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identifying the underlying emotions of posed expressions;
and (3) developmental research has indicated that facial
musculature is fully formed and functional at birth and
infants display many facial expressions similar to adult
expressions. Also, infants demonstrate differential
responses to facial expressions by 3 months of age and have
the capacity to imitate facial movements within the first
few days of life.
One problem not addressed by the differential emotions
theorists is whether spontaneous experience of these
emotions is accompanied by the occurrence of the predicted
facial expression (Davidson, in press). For instance,
Davidson stated that little is known about the incidence of
different facial expressions depending on context or type of
emotion elicitor (i.e., imagery, emotional film clip). For
example, Tomarken and Davidson (1992) found very few overt
expressions of fear in response to fear film clips. Also,
Davidson (in press) raised questions concerning the facial
expressions of positive emotion. Specifically, he indicated
that while there are multiple forms of positive affect as
evidenced using behavioral, subjective, and physiological
indices, there is only one facial expression indicative of
the experience of positive emotion.
Dimensional Approaches
In an attempt to explain the polarity of emotion,
dimensional theorists have conceptualized emotion as varying