Nonverbal Behavior and Psychopathology

The study of nonverbal behavior has captured the imagination and interest of researchers across a number of disciplines, including psychology, sociology, anthropology, ethology, and linguistics to name but a few. At least since Darwin’s 1872 publication of The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals (see also Ekman 1998), the study of nonverbal behavior has been particularly central to researchers interested in emotion. Indeed, contemporary conceptualizations of emotion all include reference to nonverbal behaviors, particularly facial expressions, as integral to emotional responding, due not only to Darwin but also to the pioneering work of Tomkins, Izard, and Ekman in the 1960s and early 1970s. However, it has only been in the last two decades that research on the nature of emotion and psychopathology has illuminated the important role that nonverbal behaviors play in a variety of disorders (for reviews see Berenbaum et al. 2003; Keltner & Kring 1998; Kring 2001). This is somewhat surprising given the ubiquity of emotion problems in diVerent psychological disorders. Indeed, emotion disturbances Wgure prominently in many diVerent forms of psychopathology, whether they are ‘excesses’ in emotion, ‘deWcits’ in emotion, or the lack of coherence among emotional components. As illustrated in Table 8.1, many of the disorders found in the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association 2000) include one or more symptoms reXecting an emotion disturbance. Much of the progress towards understanding the nature of emotion disturbances in psychopathology has been aided by the use of methods pioneered by basic emotion researchers. Indeed, basic research on the components of emotional responding in nonclinical populations has proven useful and relevant for the study of emotional dysfunction in clinical populations. However, considerably less research has been conducted on understanding how nonverbal behaviors outside the context of emotion may be related to the symptoms, etiology, or course of diVerent psychological disorders. In this chapter, we focus on the methods, complexities, and promises of studying emotional behavior in diVerent forms of adult psychopathology. After Wrst deWning emotion, we next consider in some detail some of the special considerations associated with studying emotional behavior in psychological disorders.