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What is CARE?
- The Child and Adolescent Recognition of Emotions (CARE) measure is a web-based, audio-CASI (computer assisted self-interviewing) program designed to assess developmentally-appropriate and culturally sensitive skills in emotion recognition. CARE encompasses five measures: three measures of facial emotion recognition (Face Recall, Face Word, and Four Faces) and two measures of body posture emotion recognition (Body Recall and Body Word).
- In the Face Recall measure, children are presented with photographic stimuli of similarly aged, culturally diverse children depicting facial expressions of happy, sad, mad, scared, surprise, and disgust as well as ambiguous and neutral facial expressions. Children are asked to respond to the open-ended prompt, "How is this child feeling?" and generate an emotion label. An emotion accuracy and anger bias score can be obtained from this measure.
- In the Face Word measure, children are presented with photographic stimuli of similarly aged, culturally diverse children depicting the 6 basic emotions as well as neutral and ambiguous expressions. Children are shown one photograph at a time and are given two emotions to choose from. They will be asked to click on a corresponding colored button to make their decision. For example, the child might be asked to respond to the prompt, "Is this child happy or sad? If (he or she) is happy, click on the yellow button. If (he or she) is sad, click on the blue button." An emotion accuracy and anger bias score can be obtained from this measure.
- In the Four Faces measure, children are presented with four photographic faces on the computer screen and are asked to select a face that represents an emotion label. Thus, the children are asked to respond to the prompt, "Click on the child who is feeling ____ (e.g., mad)". This measure includes items with four pictures per screen of similarly aged, culturally diverse children depicting one of the six basic emotions or a neutral expression. An emotion accuracy score can be obtained from this measure.
- CARE also contains two body pose expression measure, Body Recall and Body Word. In the Body Recall measure, children are presented with photographic stimuli of similarly aged, culturally diverse children depicting body poses expressing happy, sad, anger, fear, disgust and surprise, or neutral. For example, children might see a picture of someone jumping in the air for happiness or crossing their arms for anger. The faces in the pictures are blurred out so that children focus on the body pose as the emotion cue. Children are asked to respond to the open-ended prompt, "How is this child feeling?" and are asked to generate an emotion label. An emotion accuracy score can be obtained from this measure.
- In the Body Word measure, children are presented with photographs of similarly aged, culturally diverse children expressing the six basic emotions or a neutral pose. The faces in the pictures are blurred out so that children focus on the body pose as the emotion cue. The child is given two answer options and is asked to pick a corresponding colored button to make their decision. For example, children might be asked to respond to the prompt, "Is this child surprised or sad? If (he or she) is surprised, click on the purple button. If (he or she) is sad, click on the blue button." An emotion accuracy score can be obtained from this measure.
- The photographic stimuli include head shots of similar-aged children from varying cultural backgrounds (African American, Asian American, European American, and Hispanic American) depicting facial and body expressions of happy, sad, mad, scared, surprise and disgust as well as head shots of ambiguous and no feeling/neutral facial expressions. All photos of facial expressions were counterbalanced by emotion type, gender, and ethnicity; trained FACS coders provided the evidence that the faces are prototypical exemplars of six basic emotions (happy, sad, angry, fearful, surprise, and disgust). In addition, there are mixed emotion blends (anger/sad, anger/disgust, anger/scared) included in the Face Recall and Face Word measures.
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How is CARE scored?
- An interpretive report is automatically generated after a child completes the CARE assessment. The report provides a detailed profile of the child and indicates if the target child is below average, average, or above average for Emotion Recognition skills. This report can be used to guide cognitive-behavioral interventions with children who have problems with social and behavioral functioning that may be due, in part, to emotion knowledge defictis.
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What scientific framework does CARE use?
- The Social Information Processing (SIP) and the Affective Social Competence (ASC) models are used as the guiding scientific frameworks for CARE.
- First, the reformulated Social Information Processing (SIP) model outlined by Crick and Dodge (1994) has contributed significantly to increased understanding of children’s decision making around aggressive behavior patterns. The first stage of the SIP model involves the encoding of internal and external cues with a focus on encoding of facial emotion expressions. Crick and Dodge (1994) hypothesized that, over time, the social cognitive deficits seen in aggressive children will become more automatic as acquired processing patterns and tendencies become ingrained. Indeed, early experiences may form the bases for neural paths, particularly during the first several years of life when synaptic pathways are rapidly developing. Over many years, given the same input and response patterns, the paths may become both more efficient and more rigid. Therefore, a tool that captures children’s encoding of internal and external cues from others will provide valuable information about the emotional competencies of aggressive and non-aggressive children, as well as information about where these patterns begin to emerge.
- Second, emotion recognition is also central in another theoretical model that focuses on children’s development of emotional skills. The Affective Social Competence model (ASC; Halberstadt et al., 2001) captures the development of emotional understanding, communication and experience within relationships. The ASC model proposes that children develop emotional skills in three broad domains: sending, "efficacious communication of one’s own affect;" receiving, "successful interpretation and response to others’ affective communications;" and experiencing, "awareness, acceptance, and management of one’s own affect". Within each broad area, children become increasingly skilled with age and experience (Halberstadt et al., 2001). Additionally, the initial appraisal of another’s emotion is the vital first step in the receiving skill according to the ASC model. This ability to encode another’s emotions (e.g., during play or provocation) is important to successful and effective interactions with peers (e.g., Dunsmore, Noguchi, Garner, Casey, & Bhullar, 2008).
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What age group is the tool for?
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Can boys and girls use SIP-AP?
- Yes, both boys and girls can use CARE.
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How is the application administered?
- The application is a web-based, self-interviewing tool and is administered on a computer with internet access.
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How long does the program take to administer?
- The program takes children approximately 30-40 minutes to complete.
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What are the key features of the program?
- The use of audio-CASI helps to keep respondents engaged in the task; enables reliable, consistent delivery of stimuli; and eliminates the need to be able to read to complete the items somewhat independently.
- High quality, objectively selected facial expression stimuli that are FACS coded for emotional accuracy.
- Photographic stimuli that are both developmentally and culturally appropriate. The photographic stimuli includes similar-aged children and represents a diverse population of ethnic and racial backgrounds making the assessment tool appropriate for use with children from a wide variety of backgrounds.
- The addition of body poses, in addition to facial expressions of emotion.
- Data from the CARE assessment tool can be downloaded immediately after use, as well as automatically scored and interpreted.
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What credentials are needed to order and use the program?
- To order the program you must be a non-student member of the American Psychological Association (APA) or a similar professional association OR provide your educational information and submit a letter from your advisor or employer. For more information on what credentials you must provide to order CARE click here.
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What is the cost of the program?
- Cost TBD….The cost of CARE depends on the number of uses purchased. Discounts are given when a greater number of uses are purchased.
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How do I order CARE?
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What are the System Requirements for using CARE?
- Computer:
- Microsoft Windows 2000 or higher, with Intel Pentium II 450 MHz and 256MB of RAM, OR
- Macintosh PowerPC® G3 500MHz or Intel Core Duo 1.33GHz and 256MB of RAM, OR
- Linux 800 MHz with 512MB of RAM, 128MB of graphics memory
- Internet Browser:
- Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher, OR
- Firefox 1.5 or higher, OR
- other
- (Optimized for Internet Explorer)
- Adobe Flash Player version 8 or higher
- Adobe Acrobat Reader
- Broadband internet connection (1.5 Mbps or faster recommended)
- Recommended display resolution of 1024 x 768 (minimum)
- Speakers or Headphones
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