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Human emotional weeping, or crying, occurs in response to a wide array of antecedents. Although music is often mentioned specifically as a stimulus that may make individuals cry, few studies have systematically explored the characteristics of these crying episodes. The present study examines crying over music. Participants ( N = 2778; 1716 women) completed a survey asking about the last time they cried while listening to music, their associated emotions and physical experiences, details of the song they were listening to, time of day, presence of others, and the overall experience of the crying episode itself. Crying over music appears to be relatively common and occurs mainly when the person is alone during the afternoon and evening. Participants cried over a wide variety of songs, and they attributed their crying to sad memories, nostalgia, the music itself, and the lyrics. They often experienced being moved, sadness, powerlessness, and nostalgia while crying over music. These findings are discussed in the context of music listening and how they compare with the findings of research on crying in general.

This research tested the hypothesis that emotional crying facilitates coping and recovery, specifically through physiological changes that occur during crying. Female undergraduate students (N = 197) were randomly assigned to either a sad or neutral condition using short videos. Sad videos were selected for their extreme emotion elicitation. We predicted that compared to those who did not cry to the stimuli and those who were exposed to neutral videos, people who cried would (a) be able to withstand a stressful task for longer; (b) show lower levels of cortisol following crying and exposure to the stressor; and (c) have faster recovery (i.e., return to baseline levels of affect). The final groups consisted of the neutral group (n = 65), sad criers (n = 71), and sad noncriers (n = 61). After a 5-min baseline period, participants watched either the sad or neutral videos for 17 min and then completed a physical stressor (cold pressor test). Heart rate and respiration were continuously recorded, whereas salivary samples for cortisol were taken at 4 separate time points during testing. Analyses revealed no differences between the 3 groups in time withstanding the stressor or cortisol changes. Respiration rate, however, increased in the neutral group and noncriers while watching the videos, with criers' respiration remaining stable. Furthermore, heart rate was found to decelerate just before crying, with a return to baseline during the first crying period. These results suggest that crying may assist in generally maintaining biological homeostasis, perhaps consciously through self-soothing via purposeful breathing and unconsciously through regulation of heart rate. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Various scholars have noted that the label "victim" frequently elicits connotations of stereotypical, passive femininity— especially when the crime entails rape or other forms of sexual violence. In three online experimental studies, British respondents were recruited to test whether written information about a sexual assault led observers to perceive the victim as more feminine in terms of character traits and facial appearance. Study 1 (n = 139) compared observers’ perceptions of a male victim to a man accused of sexual assault and a control condition. Study 2 (n = 165) was a conceptual replication, replacing the male with a female target. Study 3 (n = 278) extended Study 1 by adding a condition with a male victim of physical assault and another with aman who had engaged in consensual homosexual sex in order to assess whether feminizing effects were unique to victimization by sexual assault. Results revealed partial support for the feminization hypothesis. Male and female victims were consistently attributed fewer proscriptive masculine traits than target persons in other conditions, as well as more prescriptive feminine traits than target persons in the accused condition. Results for the feminization of facial features were inconsistent. We discuss potential implications of the results for sexual violence awareness-raising campaigns and understanding victims’ potential identity struggles.

ObjectiveNostalgia is a sentimental longing for one's past. We examined the hypotheses (rooted in attachment theory and research) that nostalgia prone individuals, by virtue of their greater attachment security, are more empathic and enact more prosocial behavior.MethodIn five studies, testing 1,923 participants (Nrange = 132–823, 52.42% women, Agerange = 8–90 years), we measured nostalgia proneness and affective empathy. Additionally, we measured cognitive empathy in Study 3, attachment security in Studies 4–5, and prosocial behavior in Study 5. ResultsNostalgia proneness was positively related to affective empathy among younger and older adults (Studies 1, 3–5) and among children (Study 2). This association was stronger for affective empathy than cognitive empathy (Study 3). Also, attachment security mediated the relation between nostalgia proneness and affective empathy (Studies 4–5). Finally, nostalgia prone individuals were more likely to engage in prosocial behavior, and this relation was serially mediated by attachment security and affective empathy (Study 5).ConclusionThe findings establish the empathic and prosocial character of nostalgia prone individuals, and clarify their personality profile.

Emotion dysregulation and hyperreactivity are considered central features of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). We assumed that such emotion dysregulation is also reflected in increased crying behavior of these patients and, consequently, hypothesized that BPD patients (N = 62), compared to Cluster C personality disorder patients (Cluster C-PD; N = 25) and non-patients (N = 54), would show higher scores on crying measures. To evaluate crying behavior, we used a set of specially designed tools. Compared to non-patients, BPD patients showed the anticipated higher crying frequency despite a similar crying proneness and ways of dealing with tears. They also reported less awareness of the influence of crying on others. However, Cluster C-PD patients showed a very similar pattern of findings. Overall, our results suggest that the increased crying of BPD patients likely results from environmental factors or the misperception of situations, rather than from stable traits. Remarkable is that the observed discrepancies in crying behavior compared to non-patients seem to be similar for Cluster-C PDs and BPD.

According to Linehan (1993), emotion dysregulation is a central feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD). We hypothesized that patients with BPD are emotionally hyperresponsive. For BPD treatment, it is important to evaluate this hypothesis, because, if it is supported, therapeutic interventions could be designed to help patients to better manage hyperemotional reactions. We investigated the subjective reactions (in terms of valence and arousal) of patients with BPD to visual emotional stimuli of the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). We hypothesized that, compared to patients with Cluster-C personality disorders and non-patients, BPD patients would show higher scores on the arousal dimension and higher negative scores on the valence dimension when rating IAPS pictures with varying degrees of arousal and valence. Ratings of valence and arousal for 40 IAPS pictures were collected from 39 borderline personality disorder (BPD), 36 patients diagnosed with Cluster-C personality disorders (PD), and a group of 226 non-patients. Contrary to expectations, BPD patients did not differ from the non-patients. This indicates that their self-report scores do not reflect hypersensitivity. We found that patients with BPD showed lower scores on arousal than Cluster-C PD patients. The scores on valence suggested that Cluster-C PD patients also experienced more positive emotions than BPD patients.

Emotional tears have been proposed to serve as a signal of distress, appeasement, and helplessness, which promotes prosocial responses in observers. They may also facilitate the perception of sadness. A still unanswered question is what information tears convey about emotional states when they are combined with different muscular facial expressions. The current study evaluated three hypotheses: Tears facilitate inferences about (a) emotion intensity in general (b) sadness in particular, or (c) helplessness-related appraisal and behavioral intentions. In the first experiment, participants viewed pictures of (non)tearful real and artificial faces displaying anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise, and neutral state. They had to report which of the seven expressions they recognized, and to rate its intensity, sincerity, and felt empathy. Tears appeared to facilitate the perception of sadness, but also of anger and fear, while they decreased the perception of disgust and surprise. The ratings of the intensity, the perceived sincerity, and the experienced empathy followed a similar pattern. In the second experiment, participants had to indicate if briefly (50 ms) presented (non)tearful faces showed a particular expression, and we measured their accuracy and reaction times. The results of the first experiment were not corroborated. Overall, the findings lend most support to the appraisal/behavioral intentions hypothesis and less support for the intensity and the sadness enhancement hypotheses.

Tearful crying is a ubiquitous and likely uniquely human phenomenon. Scholars have argued that emotional tears serve an attachment function: Tears are thought to act as a social glue by evoking social support intentions. Initial experimental studies supported this proposition across several methodologies, but these were conducted almost exclusively on participants from North America and Europe, resulting in limited generalizability. This project examined the tears-social support intentions effect and possible mediating and moderating variables in a fully pre-registered study across 7007 participants (24,886 ratings) and 41 countries spanning all populated continents. Participants were presented with four pictures out of 100 possible targets with or without digitally-added tears. We confirmed the main prediction that seeing a tearful individual elicits the intention to support, d = 0.49 [0.43, 0.55]. Our data suggest that this effect could be mediated by perceiving the crying target as warmer and more helpless, feeling more connected, as well as feeling more empathic concern for the crier, but not by an increase in personal distress of the observer. The effect was moderated by the situational valence, identifying the target as part of one's group, and trait empathic concern. A neutral situation, high trait empathic concern, and low identification increased the effect. We observed high heterogeneity across countries that was, via split-half validation, best explained by country-level GDP per capita and subjective well-being with stronger effects for higher-scoring countries. These findings suggest that tears can function as social glue, providing one possible explanation why emotional crying persists into adulthood., National Science Centre, Poland; Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange Bekker Programme; Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology; Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office; Hungarian Brain Research Programme; Internal Fund of the Open University of Israel

Although several scholars acknowledge the existence of tears of joy, there is little systematic theoretical or empirical evidence on how positive tears are experienced, what elicits them, what actions or impulses they motivate in the crier, how they differ from tears of sadness or distress and whether there are different types. We systematically investigated these issues and drafted a first taxonomic model of positive tears. Drawing on more than 1500 reports of positive tears and including 13124 participants from 40 diverse countries and 24 languages, the studies employed a strong mixture of quantitative and qualitative techniques. The final results showed evidence of the occurrence of positive tears and found four qualitatively different types and profiles that we termed achievement, beauty, affection, and amusement tears. Achievement tears are often shed in contexts of extraordinary performance or when someone overcomes an obstacle and often include feelings of pride. Beauty tears occur commonly in situations of overwhelming elegance or beauty, including nature, music or visual arts, and feature feelings of awe or experiencing chills. Affectionate tears are often experienced in situations including unexpected kindness or exceptional love such as wedding ceremonies or reunions and often feature feelings of warmth, increased communality, and feeling touched or compassionate. Finally, amusement tears are shed when something especially funny occurs and include feelings of amusement or lightness and the inclination to laugh or giggle. We also investigated cross-cultural and inter-individual differences with regard to these categories and discuss limitations and implications of our taxonomy of positive tears.

The goal of this clinical practice review is to assess the current state of the theoretical and empirical literature on emotional crying (i.e., crying in response to an emotional stimulus), a topic that has received surprisingly limited attention of behavioral scientists and clinicians. Although the empirical research on emotional crying remains in a nascent state, we draw upon the existing scientific knowledge to provide preliminary suggestions for clinicians on how to interpret and respond to crying in clinical contexts. We also identify research gaps and provide recommendations for further research to improve our understanding of this intriguing and still poorly understood human behavior. We suggest that a better understanding of individual differences in crying behavior and the postulated intraindividual and interindividual functions of crying is of critical importance for clinicians, given its frequent occurrence and notable associations with emotional and social functioning. An improved characterization of this important phenomenon will lead to improvements in clinical assessment, treatment planning, and psychotherapy interventions. Clinical Impact Statement—Question: We review the state of the empirical literature on human crying behavior, with a focus on crying of both patients and therapists in the clinical setting. Findings: Findings may help guide how clinicians interpret and respond to crying in the clinical setting. Meaning: Generally crying of therapists or patients appears to be beneficial in a clinical context, but this seems to depend on a number of contextual factors. Next Steps: As current research on crying in the context of clinical assessment and psychotherapy is still very limited, further research is needed to fully understand how crying of patients and therapists impacts the therapeutic process, as well as how crying behavior manifests in various forms of psychopathology.

The Community Reinforcement Approach Happiness Scale (CRA-HS) is widely used for assessing the quality of life in addiction treatment, but the amount of research on the psychometric properties has been scant. The present study sought to (a) test for measurement invariance of the CRA-HS across college students (n = 3388) in five countries (i.e., United States, Spain, Argentina, Uruguay, and the Netherlands); (b) evaluate differences on the CRA-HS (i.e., latent mean differences) as a function of sex and country, and (c) compare criterion-related validity. Using multi-group confirmatory factor analyses, we found a shortened 10-item version of the CRA-HS to be invariant across sex, but only configural and metric invariance was found across countries. Across all countries, criterion-related validity of the CRA-HS scores across different countries emerged. Our findings serve as a foundation for future cross-cultural work testing models in which subjective well-being (i.e., happiness) is an important clinical/routine outcome among college students. Fil: Roozen, Hendrik G.. University of New Mexico; Estados Unidos Fil: Bravo, Adrian J.. University of New Mexico; Estados Unidos Fil: Pilatti, Angelina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas; Argentina Fil: Mezquita, Laura. Universitat Jaume I; España Fil: Vingerhoets, Ad. Tilburg University; Países Bajos Fil: Cross-cultural Addictions Study Team. No especifíca

Nostalgia increases meaning in life, but how so? In four experiments—using varied operationalizations of nostalgia, diverse populations, and complementary methodologies—we identified a serial process. We hypothesized and found, in Experiment 1, that self‐continuity boosts meaning in life. We hypothesized and found, in Experiment 2, that nostalgia increases meaning in life through self‐continuity. Finally, we hypothesized and found, in Experiments 3‐4, that nostalgia fosters social connectedness, which plausibly heightens self‐continuity, which in turn strengthens meaning in life. The findings clarify an intricate pathway through which nostalgia renders life more meaningful.

In two experimental studies, we explored the role of attachment in predicting emotional reactivity after frustration induction. In the first study, using a cognitive frustration task, we examined in a college sample (N = 134) how attachment styles related to the experience and expression of emotions after frustration induction. In the second study, we investigated in college students (N = 198) the effect of conscious priming of the secure base schema on mood disturbance after the performance of a cognitive frustration task. Results showed that individuals experienced and expressed emotions after frustration induction independent of their attachment styles. Conscious priming of the secure base script attenuated self-reported emotional reactivity after frustration induction independent of individuals' attachment styles. These findings suggest that the mechanism of attachment-related emotional reactivity might not pertain to frustration during an unsolvable cognitive task, but that the activation of the sense of having a secure base is useful in reducing mood disturbance in the context of a frustrating performance task.

We examined several aspects of the crying experiences of physicians and medical interns, including the most common reasons to cry in the workplace, and their perceptions of and attitudes towards crying in the workplace and in the presence of a patient. A sample of Dutch physicians and medical interns (Nphysicians = 1068 and Nmedical interns = 302 and for the full version Nphysicians = 776 and Nmedical interns = 181) completed an especially designed anonymous online questionnaire about experiences with crying in the workplace, and perceptions of and attitudes towards crying in the workplace and in the presence of patients. Crying is a rather frequent behavior among physicians, in particular when they have to deal with the severe suffering of patients and their relatives. We found a considerable variety in the attitudes and perception of crying in the work setting, although there was also much agreement that crying in the presence of a patient is only appropriate if it is over the condition of the patient. Physicians reported a slightly more positive attitude and a stronger need for more attention to this topic in training and education than medical interns. Crying in the medical setting is a common, though understudied phenomenon. There is a strong need for further research on this topic in order to understand it better and how and when it might interfere with or facilitate with the therapeutic process. We strongly feel that currently the time is ripe for this topic because in particular the physicians expressed a greater need for more attention to this topic in training and the medical interns showed signs of, perhaps unhealthy, suppression of their emotions.

Background: Placebo response is common in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and decreases the likelihood of demonstrating drug superiority over placebo in a randomized, controlled trial (RCT). This paper aims to review the collective evidence for particular patient characteristics and trial features being associatedwith placebo response in MDD.Methods: MEDLINE/PubMed publication database and Cochrane Library were searched for meta-analyses of placebo response in MDD, published in English from January 1990 to December 2017. The evidence for factors predicting a low or high placebo response was tabulated and weighted on the basis of methods, results, and quality of supporting studies.Results: We identified 58 papers, examining the possible association of 40 different factors with placebo response in MDD. Research methods varied considerably across articles so that our reporting remained descriptive. The evidence for any factor being associated with placebo response in MDD appeared very weak to weak.Limitations: Since none of the pooled analyses that we included could be regarded as a meta-analysis in its strict sense, and analytical approaches varied considerably, the current work is descriptive only, and without formal statistical analysis.Conclusions: Despite 25 years of pooling data from RCTs in MDD, there is no single factor for which strong evidence exists that it influences placebo response.

ObjectiveIn this pilot study, we aimed to obtain a better insight into therapists’ experiences with and attitudes toward their own tears and those of their clients.MethodBased on the crying literature and our clinical experiences of crying in therapy, we developed specific questions about therapist’ experiences with crying and two tailor-made measures to evaluate attitudes towards crying in therapy. We collected data from 819 Dutch mental health professionals (204 men and 615 women; age range 23–74 years).ResultsTherapist crying is not a rare occurrence in the therapeutic setting. We found that there was significant heterogeneity in attitudes on therapist crying, and factors such as gender, work experience, age, theoretical background, and discipline of the therapists had meaningful associations with these attitudes (p

The present study was designed to examine the relationship between parentification and choice of education: Psychology versus humanities. Additionally, we investigated the association between parentification, on the one hand, and cognitive and affective empathy as well as resilience, on the other. The rational for this study was the increasing evidence that parentification may not only induce several possible adverse effects but that it can also facilitate the development of some specific positive abilities (e.g., higher empathic skills and resilience). We compared 265 psychology students with 51 humanities students on the variables parentification, empathy, and resilience. Within the group of psychology students, we conducted hierarchical regression analyses on cognitive empathy, affective empathy, and resilience with parentification and possible confounders as predictors. Psychology students reported more parentification experiences in their families than the humanities students, but they did not score higher on empathy and resilience. Among psychology students, parentification was associated with higher resilience and higher cognitive empathy, while there was no connection with affective empathy. These findings partially support the hypothesis of specific mental growth in parentified children.

Earlier research found that the mere sight of tears promotes the willingness to provide support to the person shedding the tears. Other research, however, found that deliberate responses towards tearful persons could be more negative as well. We think this is because tears have ambivalent effects on person perception: We predicted that tearful people are seen as warmer, but also as less competent. In three studies, we asked participants (total N = 1,042) to form their impression of someone based on a picture. The depicted person either displayed visible tears, or the tears had been digitally removed. Tearful individuals were perceived as being warmer, but also as less competent. In Study 2, we also added a measure of perceived sadness. Seeing a tearful face increased perceived sadness, and this (partially) explained the reduction in perceived competence of the target person. There was no such indirect effect of the tear on perceived warmth via perceived sadness. Study 3 found that people would be more likely to approach a tearful person to offer help than a tearless individual. At the same time, tearful individuals would be more likely to be avoided in situations in which the observer needs assistance for an important task.

In order to examine (1) the stability of the mother-child-bond and (2) associations between mother-child-bonding and aspects of maternal-well-being, pregnant women (N = 170) completed measures on well-being and mother-child-bonding at two antepartum and two postpartum time points. We found relatively weak associations between mother-child-bonding at 20 weeks of gestation and mother-child-bonding at 6 months postpartum. Fear of childbirth was weakly, but statistically significantly associated with mother-child-bonding at 6 weeks (but not at 6 months) postpartum. Correlations between antepartum general well-being and social support, on the one hand, and mother-child-bonding, on the other, failed to reach statistical significance. Women with a partner had a better mother-child-bonding at 36 weeks of gestation and 6 months postpartum, than women without a partner, and older women had better mother-child-bonding at 20 weeks of gestation, than younger women. Our findings thus suggest that mother-child-bonding is not a very stable phenomenon, but it is quite robust against potential negative influences of poor maternal mental health. Funding Agencies|Dutch Working Group of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynaecology [2]; Dutch Association of Haptotherapists [1]

Crying is a uniquely human behavior, the functions of which are at present not completely understood. We hypothesized that tears promote the perception of morally relevant traits and states such as sincerity, honesty, and remorse, which facilitate social bonding and we, therefore, predicted that tears would reduce the punishments proposed for transgressors. Participants were exposed to photographs of tearful people and the same pictures with the tears digitally removed, together with brief descriptions of everyday transgressions (Study 1, N = 71) and crimes (Study 2; N = 359). The dependent variables were the judgment of the model’s emotionality (Study 1), sincerity (situational in Study 1 and trait in Study 2), and kindness, remorse, and proposed punishment (Study 2 only). As expected, models with visible tears were rated as more emotional and reliable and were also judged as kinder and more remorseful than tearless transgressors. However, the more positive perception of tearful transgressors only translated into more lenient punishment in the case of drunk driving. In conclusion, although tears make transgressors appear more sincere, reliable, kind and remorseful, they do not necessarily affect proposed punishments for the transgression.

Until now, adult crying has received relatively little interest from investigators, whereas in the popular media there are many strong claims about crying (e.g., crying brings relief) of which the scientific basis is not clear. In this review, we provide an overview of the current state of the scientific literature with respect to crying. We identify gaps in knowledge and propose questions for future research. The following topics receive special attention: Ontogenetic development, antecedents, individual and gender differences, and the intra- and interindividual effects of crying. We conclude that the study of crying may help us obtain better insight into human nature, that is, not only our emotional, but also social, and moral functioning.

This study examined dimensions of crying and its relations with ocular dryness and mental well-being in patients with Sjo¨gren’s syndrome, a systemic autoimmune disease with dryness as primary symptom. Three-hundred patients with Sjo¨gren’s syndrome completed questionnaires on crying, dryness, and well-being. The crying questionnaire revealed four dimensions: ‘‘Cryability’’ (comprising both crying sensibility and ability to cry), Somatic consequences, Frustration, and Suppression. Compared to 100demographically-matched control participants from the general population, patients scored low on Cryability and high on Somatic consequences and Frustration. The crying dimensions generally showed significant but weak associations with ocular dryness and mental well-being in patients. This is the first quantitative study indicating that crying problems are more common in patients with Sjo¨gren’s syndrome than in the general population. Perhaps,patients who experience problems with crying could be helped to rely on other ways of expressing emotions than crying in tear-inducing situations.

IntroductionDespite consistently high discontinuation rates due to withdrawal of consent (WOC) and insufficient therapeutic effect (ITE) in schizophrenia trials, insight into the underlying factors contributing to poor satisfaction with treatment and dropout is limited. A better understanding of these factors could help to improve trial design and completion rates.MethodsUsing data from 1,136 trial participants with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, we explored associations between predictor variables with (1) dropout due to WOC and ITE and (2) satisfaction with treatment among patients and investigators by means of hierarchic multiple regression analyses.ResultsITE was associated with poor clinical improvement, poor investigator satisfaction with treatment, and poor patient insight into their own disease, whereas WOC only showed a meaningful association with poor patient satisfaction with treatment. Investigator satisfaction with treatment appeared most strongly associated with Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) positive factor endpoint scores, whereas patient satisfaction with treatment was best predicted by the endpoint score on the PANSS emotional distress factor. The occurrence of severe side effects showed no meaningful association to satisfaction with treatment among investigators and patients, and neither did a patient’s experienced psychopathology, nor their self-rating of functional impairment.ConclusionsWhereas trial discontinuation due to ITE is associated with poor treatment effectiveness, a patient’s decision to withdraw from an antipsychotic trial remains unpredictable and may occur even when the investigator observes a global clinical improvement and is satisfied with the treatment.

Mentalization deficits and disturbances in emotional functioning may contribute to somatization in patients with medically unexplained somatic symptoms (MUSS). The present study aimed to increase understanding the psychological factors that contribute to somatization by examining associations between attachment, crying attitudes and behavior, and somatic symptoms in these patients. Attachment security was measured with the Experiences in Close Relationships Questionnaire in sixty-eight outpatients diagnosed with MUSS. Somatic symptom severity was measured with the RAND-36, crying frequency, and attitudes with the Adult Crying Inventory. Patients were asked to evaluate photographs of crying individuals in order to assess the perception of crying and empathic responses to crying. Attachment anxiety was significantly related to somatic symptom severity and negative attitudes toward crying. In addition, somatic symptom severity was related to a more negative attitude toward crying and less awareness of the interpersonal impact of crying on others. The association between attachment anxiety and somatic symptoms was, however, not mediated by crying or negative attitude toward crying. Neither were there significant associations between attachment, somatic symptoms, and empathic responses to crying. Altered attitudes to crying may stem from a history of insecure attachment experiences and may reflect maladaptive emotion strategies in MUSS patients.

What are the social signals of emotional tears? This question has fascinated scholars ever since Darwin. Studies have suggested several interpersonal effects of emotional tears. A recent study by Van de Ven, Meijs, and Vingerhoets (2017) presented evidence in three studies that tearful individuals are perceived as warmer, but also less competent than their non-tearful counterparts. However, the competence effect was relatively small, and a recent replication failed to find such an effect in two different populations while the warmth effect was replicated (Zickfeld & Schubert, 2018). This questions the generalizability of the effect of tears on perceived competence. To test whether individuals expressing emotional tears are really perceived as less competent and what boundary conditions such an effect might have, we specified a decision tree of three different studies in which we test differences between the original reference study and the replication. We replicated previous findings of the perceived (in)competence in Study 1 (n = 531) but observed a considerably smaller non-significant effect when proceeding to Study 2 (n = 471), which increased the number of stimuli. The earlier and now repeated replication failure can therefore likely be attributed to an increased variation in stimulus material. We conclude that there is not enough evidence to argue that one social outcome of tears signals a relative lack of competence as the effect seems to depend on the specific stimuli used. info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion

Producing emotional tears is a universal and uniquely human behavior. Until recently, tears have received little serious attention from scientists. Here, we summarize recent theoretical developments and research findings. The evolutionary approach offers a solid ground for the analysis of the functions of tears. This is especially the case for infant crying, which we address in the first part of this contribution. We further elaborate on the antecedents and (intra- and interpersonal) functions of emotional tears in adults. The main hypothesis that emerges from this overview is that crying evolved as an emotional expression that signals distress and promotes prosocial behaviors in conspecifics. Further, shedding tears may influence the mood of the crier and his/her outlook on life primarily as a consequence of fulfillment of the proposed signaling function of tears. We also describe how cultural phenomena such as ritual weeping nicely fit within this framework, as they often aim to support a request for help to a powerful person or deity and promote social bonding.

Objective: The present study examined whether early signs of maternal sensitivity can be detected during pregnancy by focusing on the maternal–fetal relationship and postnatal maternal sensitivity. Background: Earlier research has identified maternal sensitive behaviour as an important factor for the quality of the mother–infant relationship and the child’s emotional and cognitive development later in life. Research on this topic has predominantly focused on the postnatal period and little is known about early predictors (i.e. during pregnancy) of maternal sensitivity. Methods: Participants were 273 women and their (unborn) infants. Mothers’ attitudes, thoughts and feelings towards the fetus were assessed by the Maternal Antenatal Attachment Scale at 26 weeks of gestation. At the infant’s age of 6 months, maternal sensitivity was assessed in three different situations (i.e. face-to-face play, caregiving and free play) using the NICHD global rating scales. Results: Mothers with a higher quality of the maternal–fetal relationship displayed more maternal sensitivity towards their 6-month-old infant in caregiving and free play situations, even when controlling for covariates such as parity, ethnicity, maternal education, maternal age and the postnatal mother–infant relationship. No associations were found in the face-to-face situation. Conclusion: This study shows that mothers who reported a higher quality of the maternal–fetal relationship were more sensitive while interacting with their infants during caregiving and free play, but not during face-to-face play.

Contains fulltext : 194063.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Emotional tears have been proposed to represent a robust affiliative signal whose main function is to promote the willingness to help the crying individual. However, little is known about the psychological mechanisms at the basis of such responses. To investigate whether tears facilitate approach relative to avoidance tendencies, we exposed participants (N = 77) to pictures of faces with and without visible tears, in two different approach–avoidance tasks. In the first task, participants were instructed to either move toward tearful faces and away from nontearful faces, or the other way around, by using a joystick. In the second task, participants made approaching or avoiding responses to tearful and nontearful faces by pressing buttons. The results suggest that tears facilitate behavior that reduces the distance between the observer and the crying person. However, while tears appear to promote approach relative to avoidance behavior, the current findings do not allow firm conclusions about whether tears specifically facilitate approach or rather block avoidance tendencies in observers, or whether they possibly have both effects. Findings are discussed in the context of tears’ ability to act as a prosocial stimulus that signals non-aggressive intentions, as well as in the context of the functional goals that predispose humans to approach or avoid crying individuals. 10 p.

OBJECTIVES: The present study investigated deficiencies in different components of emotional intelligence in borderline personality disorder (BPD).METHOD: The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) and the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i) were used to assess EI dimensions. BPD patients (N = 85; 69 women; M = 33.6 years) were compared with Cluster C personality disorder (PD) patients (N = 39; 23 women; M = 36.6 years) and nonpatients (N = 69; 44 women; M = 35.6 years).RESULTS: Compared to the Cluster C PD patients and the nonpatient group, BPD patients displayed only deficits in their ability to understand emotions as measured with the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test. The Emotional Quotient Inventory only revealed deficits in stress management in BPD patients compared to Cluster C PD patients.CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that BPD patients have the ability to regulate emotions effectively, but they subjectively experience deficits in emotion regulation and therefore may not use this ability when they need it.

Whereas retrospective studies suggest that crying can be beneficial in terms of mood enhancement, results of quasi-experimental laboratory studies consistently demonstrate its negative effects on mood. The present study was specifically designed to evaluate a parsimonious explanation for this paradox by assessing mood after crying in a laboratory, both immediately and at follow up. Mood ratings of 28 objectively established criers and 32 non-criers were compared before and immediately after the exposure to an emotional movie, as well as 20 and 90 min later. As expected, immediately after the film, negative mood significantly increased in criers, while it did not change in noncriers. This mood deterioration was followed by a recovery that resulted in return to the baseline mood levels at the third measurement. Criers subsequently reported mood enhancements at the final measurement compared to the pre- film measurement. Crying frequency did not predict mood changes above those predicted by the presence of crying. The observed relation between crying and more long- term mood recovery reconciles seemingly contrasting earlier results and provides a simple and obvious explanation. After the initial deterioration of mood following crying that was observed in laboratory studies, it apparently takes some time for the mood, not just to recover, but also to become even less negative than before the emotional event, which corresponds to the results of retrospective studies.

Disorders of consciousness are neurological conditions associated with low levels of functioning which pose a serious challenge to public health systems. The current study aimed to examine longitudinal changes in functioning in patients with disorders of consciousness and to identify associated biopsychosocial factors using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health. An Italian sample of 248 patients was assessed longitudinally. Differences in relative variability (an index of change that controls for baseline levels) between acute and chronic patients and predictors of relative variability in “Activities &amp, Participation” were examined. Results showed that there were subgroups of patients whose functioning improved over time. The number of problems in “Activities &amp, Participation” decreased in acute patients over time, whereas in chronic patients, an increase was found. The significant difference in relative variability for the environmental factor “support and relationships” reflects the increase in facilitators in acute patients, whereas the number of facilitators in chronic patients remained unchanged over time. Age at event, time from event, and relative variability in “Environmental Factors” were significant predictors of relative variability in “Activities &amp, Participation”. It is of clinical relevance that patients with disorders of consciousness are kept in a supportive and facilitative environment, in order to prevent a decline in their functioning. Moreover, caregivers should receive tailored support in order to enhance and facilitate appropriate care of patients with disorders of consciousness.

The production of emotional tears appears to be uniquely present in Homo Sapiens. Despite the ubiquity of this human behavior, research is only just beginning to uncover the neurobiological underpinnings of human emotional crying. In this paper, we review the current state of the literature investigating the neurobiological aspects of this uniquely human behavior, including neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and psychophysiological findings. To set the context for this review, we first provide a brief overview of the evolutionary background and functions of tearful crying. Despite an accumulating understanding of the neurobiology of human emotional crying, the primary sources of information are currently from animal studies and observations in neurological patients suffering from pathological crying. Currently, most of the research on the neurobiology of crying in humans has focused on autonomic physiological processes underlying tearful crying, which may yield essential clues regarding the neural substrates of the production of crying behavior and its effects on the crier. Further challenges in elucidating the neurobiology of crying involve the complexity of crying behavior, which includes vocalizations, tear production, the involvement of facial musculature, subjective emotional experience, emotion regulatory behaviors, and social behaviors. Future research is needed to comprehensively characterize the neurobiology of this intriguing and complex human behavior.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of haptotherapy on severe fear of childbirth in pregnant women.Design: Randomized controlled trial.Setting: Community midwifery practices and a teaching hospital in the Netherlands.Population or Sample: Primi- and multigravida, suffering from severe fear of childbirth (N=134).Methods: Haptotherapy, psycho-education via Internet and care as usual were randomly assigned at 20-24weeks of gestation and the effects were compared at 36weeks of gestation and 6weeks and 6months postpartum. Repeated measurements ANOVA were carried out on the basis of intention to treat. Since there were crossovers from psycho-education via Internet and care as usual to haptotherapy, the analysis was repeated according to the as treated principle.Main outcome measures: Fear of childbirth score at the Wijma Delivery Expectancy/Experience Questionnaire.Results: In the intention to treat analysis, only the haptotherapy group showed a significant decrease of fear of childbirth, F(2,99)=3.321, p=.040. In the as treated analysis, the haptotherapy group showed a greater reduction in fear of childbirth than the other two groups, F(3,83)=6.717, pConclusion:Haptotherapy appears to be more effective in reducing fear of childbirth than psycho-education via Internet and care as usual.

Background: Maternal postpartum distress is often construed as a marker of vulnerability to poor parenting. Less is known, however, about the impact of postpartum distress on parenting an infant born prematurely. The present study investigated whether high distress levels, which are particularly prevalent in mothers of preterm born infants, necessarily affect a mother’s quality of parenting. Method: Latent Class Analysis was used to group mothers (N = 197) of term, moderately, and very preterm born infants, based on their levels of distress (depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms) at one month postpartum, and their quality of parenting at one and six months postpartum. Parenting quality was assessed on the basis of maternal interactive behaviors (sensitivity, intrusiveness, and withdrawal) using observations, and maternal attachment representations (balanced, disengaged, or distorted) using interviews. Results: A 5-Class model yielded the best fit to the data. The first Class (47%) of mothers was characterized by low distress levels and high-quality parenting, the second Class (20%) by low distress levels and low-quality parenting, the third Class (22%) by high distress levels and medium-quality parenting, the fourth Class (9%) by high distress levels and high-quality parenting, and finally the fifth Class (2%) by extremely high levels of distress and low-quality parenting. Conclusions: While heightened distress levels seem inherent to preterm birth, there appears to be substantial heterogeneity in mothers’ emotional responsivity. This study indicates that relatively high levels of distress after preterm birth do not necessarily place these mothers at increased risk with regard to poor parenting. Conversely, low distress levels do not necessarily indicate good-quality parenting. The results of the present study prompt a reconsideration of the association between postpartum distress and parenting quality, and challenge the notion that high levels of maternal distress always result in low-quality parenting practices. The final version of this research has been published in Infant Behaviour and Development. © 2017 Elsevier

Why do humans produce emotional tears? We propose that the answer to this question can be found in the interindividual functions of emotional crying. The basic assumption is that emotional tears represent a means of communication, which has evolved from distress or separation calls displayed by other animals as well. The reactions of others are the crucial factor that pushed forward the evolution of this phylogenetically new behavior. We substantiate this claim by discussing the ontogenetic development of crying, which sets the stage for explaining the ways this signal could have evolved. We further evaluate the signal value of tears in the context of the events and emotional states that precede or accompany crying, as well as of the consequences of crying for the crying individual. This allows us to conclude that tears predominantly represent a signal of helplessness and prosocial intentions.

Aim Reward sensitivity affects individuals’ motivation to engage in goal-directed behavior. Other concepts, critical for reward appraisal, that potentially influence activity participation encompass delay discounting and anhedonia. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that anhedonia and delay discounting influence the relationship between reward sensitivity and activity engagement. Methods In total, 37 inpatient patients with an alcohol use disorder (AUD) and 37 matched healthy controls completed the behavioral activation system scale (BAS scale), the Pleasant Activities List (PAL), the Snaith–Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS) and the Delay Discounting Task (DDT). Results Patients differed from controls on SHAPS, DDT-k, PAL substance-related activities (SRA), but not BAS and PAL non-substance-related activities (non-SRA). Correlational analyses revealed a strong correlation between BAS and PAL non-SRA in both patients (r = 0.53) and controls (r = 0.47), but also with PAL-SRA in patients (r = 0.40), although not controls (r = 0.09). BAS was negatively correlated with SHAPS in both groups and with DDT in controls. SHAPS was negatively linked to PAL non-SRA in both groups. The BAS-PAL non-SRA relationship was influenced by discount rates in controls. Conclusion A strong link exists between reward sensitivity and engagement in non-SRA in both groups. Delay discounting affects the reward sensitivity and non-SRA association in healthy controls, while anhedonia did not impact the association between reward sensitivity and engagement in (non-)SRA in both conditions.

This study examined people’s nonverbal reactions to being excluded during a social interaction. According to the ‘numbness hypothesis’, individuals who are being excluded may not display overt signs of distress but may lack in emotion and appear lethargic or numb instead. Nevertheless, the validity of this hypothesis has recently been questioned. In the present study, we hypothesized that the nonverbal behaviors of individuals who are being excluded are likely to be indicative of sadness and social withdrawal rather than numbness per se. For this purpose, participants were excluded or included during an interaction with two confederates. Automatic detection of facial expressions indicated that, although participants did display a more neutral face when they were excluded compared to when they were included, they also expressed more sadness and less joy. In addition, manual coding of nonverbal behaviors indicated that individuals who were excluded displayed fewer affiliative behaviors. These findings are not compatible with the numbness hypothesis. Individuals who are being excluded do display emotions (i.e., more sadness, less joy), be it that these emotions are typically associated with decreased energy levels and social disengagement.Keywords: Social exclusion, Facial emotional expression, Numbness

Background There is a growing awareness that the treatment of patients with substance use disorders (SUDs) should target increasing patients’ involvement in alternative pleasant reinforcers that compete with the reinforcing effects of substance use. The present cross-sectional study sought to identify factors that promote or impede engaging in pleasant activities. Methods Patients with SUDs ( N = 265) were assessed at treatment entry on sociodemographic characteristics, primary type of substance (ie, alcohol or illicit drugs), addiction severity, craving, personality factors, and psychiatric distress. Results Regression analyses identified dissimilar predictor sets underlying frequency, enjoyability, and cross-product ratings, highlighting the multifaceted behavioral nature of activity engagement. Personality measures showed the strongest associations with patients’ activity engagement, with extraversion as the key predictor. Conclusions The present findings emphasize the complexity of patients’ involvement in pleasant non–substance-related activities and further investigation is necessary to gain more insight into the underlying mechanisms of activity engagement.

Crying is a unique form of human emotional expression that is associated with both positive and negative evocative antecedents. This article investigates the psychometric properties of a newly developed Crying Proneness Scale by examining the factor structure, test-retest reliability, and theoretically hypothesized relationships with empathy, attachment, age, and gender. Based on an analysis of data provided by a Dutch panel (Time 1: N = 4,916, Time 2: N = 4,874), exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses suggest that crying proneness is a multidimensional construct best characterized by four factors called attachment tears, societal tears, sentimental/moral tears, and compassionate tears. Test-retest reliability of the scale was adequate and associations with age, gender, empathy, and attachment demonstrated expected relations. Results suggest that this scale can be used to measure crying proneness, and that it will be useful in future studies that aim to gain a better understanding of normal and pathological socioemotional development.

Background Maternal fetal attachment (MFA) has been found to be an important predictor for the developing relationship between mother and child. During the last decades, research on determinants of MFA has yielded inconclusive and even contradictory results. Until now, a process model in which multiple determinants of MFA are studied concurrently has been lacking. The present study evaluates a process model (based on Belsky’s model of parenting) in which the specific contributions of parental, contextual, and expected child characteristics to MFA were examined. Methods Participants, 351 pregnant women from a community-based sample, completed questionnaires concerning their personality, attachment security, partner support, perceived stress, expected child temperament, and MFA at 26 weeks gestational age. Based on Belsky’s model, a set of competing structural equation models were formulated and evaluated with path analysis. Results MFA was found to be multiply determined by parental, contextual, and expected child characteristics. These factors explained 19% of the variance in MFA. Pregnant women who were more extrovert, conscientious and agreeable reported having higher levels of MFA. In contrast, those women who perceived more stress and expected having an infant with a dull temperament reported lower levels of MFA. Conclusion This study demonstrated that the theoretical framework of Belsky’s model is applicable for explaining variations in the quality of the mother–fetus relationship in the pregnancy period. More knowledge of the determinants of MFA could help to identify mothers at risk for developing suboptimal feelings of attachment.