When people’s emotions change, their body language, voice and facial expression changes, as well. Not a lot of people can pick up the changes in pitch, tone and volume. These are important factors to consider when analyzing the emotion of someone you are speaking to, especially if the conversation is over the phone (Gobl, Christer, and Ailbhe Nı́ Chasaide 189). Voice quality plays a vital role in communicating emotions, attitudes, reactions and moods. By knowing or understanding these things, an individual will be able to judge the emotion of someone that they are talking to.
When you are speaking to your significant other, and you mention to them that you were doing the laundry when you noticed that you accidentally put a hole in their favorite shirt. Even though they do not say anything about how they feel, you can gauge their reaction by taking a look at how they are speaking. If their volume is a bit louder than usual, with higher intensity and lower pitch, this can be classified as anger (Scherer 227). However, there are two different types of anger, there is regular anger and hot anger. When a person displays hot anger, you will be able to tell their emotion because their volume will increase significantly and they will produce a higher pitch that is more varied. This means that there will be a range in their voice.
Also, there is greater energy. Hot anger is easier to identify than regular anger because of the characteristics in the voice. Even without looking at the person who is speaking, you can tell that they are angry by the tone, volume and pitch of their voice. Other than this, they might also be speaking a bit faster than usual.
Joy can be a bit more difficult to pick up. People display this emotion in different ways. This is harder to see in people who have blank expressions, or those who like to hold back how they are feeling. Generally, joy can be mistaken for a number of other emotions (Pittam, Jeffery, and Klaus R. Scherer 185). A person can be joyful but seem content. Imagine that you are a certain boy’s sibling, you watch him come home and act a bit stranger than usual. You ask him what happened and why he is acting weird. He then proceeds to tell you a story. Apparently, during school, he approached a girl that he really liked. He was able to speak to her for the very first time after admiring her from a far for so long. He concludes the story by telling you that they plan to have lunch very soon, and that he is excited about this. The way that he told you the story can help you figure out how he felt during the day. He spoke slower than usual, in a calm and serene manner. His voice volume was regulated and the pitch was higher at certain parts of the sentence. The tone of his voice was giddy, even though he tried to hide his emotions. This probably means that he feels happy and joyful.
You can measure joy at another level, though if the person is filled with extreme joy and excitement (Scherer 227). This will be easier to pick-up as the person’s body-language will give it away. A person who is displaying extreme joy will most likely speak in a very fast manner, the pitch will be a lot higher and the tone will be filled with excitement. Imagine that you are speaking to your significant other. After months of not finding a job, they finally come home from an interview with great news. Although he or she does not tell you what happened, you can tell by the tone of their voice that they are very excited and filled with extreme joy. This is when their volume is louder, they speak a bit faster and their tone is filled with energy. Although this displays almost the same characteristics as hot anger, the pitch for excitement will be maintained at a certain level, instead of being varied.
Depression or sadness is even harder to detect. There are millions of people who are lonely, sad and depressed, yet these emotions go unnoticed (Scherer 227). When you speak to someone who is depressed or sad, they will try to mask their emotions, but subtle hints in how they are speaking can give it away. Usually, their body language can also give it away. If they look down, eyes drooping, mouth almost hanging and they are slouched down, they might be feeling a bit sad. If you are speaking to a classmate about their test results, and you ask them how they did. They don’t respond right away, and they reply with “I don’t know” but their volume is soft, their pitch is low and their tone is monotonous, they might be depressed. When you start asking them about other things, and they display the same monotonous tone, they are deeply depressed. If you know the person and have seen them in different emotional states, you should be able to tell if they are sad or not, depending on their voice. Some people are very shy and reserved, they are not comfortable talking to other people, or strangers that they do not know too well. Because of this, they speak in a way that can be confused with depression. People who are considered introverted, those who get their energy from being alone, might also speak this way. However, this does not necessarily mean that they are depressed.
Works Cited
Gobl, Christer, and Ailbhe Nı́ Chasaide. "The role of voice quality in communicating emotion,
mood and attitude." Speech communication 40.1 (2003): 189-212.
Pittam, Jeffery, and Klaus R. Scherer. "Vocal expression and communication of
emotion." Handbook of emotions (1993): 185-197.
Scherer, Klaus R. "Vocal communication of emotion: A review of research paradigms." Speech
communication 40.1 (2003): 227-256.
