Zang Xinlei, Yang Juan
Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, No. 2 Tiansheng Road, Beibei, Chongqing 400715, China.
Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2025 May 21;15(5):709. doi: 10.3390/bs15050709.
There is a close relationship between self-esteem and emotions. However, most studies have relied on self-report measures, which primarily capture retrospective and generalized emotional tendencies, rather than spontaneous, momentary emotional expressions in real-time social interactions. Given that self-esteem also shapes how individuals regulate and express emotions in social contexts, it is crucial to examine whether and how self-esteem manifests in dynamic emotional expressions during self-presentation. In this study, we recorded the performances of 211 participants during a public self-presentation task using a digital video camera and measured their self-esteem scores with the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Facial Action Units (AUs) scores were extracted from each video frame using OpenFace, and four basic emotions-happiness, sadness, disgust, and fear-were quantified based on the basic emotion theory. Time-series analysis was then employed to capture the multidimensional dynamic features of these emotions. Finally, we applied machine learning and explainable AI to identify which dynamic emotional features were closely associated with self-esteem. The results indicate that all four basic emotions are closely associated with self-esteem. Therefore, this study introduces a new perspective on self-esteem assessment, highlighting the potential of nonverbal behavioral indicators as alternatives to traditional self-report measures.
自尊与情绪之间存在着密切的关系。然而，大多数研究依赖于自我报告测量方法，这些方法主要捕捉回顾性和一般性的情绪倾向，而非实时社交互动中自发的、瞬间的情绪表达。鉴于自尊也塑造了个体在社交情境中调节和表达情绪的方式，研究自尊在自我展示过程中是否以及如何在动态情绪表达中体现至关重要。在本研究中，我们使用数码摄像机记录了211名参与者在公开自我展示任务中的表现，并使用罗森伯格自尊量表测量了他们的自尊得分。使用OpenFace从每个视频帧中提取面部动作单元（AUs）得分，并基于基本情绪理论对幸福、悲伤、厌恶和恐惧这四种基本情绪进行量化。然后采用时间序列分析来捕捉这些情绪的多维度动态特征。最后，我们应用机器学习和可解释人工智能来确定哪些动态情绪特征与自尊密切相关。结果表明，所有四种基本情绪都与自尊密切相关。因此，本研究为自尊评估引入了一个新视角，突出了非言语行为指标作为传统自我报告测量方法替代方案的潜力。
