The Ability to Recognize Facial Emotional Expressions in Obsessive - Compulsive Disorder Patients and Normal Peers

Facial expressionis one of the most interactive non-verbal communication means in human relationships. Since Charles Darwin, six basic facial emotional expressions have been identified in empirical research, which is believed to be similar in different cultures and communities. They are happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, and surprise. Several studies have shown impairment in recognizing facial emotional expressions in mental disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder patients. The hypothesis of this study was: there is a significant difference in facial emotional expressions recognition between people with obsessive-compulsive disorder and their normal peer group. The research was a kind of cross sectional and the data-collection instrument was a computerized version of the facial emotional expressions test developed by Ekman and Friesen (1976). The total population of the study was 60,comprised of 30 men and 30 women in two groups of control and test. The COD patients were diagnosed by psychiatrists or clinical psychologists. The data were analyzed by MANOVA and in case there was a significant difference, Bonferronipost hoc test was taken. As a result, with P≤ 0.05, nosignificant difference was found between the two groups and the hypothesis of the study was rejected. The study shows that; there is no statistically significant difference in recognizing facial emotional expressions between obsessive-compulsive-disorder patients and their normal peers.