about personality and emotion. Some pioneering research by Paul Ekman suggested that there are some human emotions that are ‘basic’ and are recognised by people from many different cultures. This assignment will require you to synthesise the literature on this topic to establish if (all) human facial expressions of emotion can be considered universal, or to what extent there exceptions to this notion.
What is the aim of this literature review (and, what is a literature review?)
You will write a literature review on the topic of the universality of facial displays of emotion. Your review will cover the methodological approach used for studying this question, and an examination of the evidence for and against emotions being universally recognised across cultures.
A literature review is not simply a summary of research literature. A literature review is also not simply an argumentative essay. Instead, a literature review aims to critically examine scholarly writings, in the main focussing on research literature, on a specific topic. It generally seeks to evaluate and critique a question or topic.
Ekman’s landmark studies on the question of universality of face expressions suggesting there are a set of basic expressions, though there is some research that has suggested that facial expressions of emotion are culturally variable.
Your literature review should aim to review and asses this literature in order to draw some conclusions about the cross-cultural universality of facial expressions.
What you need to do
Through the lectorials you will be guided in how to write a literature review. Broadly, this will involve searching for appropriate and relevant scholarly research articles, summarising and critically examining these research articles, and also in the skills needed to compare and contrast the different research evidence available.
You will write your literature review using APA formatting, including the correct use of citations and referencing of scholarly research.
