Study on Emotional Words and Favorableness Associated with the Faces of Women in Their 60s

Abstract

This study, using the free language association method, examined the characteristics of emotional words of respondents who were exposed to facial photos of women in 60s, and favorableness and favorable styles of them. To analyze mood characteristics on the faces, they were divided into positive mood words and negative mood words. Following previous researches, they were divided into introversion, extraversion, and ambiversion. It was found that the proportion of positive emotional words respondents used was 37%, and that of negative ones was 63%, demonstrating that respondents are more likely than not to get the negative impressions from the faces of their contemporaries. The characteristics of the words consists of 38% introversion, 47% extraversion, and 14% ambiversion. And, respondents used the words like 'beautiful' and 'good-looking' to the stimuli to which they felt favorable, and 'ill-tempered' and 'stubborn' to the stimuli to which they felt unfavorable. Third, the most favorable style to both male and female respondents in 60s were sentimental and good-mannered. They generally favor women who are soft and caring, and dislike talkative, snobbish, and thick make-up women. The analysis results in this paper may help image making and personal relations. Further study needs to expand the survey area to ensure more significant influence on the social life and interpersonal relationship of senior citizens.