• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.127-143
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• 2010

This study explores children's sex differences of emotion discrimination from facial expressions based on two dimensional model of emotion. The study group consisted of 92 children, of 40, 52, and 64 months of age, and the rate of male and female children was male children (50%) and female children (50%). Children of 92 were required to choose facial expressions related the twelve emotion terms. Facial expressions applied for experiment are used the photographs rated the degree of expression in each of the two dimensions (pleasure-displeasure dimension and arousal-sleep dimension) on a nine-point scale from 54 university students. The experimental findings appeared that the sex differences were distinctly the arousal-sleep dimension than the pleasure-displeasure dimension. In the arousal-sleep dimensionoussleepness, anger, comfort, and loneliness' emotions showed large sex differences over 1 value. Especially, while male children showed high arousal more than female children in the emotions like 'sleepiness, anger and loneliness', female children showed high arousal more than male children in 'comfort' emotion.