Search

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.

Positive psychological interventions (PPIs) have been subjected to considerable criticism in recent years. Following similar movements across other domains of psychology, attempts to replicate classic PPI studies have failed or have produced mixed results. Such failures are often justified with arguments that invoke the complexity of human nature, the influence of contextual factors (for example, hidden moderators) that may arise in different populations, poor evaluation frameworks, or humans being reactive in PPIs and, as a result, modifying their behavior when observed. However, without replicability and consistency in results over time, the validity of PPIs will remain questionable in the broader scientific community unless acted on. In this chapter, it is argued that the lack of replicability and poor effectiveness of PPIs are a function of problems occurring in five areas: (a) intervention design, (b) recruitment and retention of participants, (c) adoption, (d) issues with intervention fidelity and implementation, and (e) efficacy or effectivity evaluation. This chapter focuses on the problems associated with each of these areas and presents general (albeit brief) best-practice guidelines for PPIs, inspired by recent developments in intervention methodology.

International audience; Literature findings. – Mental health promotion is still insufficiently known by psychologists and few of them work in this field, in part because it is based on public health concepts and data. Further- more, its approach is focused on positive health – as opposed to deficit models – which proposes interventions consisting in deve- loping human competencies and strengths as a means of preventing potential future mental illnesses.Discussion. – The present stake, in the field of mental health, thus requires a paradigmatic change in psychologists which would enable to move from mainly curative interventions to actions orien- ted towards individual and collectives’ potentialities. This article presents a synthesis of mental health determinants as well as natio- nal and international public policies aiming at developing health promotion.Conclusion. – It concludes on how psychologist could become major actors in this field.

International audience; Few studies have focused on PhD students in France despite the fact that this population appears to be particularly vulnerable to stress and often faces precariousness. This research investigated associations between socio-demographic factors, health behaviours, perceived stress and physical health in a wide sample of PhD students (n = 1923) in order to have a better understanding of this population's specificities. Our results indicated that stress is a critical issue among PhD candidates. Predictors of perceived stress were: gender, age, satisfaction with supervision, sleep quality and sports practice. Findings from this study confirm the relevance of the transactional model to investigate students’ health issues and suggest that physical activity and stress management should be encouraged through health promotion programs.; Alors que la santé physique et mentale des étudiants de premier cycle universitaire a fait l’objet de nombreuses recherches, y compris en France, plus rares sont les publications portant sur les effets du stress chez les doctorants. La présente étude, réalisée auprès d’un large échantillon de doctorants (n = 2013), a mesuré l’effet de variables socio-démographiques et de comportements de santé sur le stress perçu et les symptômes somatiques. Les résultats montrent que le niveau de stress perçu des doctorants est élevé. Les prédicteurs du stress sont les suivants : sexe, âge, filière, satisfaction liée à l’encadrement, activité physique et sommeil. Dans une perspective transactionnelle, cette recherche apporte des éléments significatifs de compréhension d’une population encore peu étudiée et propose des pistes de recherche et d’application.

Discusses the historical background of the 1887 Michelson-Morley experiment to detect the earth's motion through the aether. (MLH)

Discusses Einstein's views on the role of Michelson-Morley, Fizeau, and Miller experiments in the development of relativity and his attitude toward the theories of new quantum mechanics. Indicates that Einstein's opposition to quantum mechanics is beyond dispute. (CC)