Coping through crying: A laboratory investigation of the intrapersonal function of tears
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1
The University of Queensland, Psychology, Australia
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2
Centre for Health Outcomes Innovation and Clinical Education, Australia
It is often suggested that one of the main functions of crying is to facilitate recovery after having been in distress. Attempts to explore this previously have used retrospective studies, with none experimentally testing a functional explanation. This experiment investigated the intrapersonal functional explanation of crying by evaluating if crying before a stressor would facilitate coping and recovery. Aim: Our aim was to better understand the physiological changes that occur during crying and how it may aid recovery from stressful events. Method: Participants were female undergraduate students (N=197) at the University of Queensland who were randomly assigned to either the sad or neutral video sequence. Both consisted of short videos lasting 17 minutes. ‘Sad’ videos were selected for their extreme emotion elicitation, i.e., sad crying responses. Performance on a stressor (cold pressor task) was then timed. Throughout the experiment participants heart rate, respiration, and facial expressions were recorded through iMotions using FACET software. Salivary cortisol was also taken during the experiment at 4 separate time points. It is predicted that compared to controls participants who have cried will (a) be able to withstand a stressful task for longer; (b) show lower levels of cortisol following the stressor; and (c) have faster physiological recovery to baseline following the stress task measured using heart rate, respiration, and salivary cortisol. Results and Conclusion: Preliminary results suggest no physiological benefit to crying through heart rate or cortisol changes. Specifically, there appears to be no buffer for physiological change or mood when exposed to a stressful event. Further results and implications will be discussed.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Dr. Ad Vingerhoets for his expert advice.
Keywords:
Crying,
Tears,
stress,
Heart Rate,
Respiration,
cortisol
Conference:
ASP2017: 27th Annual Meeting for the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology, Parramatta, Australia, 29 Nov - 1 Dec, 2017.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation
Topic:
Abstract (Student Award)
Citation:
Sharman
L,
Dingle
G and
Vanman
E
(2019). Coping through crying: A laboratory investigation of the intrapersonal function of tears.
Conference Abstract:
ASP2017: 27th Annual Meeting for the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2017.224.00034
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Received:
13 Sep 2017;
Published Online:
25 Jan 2019.
*
Correspondence:
Ms. Leah Sharman, The University of Queensland, Psychology, Brisbane, Australia, l.sharman1@uq.edu.au