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Emotions in the Face : A pilot strategy for increasing facial expression recognition skills of mental health nurses in forensic hospitals.

Ratnalingam, Elilarasi (2023) Emotions in the Face : A pilot strategy for increasing facial expression recognition skills of mental health nurses in forensic hospitals.

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Full Text Status:Access to this publication is restricted
Embargo date:31 December 2025
Abstract:This paper presents a pilot study including a new strategy to predict the behaviour of patients in forensic healthcare. This strategy applies scientific insights about facial expressions and offers to aid mental health nurses to advance their skills in the recognition of emotions in the face. Also, it mentions knowledge about action tendencies since negative emotions might result in violent behaviour. A training was developed to instruct mental health nurses from the Mesdagkliniek in Groningen, Netherlands, how to recognise facial expressions of the basic emotions (anger, contempt, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise) more precisely (with Action Units). The skill to recognise facial expression was then measured on three levels in a pre- and post-test design: First, self-report measurements including a self-efficacy measurement with the SE-12 and interviews were conducted. Second, accuracy rates were determined with MiX software by Humintell and analysed on a group-level. Third, an eye-tracking task was performed with the Tobii soft- and hardware, to explore changes in facial focus by the participants. The quantitative results show significant correlations between four out of the seven basic emotions in the MiX test results of the post-measurement compared to the pre-measurement. Thus, to the degree that participants correctly recognised anger, they also recognised disgust, contempt, and fear. This indicates a learning effect. Further, there were no significant findings in the quantitative results. The qualitative results in turn offer valuable findings regarding positive developments of facial focus shifts towards Action Units and a shift of consciousness to the given strategy. Future studies should aim to explore violence prevention strategies by including facial expression recognition and action tendency development into the ERM. Replication studies with a larger sample size and future studies exploring the current strategy are also highly recommended.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Clients:
Mesdagkliniek, Groningen, Netherlands
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:77 psychology
Programme:Psychology MSc (66604)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/97243
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