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The Body Action and Posture Coding System (BAP): Development and Reliability

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Abstract

Several methods are available for coding body movement in nonverbal behavior research, but there is no consensus on a reliable coding system that can be used for the study of emotion expression. Adopting an integrative approach, we developed a new method, the body action and posture coding system, for the time-aligned micro description of body movement on an anatomical level (different articulations of body parts), a form level (direction and orientation of movement), and a functional level (communicative and self-regulatory functions). We applied the system to a new corpus of acted emotion portrayals, examined its comprehensiveness and demonstrated intercoder reliability at three levels: (a) occurrence, (b) temporal precision, and (c) segmentation. We discuss issues for further validation and propose some research applications.

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Notes

  1. Interested researchers can obtain the coding manual with coding guidelines at the online journal’s website or at http://www.affective-sciences.org/gemep/BAP_coding

  2. One coder (main investigator, hence called the first coder) had some prior experience in behavior observation whereas the other coder (research assistant, hence called the second coder) had no experience in coding behavior prior to this study.

  3. The training material consisted of 31 portrayals that were taken from the GEMEP corpus. These are not included in the material that is presented in this paper to test reliability.

  4. These categories were: lateral head turn, lateral head tilt, vertical head tilt, frontal neck posture, frontal trunk lean, lateral trunk lean or rotation, frontal body movement, arms at side, arms in front, arms in pocket, and arms at waist.

  5. We are grateful to Michael Kipp for implementing the required modifications into the Anvil software package.

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Acknowledgments

This research is part of the dissertation project of the first author and was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (FNRS 51A240-104897), by the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) Affective Sciences (51NF40-104897), and by the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swiss Centre for Affective Sciences, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    Nele Dael, Marcello Mortillaro & Klaus R. Scherer

  2. Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Bâtiment Anthropole, Quartier Dorigny, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Nele Dael

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  1. Nele Dael
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  2. Marcello Mortillaro
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  3. Klaus R. Scherer
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Correspondence to Nele Dael.

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Dael, N., Mortillaro, M. & Scherer, K.R. The Body Action and Posture Coding System (BAP): Development and Reliability. J Nonverbal Behav 36, 97–121 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-012-0130-0

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