English

Noun

affect display ‎(plural affect displays)

1. (psychology) External show of emotion or affect, such as by voice, expression, gesture, or posture, whether voluntary or not.
   • 1970, Paul Ekman et al., "The Repertoire of Non-verbal Behavior", in Mouton Classics: From Syntax to Cognition, from Phonology to Text, page 843

     We are not satisfied with this account (it is particularly weak in explaining the facial affect display of happiness) but Darwin also had trouble with […].

   • 1987, Donald L. Nathanson, The Many Faces of Shame, page 16

     […] Darwin (as is implicit in the title of his book The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals) saw facial affect display as the external expression of an internal emotional state, […].

   • 2002, Peter Fonagy, Affect Regulation, Mentalization, and the Development of the Self, page 178

     The marked affect-display, remains, nevertheless, sufficiently similar to the parent's normative emotion expression for the infant to recognize the [….]

   • 2004, Stephen W. Littlejohn, Karen A. Foss, Theories of Human Communication, page 107

     The face is a particularly rich source for affect display, although other parts of the body may also be involved.

See also

• emotional expression