The Effect one’s Gender and Personality has on their Ability to Identif

Introduction Facial expressions are one of the most recognizable things about a person's face, one can often tell whether another is happy or sad simply by observing, but do we notice better whether the face is male or female? Furthermore, do other factors such as one’s own gender or personality effect how they process another’s face? The human face consists of many interesting features, one of which is the emotion being expressed. For human beings, the importance of interpreting emotions is unchallenged. The ability to understand the feelings expressed by others is thought to be a natural part of growing up. From the early age of 6 months, infants have been reported to show facial expression recognition and discrimination (Ahrens, 1954; Charlesworth & Kreutzer, 1973). Ekman, a psychologist interested in the relationship of emotions and facial expression, carried out cross-cultural research and found that the expressions associated with some emotions, such as happiness and sadness, were basic or biologically universal to all humans (Ekman et al, 1969). Further evidence indicates neural mechanisms are involved where the comprehension of emotions are largely facilitated by the right hemisphere (Bryden et al, 1979). Another interesting aspect and one of the initial things identified in a face is the gender. Face gender identification is a cognitive process that occurs rapidly and efficiently. Previous research has found that when adults were presented with facial images that had been cropped to remove all cultural cues to gender (i.e. hairstyles and makeup); in almost 100% of the cases participants accurately identified the gender of the face (Bruce et al, 1998). Further evidence has found that 80% of the time, children as ... ...o the prolonged inspection of one alternative that causes the perception of the other to occur. Consequently as the figure is viewed, fatigue (satiation) develops in response to both alternatives, resulting in increased rates of reversal (O’Leary, 1993). Introverts must then experience higher rates of Koehler type of satiation as they see the cube reverse more. The purpose of the current study is to explore further gender differences and personality type differences in the ability to identify the gender and emotion of a face. Based on the findings by Hoffman (2010) and Cellerino (2004) it is expected that females will respond faster in identifying facial emotion and gender. Additionally, using the Necker cube as a measure to determine personality type, differences between extroverts and introverts in facial emotion and gender identification will be investigated.