Figure 4.
FACS codes for just 12 seconds of facial behavior. The highlighted box illustrates the action unit codes
(numbers) and their intensities (letters) for the expression of grief in
We then used a system called the Facial Action Coding System (FACS)
that describes 46
separate facial actions that can be visibly coded from video records. Two graduate students,
Brandon King and Anthony Zanesco, led by emotion researcher and master FACS teacher Erika
Rosenberg, coded, frame-by-frame, videos of participants watching the clips. They were able to
identify precisely the timing and intensity of the movements of facial muscles (described as “action
units”). By grouping the close occurrence of different action units together and using an emotional
facial expression dictionary, we can infer the emotion someone was expressing at a particular
moment in time (
).
This manuscript is currently under review with lead author Erika Rosenberg and the results of
these analyses will be available upon publication.
Of course there are many aspects of our project that we have not been able to describe in this
short chapter
For instance, we have examined the relationship between changes in aspects of
self-reported mindfulness and cortisol responses at the end of the retreats and shown less rise in
afternoon cortisol at the end of the retreat (a time of potential psychological stress of separation
given the closeness of community that grows when individuals sit together for months). Those
individuals who showed the most increase in self-reported mindfulness had lower post-retreat
afternoon/evening cortisol
. Importantly, we have begun to examine the meaning of the training
experience in the words of participants expressed in structured interviews conducted by Baljinder
Sahdra in the second three-month retreat. In close collaboration with Dr. Susan Bauer-Wu of
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