Expression in psychology. What is this, definition emotional, verbal

Updated July 22, 2022 288 Author: Dmitry Petrov
Hello, dear readers of the KtoNaNovenkogo.ru blog. Expression is characteristic of people to varying degrees.

For many, it helps to express their thoughts and state of mind more clearly, but for others such manifestations are not typical.

But what is expression? What forms can it take? Is it good to be an expressive person and when and how is this type of personality formed?

Definition of expression in psychology

Expression is, in psychology, the expression of one’s feelings and emotions, showing one’s internal state through external expression:

• facial expressions;
• gestures;
• speech coloring.

The concepts of expressiveness and expression are applicable not only in psychology in relation to a person’s character and the characteristics of his behavior, but are also used in the creative field - art, theater, cinema.

Interest in the expressive type of behavior grew with the accumulation of knowledge in psychology and specifically in this topic. Art critics and philosophers have long seen the dependence of expression on the individual’s state of mind, his tendency to actively express emotions.

Today, experts unanimously agree that there is a very close relationship between a person’s inner world and the manifestation of expressiveness.

The concept opposite to expressiveness is impressiveness - a predisposition to the internal accumulation of emotions (mostly negative), rather than to their external expression. It is customary to say about such people that they tend to keep everything to themselves, suppressing all emotional impulses.

Positive sides

The positive features of the expressive type of character are the following qualities:

• impulsiveness;
• ease;
• communication skills;
• frankness;
• emotional brightness;
• attractiveness;
• aptitude for leadership;
• love of life.

Expressive people love to be the center of attention and take the initiative. This trait helps them in their professional activities, especially if it is related to creativity. Such people cope more easily with troubles and life shocks.

Negative qualities

At the same time, expressiveness also has a number of negative aspects that can interfere with both the person himself and his immediate environment:

• recklessness;
• lack of prudence;
• carelessness;
• inability to feel and understand other people;
• frivolity;
• irresponsibility.

Sometimes expressive people can behave rudely, aggressively filling everything around with themselves and their energy and not giving others the opportunity to speak out and express themselves. They can be excessively noisy, intrusive, straightforward and often neglect the interests of other people.

Pros and cons of expressiveness

Like most phenomena in our world, expressiveness has both positive and negative traits.

The advantages of the described phenomenon include:

• Ease of communication;
• Communication skills;
• Frankness;
• The brightness of expressed feelings and emotions;
• Tendency to creative activity;
• Love of life;
• Initiative;
• Tendency to take leadership positions.

However, expression may also have some negative features, namely:

• Committing unreasonable and often simply ill-considered actions;
• Tendency to carelessness and frivolity;
• Irresponsibility;
• Reluctance to hear and understand your interlocutor;
• Excessive noise and intrusiveness, sometimes unceremonious interference in the affairs and personal space of other people;
• Often, individuals of this type show disdain for the interests of others.

Forms of expression, examples

Expression is in psychology the outwardly manifested expression of an individual’s emotions and feelings. It can be expressed in various forms and plays an important role in human communication, as it is important for establishing mutual understanding. People are wary and suspicious of a closed, withdrawn person.

The exchange of emotions is an integral part of social life. Without the opportunity to share their emotions and experiences, a person can fall into a depressed state, feel lost and alone.

Any person himself needs emotional nourishment, the perception of emotional information from other people.

This allows you to fully experience the whole gamut of moods, experiences and feelings, without which it is impossible to feel the fullness of life. Therefore, humanity has developed various forms of demonstrating emotions.

Facial expressions

With the help of facial expressions, or in other words, movements of the facial muscles, a person can convey his mood and state of mind to others as much as possible. The overall facial expression is especially influenced by the eyes and smile.

Expression in psychology can be expressed in facial expressions.

The eyes, as is known, maximally reflect a person’s current mood and are capable of transmitting maximum information to the interlocutor. The look can be full of tenderness or anger, glow with passion or freeze with cold, express respect and contempt.

The expression of a gaze has a very powerful force; it is not without reason that visual interaction allows you to literally “read” the thoughts of another person. Direct, challenging eye to eye gaze usually demonstrates dominance and superiority.

Downcast, averted eyes indicate that a person is not confident in himself or that he has something to hide. Another form of expression is a smile. With its help, you can convey the joy of communicating with your interlocutor and win him over.

A smile can be different in its message - flirting, guilty, arrogant, sincere, and a person who does not suppress his emotional impulses actively uses this expressive tool in life to express emotions.

Pantomime

Pantomime is a combination of facial expressions and bodily movements, poses, and gestures. With this combination, expression is most pronounced. The nature of a person’s gestures and movements at the reflex level changes according to his mood.

Body position, gestures, and gait can reveal a person’s feelings, even if he doesn’t want it to.

The position of your hands can tell you a lot about your mood at the moment. If there is no desire to establish contact, they can be crossed on the chest, or, if annoyed, clenched into fists. If a person is calm and satisfied with everything, then the movements of his hands are round and smooth.

Verbal (speech) expression

The coloring of spoken speeches can convey the mood no less than facial expressions and bodily movements. The speech of expressive people is literally saturated with emotions.

This may be expressed in:

• the use of various forms of words - exaggerated, diminutive;
• special emotional construction of phrases and expressions - when a qualitative characteristic can be strengthened by interjections (eh, uh, oh);
• emotional coloring of speech - changes in voice timbre, volume and intonation. Thus, an overly excited person can speak loudly; a hoarse and quiet voice will indicate an anxious state, while a soft and velvety voice indicates a good mood;
• the use of physiological manifestations of emotions - crying, laughter, sobs, screams, demonstrative silence.

Expressiveness of personality

Personal expressiveness is the ability to clearly and vividly show one’s own feelings, emotions and attitudes. This concept is the opposite of restraint. According to A. Maslow, in a normal personality both traits exist in harmony and balance. An adequate personality is not just spontaneous: she is spontaneous and expressive when she wants it . She is able to relax, give up control when it is appropriate. But such a person is also capable of controlling himself, postponing gratification, showing politeness, etc.

The accompanying qualities of expressiveness lack deliberation, caution, rationality and self-control. Its companions are excitability, suddenness and enthusiasm.

Our soul is characterized by natural beauty. Depending on the personality qualities that determine the demonstration of the energy of the soul, instinctiveness, temperament, and enthusiasm . And if the energy of the soul is determined by vices, then unbridledness and excessive emotionality are manifested in the outside world.

An expressive person expresses all emotions and feelings brightly and unrestrainedly. It is characterized by excessive excitability.

The word "expression" comes from Latin - expressio, which means pumping and squeezing . Expression is the external expression of experiences and emotions in the first place. This includes tears, hysteria, exclamations, emotional gestures, sadness, screams, and apathetic state. In the linguistics of the Russian language there is the term “expresseme” - this is a stylistic unit that serves to reveal expressive constructions.

Each culture interprets expressiveness as a personality trait differently. A Spaniard who actively gesticulates in the Baltic countries will be considered an expressive person. But in his homeland he will be mistaken for a melancholy person. It turns out that the manifestation of expression is largely determined by the peculiarities of culture.

An expressive personality shows all emotions and feelings brightly, unrestrainedly

In psychology, emotional expression is expressiveness, the power of manifestation of feelings and experiences. It is considered as an extensive set of means, using which a person shows his abilities to others. Expressionist artists were able to “catch” expression in the form of showing emotions. If viewers are able to see the expression of emotions in the works, then they are considered expressive.

Reasons for expressiveness

All people tend to be expressive to varying degrees. Someone can react very emotionally to any little thing, while for others, even during serious events, not a single muscle on their face flinches.

The reasons for such differences in human behavior are the following factors:

• hereditary (genetic) - associated with a certain type of temperament and features of the nervous system that the child inherits from his parents. Children with active, expressive parents are more likely to be like this;

• anatomical (biological) – a special area of ​​the brain, the limbic system, is responsible for emotionality. With its stimulation, motor activity and expressiveness increase. During depression, this area ceases to be dominant and the level of serotonin decreases, which leads to depression and depression;
• social – have the greatest influence on the formation of expression and are caused by: upbringing; type of activity; social circle.
• historical (national) - it is known that certain nationalities are characterized by more expressive behavior (Spaniards, Italians), while others are famous for their slowness and tolerance (Estonians). Representatives of expressive nations tend to noisily express their emotions and gesticulate, while calmer nations are more characterized by restraint and equanimity.

In genetics

While studying DNA, heredity and variation, biologists coined the term "expression". It refers to the conversion of information that is encrypted in the DNA of a cell into the amino acid sequence of a protein molecule.

Thus, genes that are inherited from parents appear externally (phenotypically) in offspring. The shape and color of the eyes, the shape of the face and feet, the length of the legs and fingers are cleverly recorded in the chromosomes of the cells.

The secretion of a particular protein visualizes the sequence of DNA nucleotides. “Express” means “transcribe” a gene. That is, to implement the embedded genetic information in the cell.

Components of Human Expression

Expression is an expressive behavior in psychology, manifested in active gestures, facial expressions and human movements.

The components of expressiveness are:

• a person’s appearance – often bright, active individuals strive to express themselves and dress provocatively, they can experiment with their appearance, decorate their body with tattoos;
• facial expressions - they are very active and, like a mirror, reflect the whole gamut of feelings experienced by expressive individuals and do not allow them to be hidden;
• pantomime - for an expressive person it is normal to wave his arms, hug people who are not too close, and walk quickly. They may have the habit of speaking loudly, reacting violently to events, and not at all embarrassed to express emotions;
• temperament – most often expressive people are choleric or sanguine;

• speech coloring - the voice and timbre of speech of expressive people can change several times during a conversation, while in people who are not inclined to overly show their emotions, the tone of the conversation is low-emotional and inexpressive.

Other meanings of the term

In addition to its main meaning, the described term has two other meanings, which are also quite actively used in speech. Thus, in the field of art, expression is understood as a strong, both positive and negative feeling, or a range of feelings that arises in an individual when viewing an unusual picture or when listening to exciting music that directly affects his emotions.

In addition, genetic engineers use the concept of “gene expression,” which refers to their activity. Any gene in our body is endowed with its own functions; it performs them to the maximum, to the minimum, or not at all. It is the genome that fulfills its function 100% and is called expression.

Expression and emotions

Emotions enable a person to express his attitude towards the environment and himself. The emotional center is located in the subcortical zone of the brain and its task is to provide a connection between emotional states and their physiological manifestations.

When a person experiences strong emotions, changes are observed in a number of body systems:

• digestive;
• hormonal;
• cardiovascular.

These changes can be visually noticeable to others and reflect what feelings and moods a person is experiencing directly at the moment. So, for example, when scared, some people may turn pale, and when embarrassed, they may blush. Fingers may tremble from excitement and sweat may appear on the forehead.

The most striking expressive emotions include laughter and crying.

Such manifestations of expressive emotions are observed not only in humans, but are also characteristic of animals. For example, cats, when danger approaches, bend in an arc, the hair on their body rises, dogs can growl and bare their teeth.

However, in humans, expression is undoubtedly more pronounced and is not limited to the manifestations of reflex reactions alone.

Expressiveness as a personality quality

Individuals demonstrate their emotions so vividly and violently that expressiveness is one of the main traits of their character.

The degree of expressiveness does not depend on the situation or a person’s feelings at a particular moment, but directly on his personal individual psychological characteristics. They are associated with the characteristics of a person’s temperament and psychotype and are stable in changing conditions.

Personality traits that determine a high level of expressiveness include:

• dominance of processes of excitation of the neurovegetative system over inhibition;
• dynamic nervous reactions, which leads to frequent changes of mood;
• personality activity;
• greater reactivity;
• sensitivity, which causes violent emotional responses to even minor stimuli.

It is believed that women are more expressive than men, since their emotional sphere prevails over the intellectual. Almost all children show expressiveness, since they do not yet know how to hide their emotions.

What is expressiveness

The expressiveness of speech allows the speaker, in addition to the main content of the statement, to convey some information about himself, a personal attitude towards what he is talking about. Moreover, such transfer mostly occurs unconsciously.

By the expressiveness of speech, one can understand which social group or category a person belongs to, what qualities are characteristic of him - and if this message is impulsive, involuntary, therefore it is often the most truthful.

The expressiveness of an utterance often reveals the speaker’s true attitude to the subject, an attitude that is sometimes negative, which he would not have expressed if he were not at the peak of emotions: irony, skepticism, condescension, disdain. That is, he subjectively places the object below himself, rises above it, which makes his speech expressive. It seems to the speaker that he has expressed certain objective properties of the object.

Much less often, the expressiveness of an utterance carries a degrading attitude - when the speaker belittles himself. This was common earlier in history, for example, when a commoner addressed an official, calling himself not Ivan or Peter, but Ivashka, Petrushka. There is a simple way to see the direct consequence of this human tendency to unconsciously endow oneself with a high position by tracing the number of suffixes in speech that express upward and downward attitudes - dozens of derogatory, belittling, diminutive ones versus just a few suffixes that allow one to express an elevated attitude. An increasing expressive attitude is also often characterized by a top-down attitude not only to the subject of the statement, but also to the listeners. In the message, the speaker seems to emphasize that he belongs to some prestigious group to which the listeners do not belong. This can be clearly seen in criminal or youth slang.

In linguistic analysis of speech and content analysis, which psychologists use, it is possible to determine several degrees of expression: from a slight form of deviation from literary speech to extreme sharpness. The first, mild degree of expressiveness shows that the speaker has well mastered and knows the subject he is talking about, and therefore endows his speech with a certain emotional component. Highly expressive speech can express familiarity, rudeness, disdain, intimidation, and contain obscene elements. The tools of such analysis are the study of the choice of words, morphemes, endings, stress, and, if possible, intonation and gestures.

What are the top-down mechanisms for expressing positions? The first is the use of a slang or colloquial word, morpheme, or suffix instead of a neutral name for an object.

The second is belittlement by various means, such as elimination, truncation of the main name of an object while preserving only its additional names.

To clearly explain the concept of expressiveness, we can give the simplest example from criminal jargon, in which a document is called “xiva,” which reflects the speaker’s opinion of his high awareness and disdain for it.

Another example of expressiveness is found in youth slang - when saying, for example, “fun,” young people, by choosing the suffix “ear,” express their condescension or negligence. The number of words with similar suffixes expressing a negative assessment has increased significantly today, which is especially clearly visible on the Internet.

Expressiveness of speech may also be due to the desire for economy in means of expression. This allows you to make speech more pragmatic, and the emotional component allows you to use the imagery of perception.

Expressive behavior

Expression is an expressive style of behavior in psychology, which is characterized by the demonstration and disclosure of the inner “I” through external manifestations.

Expressive behavior rarely goes unnoticed and has a number of fundamental features:

• is part of the holistic behavior of the individual;
• has a unique character;
• has a biosocial origin, as it develops at the intersection of physiological forms of expression of emotions and sociocultural ways of expressing them;
• is a tool for understanding the inner world of the individual.

What is expressive speaking?

oh, oh; expressive, vna, vno. 1. Characterized by expression (1 character), expressive. ... Expressive manner

speak.

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Human expression in communication

In communication, expressive personalities are very attractive and easily gather around them a group of interlocutors and like-minded people.

The main characteristic features of such an individual are:

• fast speech, abundance of words;
• loud voice and laughter;
• sincere live facial expressions;
• mannered behavior, pretentiousness, pretentiousness;
• desire for leadership, dominance;
• sweeping, fast gestures, sudden movements.

At the same time, an expressive person is not always a confident person. Often such people lack willpower, self-control and are not ready to take responsibility for the actions they take and the empty promises they make.

What is expression?

Expression is a vivid demonstration by a person of his internal state, expressed in the active manifestation of emotions and feelings, as well as in increased motor activity. The term “expression” comes from the Latin word “expressio”, which means “expressiveness”. The most typical and striking manifestations of expressiveness are:

• speed of speech and verbosity;
• loud and emotional conversation;
• liveliness of facial expressions;
• mannered behavior pattern;
• desire to take a leading position;
• sweeping and sharp gestures.

However, expressive individuals are not necessarily self-confident and often have a lack of willpower, problems with self-control, and an inability to take responsibility for their actions.

There is also a concept opposite to expression, this is impressiveness, i.e. accumulation by a person of various, most often negative, emotions without their external expression, suppression by a person of his own feelings and emotional impulses.

Means of expressiveness

Expression finds its expression in very specific means that give an emotional color to speech, movements, facial expressions and the image as a whole.

These tools in psychology are divided into:

• morphological - consist in the peculiarities of word formation, when with the help of suffixes new verbal forms with different colors are created - diminutive, magnifying, disparaging;
• phonetic - they manifest themselves in a deliberate, uncharacteristic stretching of sounds, uncharacteristic for ordinary speech, accentuation and highlighting of individual phrases and words with special intonation;
• syntactic - when a person deliberately rearranges words in sentences so that they sound in a special way, uses inappropriate repetitions;
• paralinguistic - these include facial expressions, gestures, timbre and volume of speech;
• lexical - the use of interjections, evaluative phrases, amplification particles, sarcastic and caustic speech constructions, interjections.

Expressive crowd concept

An expressive crowd is a collection of people who are simultaneously in approximately the same excited state. A striking example of such a crowd is fans at football or hockey, fans at concerts.

A crowd can pose a danger to public order, even if the people in it are in good spirits. Possessing enormous energy, a large crowd of people easily succumbs to the chaotic influence of individual elements.

It is for this reason that fans of winning teams, often carried away by the celebration of victory, begin to behave aggressively, fights and riots occur.

How to communicate with an expressive person?

When building a dialogue with an expressive person, it is important to remember that for him any conversation is a mini-speech from which he expects approval and encouragement, so if the interlocutor wants to communicate constructively with a person of this type, he should.

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• do not enter into open confrontation, even if certain manners are very annoying;

• treat the promises of such an individual with caution, do not recall previous unfulfilled data and obligations;
• give an emotional response;
• encourage the interlocutor with words and response gestures (patting on the shoulder);
• try to speak the same language and use emotionally charged expressions. This should be done moderately and appropriately, so that the interlocutor does not feel that he is being teased;
• defend your position on fundamental issues with restraint but firmly;
• Don’t try to “steal” public attention from an expressive person.

In psychology, expression is a way of expressing a person’s inner world. In different people it can be expressed to a greater or lesser extent. It depends on the type of temperament, the degree of emancipation of a person, nationality, type of activity and character.

There are many expressive personalities among people in creative professions, where the expression of emotions is directly related to professional activities. There is nothing wrong with expressiveness if it does not turn into vulgarity and shockingness.