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Abstract
Although nonverbal expressions in face and body are our primary means of communicating emotional feelings, word‐based instruments dominate in clinical/counselling, health, education, and research. Picture‐based instruments usually contain four to eight facial expressions of age‐, gender‐, and ethnic‐specific posed photos validated by multiple or forced choice, which may not be relevant for people of other demographics. We report the development, free‐choice validation and initial applications of a multipurpose nonverbal instrument designed for people to communicate their feelings and show recognition of a broad range of feelings. The Pictured Feelings Instrument, a nonverbal vocabulary of feelings, comprises 26 face and/or body line drawings of pictured feelings (PFs), which are intentionally ambiguous regarding age, gender, and ethnicity, but feeling‐specific (e.g., love, sad, victimised, strong, overloaded). Studies with 325 Australians found high validity and reliability: Adults validated all 26 PFs, and younger groups (12 and under) validated 22–24 PFs, similar to pilot study results in Hawaii. Methodologically, we use free‐choice naming for validation; we use images of face and body/context to express feelings in their appropriate modalities. Uses in psychology, medicine, education, rehabilitation, and research are discussed.
Acknowledgements
We remain grateful to all participants and their schools, and to those who helped in the testing: Eliza Wells, Virginia Ryan, Margaret Anderberg, Rebecca Howell, and Anusha Harinath. We thank Ralph Saubern, publisher at Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), for his encouragement; Melissa Green, PhD, for her advice; and Andrea Millar at St Vincent's Hospital for her consistent support.