Individual psychological characteristics of children evaluated from photographs of their faces by adult observers

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Abstract

We studied the formation of representations of children faces observed by adult subjects. Adult participants (aged between 18 and 22) evaluate tenseness and activity of the children aged from 3 to 6 years. We tested the hypothesis of interaction between the perceived individual psychological characteristics of a person and the features of his face. It was discovered that a child’s activity estimate is connected to his/her facial angle between eye pupils and the upper lip. Children with a smaller middle part of the face and smaller distance between eyes are assessed as being more tense that the rest of the sample group. Tense expressions on children’s faces are associated with some faint traces of fear and anger.

General Information

Keywords: personality assessment, perception of children’s faces, middle part of the face, markers of activity and tenseness

Journal rubric: Cognitive Psychology

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/exppsy.2016090204

For citation: Khrisanfova L.A., Barabanschikov V.A., Zhegallo A.V. Individual psychological characteristics of children evaluated from photographs of their faces by adult observers. Eksperimental'naâ psihologiâ = Experimental Psychology (Russia), 2016. Vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 38–52. DOI: 10.17759/exppsy.2016090204. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

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Information About the Authors

Lyudmila A. Khrisanfova, PhD in Psychology, Associate Professor, Chair of General Psychology, Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis, Associate Employee of the Laboratory of Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6697-7939, e-mail: l.hri@mail.ru

Vladimir A. Barabanschikov, Doctor of Psychology, Professor, Director, Institute of Experimental Psychology, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, Dean of the Faculty of Psychology, Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5084-0513, e-mail: vladimir.barabanschikov@gmail.com

Alexander V. Zhegallo, PhD in Psychology, Senior Researcher at the Laboratory of Systems Research of the Psyche, Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Researcher at the Center for Experimental Psychology of MSUPE, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5307-0083, e-mail: zhegalloav@ipran.ru

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