Physics is part of the same discipline that once said that phlogiston existed. It's a work in progress the same way that psychology is. I agree that it's at the point where, for practical and engineering purposes, it's pretty darn accurate, of course, but don't forget where it came from.
If you want to have a little more respect for psychology, try reading some of the peer-reviewed journals out there for the various social disciplines. You should try actually taking a look at some of the studies done with nonverbal communication and then reassess how accurate you think it might be. If you still think it's not accurate, at least you can say you gave it a shot.
I've taken multiple classes in nonverbal communication and I can back up everything Tom just said about Ekman. He's pretty much one of the forerunners in facial communication and he made one of the first (and ongoing) catalogs of facial expressions.
As a side note in response to your comment's title, physics isn't an exact science either, you know.
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Physics is part of the same discipline that once said that phlogiston existed. It's a work in progress the same way that psychology is. I agree that it's at the point where, for practical and engineering purposes, it's pretty darn accurate, of course, but don't forget where it came from. If you want to have a little more respect for psychology, try reading some of the peer-reviewed journals out there for the various social disciplines. You should try actually taking a look at some of the studies done with nonverbal communication and then reassess how accurate you think it might be. If you still think it's not accurate, at least you can say you gave it a shot.
I've taken multiple classes in nonverbal communication and I can back up everything Tom just said about Ekman. He's pretty much one of the forerunners in facial communication and he made one of the first (and ongoing) catalogs of facial expressions. As a side note in response to your comment's title, physics isn't an exact science either, you know.