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Gender and individual differences in adult crying
Abstract
This study reports on gender and individual differences in adult crying. A total of 105 subjects filled out a questionnaire on adult crying (Vingerhoets, 1995) and two personality inventories, the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R) (Costa & McCrae, 1992) and the Five-factor Personality Inventory (FFPI) (Hendriks et al., 1995). The results showed that gender and personality substantially and independently contribute to the variance in weeping frequency. Women cry more often and perceive weeping more as a coping style. Neuroticism proved to be considerably correlated with weeping frequency and weeping as a coping style, even after partialling out the effects of gender and age. Extraversion was correlated with relief and positive feelings after crying. These results are discussed in the context of an ongoing international study on adult crying.
... Neka novija istraživanja ukazuju na postojanje pozitivne povezanosti sklonosti plakanju i iskazivanja prosocijalnih ponašanja (Vingerhoets i sur., 2018). Unatoč tomu, kao i unatoč navedenoj činjenici da empatičnost predviđa sklonost plakanju, dosad nije utvrđena pozitivna povezanost sklonosti plakanju i šire dimenzije ugodnosti pod koju se mogu svrstati navedene karakteristike (De Fruyt, 1997;Peter i sur., 2001) te se čak pokazalo da ugodnost negativno predviđa učestalost plakanja (Barthelmäs i Keller, 2021). ...
... De Fruyt, 1997). Od širokih dimenzija ličnosti važnu ulogu u predikciji samoprocijenjenoga utjecaja plakanja na subjektivnu dobrobit imaju ekstraverzija, ugodnost, neuroticizam i savjesnost, pri čemu su ekstraverzija i ugodnost pozitivno povezane, a savjesnost i neuroticizam negativno su povezane s poboljšanjem raspoloženja (Barthelmäs i Keller, 2021;De Fruyt, 1997;Peter i sur., 2001). Detaljniji uvid u navedene rezultate, uz uzimanje u obzir faceta pojedinih crta ličnosti, ali i aspekata raspoloženja zbog kojih je došlo do navedenih povezanosti, može potencijalno pomoći u razumijevanju mehanizama putem kojih bi te dimenzije mogle predviđati pozitivne učinke plakanja. ...
... S druge strane, depresivnost po definiciji predstavlja smanjeni kapacitet za doživljavanje pozitivnih emocionalnih stanja pa stoga plakanje možda ipak može ostvariti izravan pozitivan utjecaj na raspoloženje, ponajprije kod nedepresivnih pojedinaca. Konačno, faceta odgovornosti vjerojatno predviđa negativne posljedice plakanja zbog kulturnih pritisaka za izbjegavanje toga ponašanja koji vjerojatno imaju veći utjecaj na pojedince s izraženijim osjećajem odgovornosti za svoje ponašanje (De Fruyt, 1997). ...
Emocionalno plakanje odnosi se na ispuštanje suza iz oka koje se tipično pojavljuje pri intenzivnim emocionalnim reakcijama, uglavnom negativnima, ali nerijetko i pozitivnima. Učinci plakanja mogu se podijeliti na intraindividualne, koji se odnose na utjecaj plakanja na osobu koja plače, i na interindividualne, koji se odnose na njegov utjecaj na promatrače. U radu su predstavljena istraživanja i teorijski doprinosi povezani s intraindividualnim učincima plakanja koji se u pravilu odnose na promjene u raspoloženju nakon plakanja. Posebna je pažnja posvećena metodološkim aspektima istraživanja učinaka plakanja na raspoloženje te su ponuđena pojedina nova, alternativna objašnjenja opisanih nalaza. Ukratko su opisani i potencijalni mehanizmi koji bi mogli posredovati između plakanja i promjena u raspoloženju, kao i relevantne individualne razlike u tim povezanostima. Najčvršći dokazi o postojanju utjecaja plakanja na raspoloženje povezani su s promjenama u raspoloženju posredovanima pozitivnim reakcijama socijalne okoline. S druge strane, empirijska je podrška izravnim utjecajima plakanja na raspoloženje nekonzistentna. Budući da je za razumijevanje intraindividualnih učinaka plakanja nužno i razumijevanje i njegovih interindividualnih učinaka, što se povezuje s predloženim evoluiranim funkcijama plakanja, dio rada bavi se i komunikacijskim funkcijama plakanja. Osnovni je argument koji se provlači kroz rad da su potencijalni izravni intraindividualni učinci plakanja koji povećavaju subjektivnu dobrobit pojedinca usko povezani s interindividualnim funkcijama plakanja i da se jedino razumijevanjem evoluirane signalne funkcije plakanja mogu razumjeti procesi kroz koje plakanje može utjecati na subjektivnu dobrobit. U skladu s time na kraju je rada predstavljen pokušaj teorijske integracije inter- i intraindividualnih funkcija i s njima povezanih učinaka plakanja.
... Emotional crying represents a specific form of human emotion expression and can be associated with different emotions, such as rage, elation, or sadness (Vingerhoets et al., 2000). The role of personality traits has been examined early on in this context (e.g., De Fruyt, 1997) and neuroticism has been identified as most relevant concept, since positive correlations to crying frequency (i.e., how often does someone cry?) have been observed repeatedly (De Fruyt, 1997;Peter et al., 2001;Rottenberg, Bylsma, Wolvin, & Vingerhoets, 2008). However, the picture is less clear for other traits. ...
... While different researchers consistently reported on a positive relation between neuroticism and crying frequency (De Fruyt, 1997;Peter et al., 2001;Rottenberg, Bylsma, Wolvin, & Vingerhoets, 2008), the relation between other traits and crying is less clear. Rottenberg, Bylsma, Wolvin, and Vingerhoets (2008) found no association between extraversion and crying frequency, while De Fruyt (1997) reported a negative (but not significant) correlation. ...
... No relation between agreeableness and crying frequency was found in De Fruyt (1997), whereas Peter et al. (2001) found a positive relation in a regression analysis, but not in a correlation analysis. No relation to crying frequency was observed for conscientiousness (De Fruyt, 1997;Peter et al., 2001) and openness (De Fruyt, 1997). ...
Emotional crying represents a specific form of emotion expression that did receive considerably less attention in emotion research than most other emotional phenomena. We examined the relation between personality traits and the frequency of emotional crying. In a well-powered, pre-registered study (N = 622), participants were asked to report the number of times they had been crying during the past four weeks. We assessed the personality dimensions represented in the HEXACO personality inventory and disintegration (proneness to psychotic-like experiences) as personality traits. Additionally, we asked respondents to report on the extent to which they (typically) perceive affect-and arousal-changes after crying episodes as well as on their subjective well-being. As predicted, emotionality and disintegration were positively associated with crying frequency. Explorative analyses revealed that extraversion, agreeableness and subjective well-being were negatively associated with crying frequency. Further, honesty-humility, extraversion and agreeableness were related to positive affect after crying, while arousal change (in direction of calmness) was a function of honesty-humility, agreeableness, and openness. The present study indicates that human emotional crying is not only related to emotionality (or neuroticism) but to a set of traits, depending on which aspect of crying is in the focus of attention.
... Neuroticism is the personality trait most consistently found in crying research, with findings that neurotic people cry more easily and frequently for a variety of reasons, and given its associations with negative mood states and reactions (De Fruyt, 1997;Mathell, Vingerhoets, & van Heck, 2001;Muris et al., 2005), it is likely that neurotic people would interpret crying as a negative experience. Gender ...
... Because of this, we recommend that each of the subscales be interpreted separately, rather than combined as a total score in analyses. Due to the general differences in crying frequency of men and women, and with women more likely to perceive crying as a coping strategy (Becht & Vingerhoets, 2002;De Fruyt, 1997;Van Tilburg, Unterberg, & Vingerhoets, 2002), independent sample t-tests were also conducted on each subscale to determine any gender differences that might be present. Analyses revealed differences between men and women only on helpful beliefs, t(200) = 2.84, p = .005, ...
... (see Table 3). Small gender differences on the helpful beliefs subscale are consistent with previous research reporting gender differences in crying proneness and frequency between men and women (Becht & Vingerhoets, 2002;De Fruyt, 1997;Timmers, Fischer, & Manstead, 1998;Van Tilburg et al., 2002). ...
Crying is often considered to be a positive experience that benefits the crier, yet there is little empirical evidence to support this. Indeed, it seems that people hold a range of appraisals about their crying, and these are likely to influence the effects of crying on their emotional state. This paper reports on the development and psychometric validation of the Beliefs about Crying Scale (BACS), a new measure assessing beliefs about whether crying leads to positive or negative emotional outcomes in individual and interpersonal contexts. Using 40 preliminary items drawn from a qualitative study, an exploratory factor analysis with 202 participants (50% female; aged 18–84 years) yielded three subscales: Helpful Beliefs, Unhelpful-Individual Beliefs, and Unhelpful-Social Beliefs, explaining 60% of the variance in the data. Confirmatory factor analysis on the 14-item scale with 210 participants (71% female; aged 17–48 years) showed a good fit to the three factors. The subscales showed differential relationships with measures of personality traits, crying proneness, emotion regulation and expressivity, and emotional identification (alexithymia). The BACS provides a nuanced understanding of beliefs about crying in different contexts and helps to explain why crying behaviour may not always represent positive emotion regulation for the crier.
... For example, it has been found that extraversion is related to relief and positive feelings following crying; in particular, the constructs of excitement-seeking (high scores) and depression (low scores) predict feeling better upon crying. In contrast, high scores on the dutifulness personality facet have been shown to predict feeling worse following crying (De Fruyt, 1997). However, Rottenberg et al. (2008) found no significant relationship between personality characteristics and mood improvement following crying. ...
... Extensive individual differences exist in crying proneness and frequency. A wide array of research on crying from several different countries and cultures suggests that in non-clinical populations, women cry more than men (De Fruyt, 1997; on average, women cried 2.7 times in the previous 4 weeks, as compared with 1.0 time for men. Men also reported lower crying tendency and proneness (Becht, Poortinga, & Vingerhoets, 2001). ...
... Female gender and neuroticism have been found to correlate with viewing or using weeping as a coping mechanism. Those exhibiting greater emotional stability and extraverts also perceive greater positive effects from crying (De Fruyt, 1997). Neuroticism and empathy significantly positively predicted frequency of crying, whereas anxiety was positively related to perceiving crying as a coping behaviour (De Fruyt, 1997;Rottenberg et al., 2008). ...
AimThe aim of the present study is to further the understanding of who cries in therapy and the relation of technique with crying behaviour in therapy.Method
Psychological assessment feedback sessions, prior to the initiation of formal therapy for 52 patients beginning psychotherapy at a university-based clinic were coded for discrete crying segments. Data about patient characteristics and the process of the session were collected at the time of the session. Therapist's interventions were recorded verbatim and independently rated.ResultsThe number of times a patient cried during their session correlated negatively with global assessment of functioning scores and positively with measures of borderline personality disorder pathology as well as a measure of severity of childhood sexual abuse. Patients' crying behaviour demonstrated significant negative correlations with the overall experience of the session (bad/good), smoothness and positivity. Group differences between criers and non-criers reflected these trends as well. No significant correlations or group differences were found with regard to patient-rated or therapist-rated alliance as it relates to crying behaviour. Analysis indicates that therapist intervention prior to patient crying most often encouraged the exploration and expression of difficult affect, new perspectives on key issues or the patient's fantasies and wishes.DiscussionOur study addresses a significant gap in the clinical literature on crying. Crying behaviour seems to be related to certain clinical variables and has a negative impact on patient experience of the session in which they cry, although the alliance remained unaffected.LimitationsSmall sample, outpatients with mild/moderate psychopathology and graduate trainees provided therapy.
... There is also quite a lot of empirical evidence to support the idea that crying proneness is influenced by personality (Rottenberg, Bylsma, Wolvin, & Vingerhoets, 2008;Vingerhoets, 2013;Vingerhoets, Van Tilburg, et al., 2001;Vingerhoets et al., 2009). For example, weeping frequency has been found to be positively associated with neuroticism (De Fruyt, 1997), even when controlling for the effects of gender and age. In addition, individuals with personality disorders, such as borderline or histrionic personality disorders, are known for their theatrical and manipulative behavior, which is often accompanied by crying (Alexander, 2003). ...
... Control variables -For our primary regression analyses we included several control variables that have established associations with crying and/or social support, particularly among adolescents and young adults: gender (Antonucci, 2001;De Fruyt, 1997;Peter et al., 2001;Shumaker & Hill, 1991), romantic relationship status (Connolly & Johnson, 1996), stress (Choti, Marston, Holston, & Hart, 1987;Cohen & Wills, 1985), loneliness (Jones & Moore, 1987;Rubenstein & Shaver, 1982), and depressive symptoms (Vingerhoets, Rottenberg, Cevaal, & Nelson, 2007). ...
... Interestingly, although DD was unrelated to crying tendency, HD was negatively associated with crying tendency. As noted, a few prior studies have shown greater crying to be associated with greater neuroticism (De Fruyt, 1997;Peter et al., 2001;Rottenberg, Bylsma, Wolvin, et al., 2008), attachment characteristics (Laan et al., 2012), and greater empathic skills (Williams, 1982). Consistent with these few works, our findings suggest that DO, in particular, may be an important predictor of crying proneness in adults. ...
This study examines the associations among interpersonal dependency, social support, and crying proneness, since crying is a behavior that is particularly relevant to the affiliative interpersonal goals characterizing maladaptive forms of dependency (Keltner & Kring, 1998). Data were collected from 305 first-year university students (M age = 18 years). A series of hierarchical linear regressions, controlling for gender, commuting status, romantic relationship status, stress, loneliness, and depressive symptoms, partially supported our hypotheses. That is, we found that a measure of maladaptive dependency (destructive overdependence, or DO) and crying proneness were positively correlated, and that DO moderated the associations between social support and crying proneness. Specifically, we found that social support and crying were more closely positively associated among individuals high on DO compared to individuals low on DO. Our findings imply that interpersonal dependency may be an important factor in understanding individual differences in crying, and in determining whether crying is a successful elicitor of social support.
... A vast literature of personality traits can be drawn on to examine the link with the different positive tear types. In previous studies, crying has been associated with high neuroticism (De Fruyt, 1997;Peter, Vingerhoets, & Heck, 2001), though these studies focused on negative crying primarily. Regarding other Big 5 factors, research on pride and achievement have related this state to extraversion and, to a lower degree, agreeableness (Tracy & Robins, 2007;Tracy, Shariff, & Cheng, 2010). ...
... Finally, emotional tears have been typically linked to neuroticism. Individuals that are more emotionally unstable tend to shed more tears (De Fruyt, 1997). In Study 4c, we obtained evidence that this might be true for negative tears, but positive tears seem to be more strongly predicted by extraversion, agreeableness, and openness to experiences as we will discuss in more detail in the following sections. ...
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.
... Further, female gender, neuroticism, and anxiety have been found to correlate with use of weeping as a coping mechanism. But no significant relationship has been found between personality characteristics and mood improvement following crying (De Fruyt, 1997;Rottenberg et al., 2008). In summary, crying seems to be an adaptive capacity that allows people to express feelings that are otherwise difficult to express through words (Barbalet, 2005;Vingerhoets, 2013). ...
... Despite these limitations, we believe that findings in this study improve our understanding of the experience of crying in psychotherapy-a topic that needs much more empirical investigation. In sum, patient reported crying experiences in therapy supports prior work in nonclinical populations that crying is a complex phenomenon that can elicit various responses, reactions and reveal individual differences (De Fruyt, 1997;Rottenberg et al., 2008;Vingerhoets et al., 2000). ...
The present study sought to further understand patients’ crying experiences in psychotherapy. We asked 64 clinicians to randomly request one patient in their practice to complete a survey concerning crying in psychotherapy as well as a measure of therapeutic alliance. All clinicians provided information regarding their practice and patient diagnostic information. Fifty-five (85.93%) patients cried at least once, and 18 (28.1%) had cried during their most recent session. Patients’ frequency of crying episodes in therapy was negatively related with psychotic level of personality organization, while patients’ tendency to feel more negative feelings after crying was positively related to lower levels of personality organization. Patients’ feeling more in control after crying was positively related with an interpersonal therapeutic approach, while patients’ perception of therapists as more supportive after crying was positively related to a psychodynamic approach. Patients’ tendency to experience more negative feelings after crying was significantly related with both lower levels of personality organization and patients’ perception of the therapeutic alliance as weak. In regard to their most recent crying event in treatment, therapeutic alliance was related to gaining a new understanding of experience not previously recognized by the patient. Further, patients’ experiences of having never told anyone about their experience related to a crying episode, as well as their realization of new ideas and feeling of having communicated something that words could not express was positively related to the goal dimension of alliance. Patients’ perception of crying as a moment of genuine vulnerability, greater feelings of self-confidence and self-disclosure as well as having had a therapist response that was compassionate and supportive, was positively related with the bond dimension of alliance. Clinical implications and future research directions regarding patient crying experiences in psychotherapy are discussed.
... With regard to personality features, of the major (i.e., Big Five) personality dimensions, only extraversion proved to be positively correlated with self-reported relief and positive feelings after crying, while certain aspects of conscientiousness seem to have the opposite effects (De Fruyt, 1997). Interestingly, those who reportedly experienced more negative effects of crying also had higher scores on the conscientiousness facet dutifulness. ...
... In the clinical domain, depressive and anxiety symptoms, anhedonia, and alexithymia were all found to be related to worsened post-crying mood (De Fruyt, 1997;Rottenberg et al., 2008a), with the latter factor being the strongest predictor of mood deterioration. Perhaps, alexithymics' lack of insight into the causes and meanings of their crying may perpetuate their negative mood after crying. ...
This contribution describes the current state-of-the-art of the scientific literature regarding the self-soothing effects of crying. Starting from the general hypothesis that crying is a self-soothing behavior, we consider different mechanisms through which these effects may appear. In the first section, we briefly explain the main functions of human crying. Then we define self-soothing in terms of homeostatic processes of mood regulation and stress reduction and we underline the importance of distinguishing self-soothing effects of crying from social-soothing that it may elicit. We then provide a comprehensive review of the putative mood-enhancing and -relieving effects of crying and their variations stemming from characteristics of crying person, antecedents, manifestations, and social consequences of crying. We also discuss the possible methodological explanations for the seemingly discrepant findings regarding mood improvement and relief that may follow crying. We then provide theoretical and empirical support for our general hypothesis that crying is a self-soothing behavior by presenting and evaluating the possible physiological, cognitive, and behavioral mechanisms that may play a mediating role in the relationship between crying and homeostatic regulation that includes mood improvement and relief. Starting from the idea that social-soothing and self-soothing mechanisms share the same physiological systems, we propose that biological processes act in parallel with learning and reappraisal processes that accompany crying, which results in homeostatic regulation. Given the parallels between self-soothing behaviors in humans and animals, we also propose that crying might self-soothe through a mechanism that shares key properties with rhythmical, stereotypic behaviors. We conclude that, in addition to the importance of socially mediated mechanisms for the mood-enhancing effects of crying, there is converging evidence for the direct, self-soothing effects of crying.
... In addition, there is confusion about the precise conceptualization of terms, such as crying frequency and crying proneness. This has led to some mixed reporting in the literature, whereby some previous studies that aim to assess crying frequency have inadvertently employed instruments (e.g., the Weeping Frequency Scale [Labott & Martin, 1987] or the Crying Frequency Scale [Kraemer & Hastrup, 1986]) that actually measure crying proneness (e.g., see De Fruyt, 1997). ...
... Previous studies have demonstrated associations between the tendency to cry and several personality features (De Fruyt, 1997;Laan, Van Assen, & Vingerhoets, 2012;Peter et al., 2001;Rottenberg, Bylsma, Wolvin, et al., 2008;Williams, 1982; for reviews, see Vingerhoets, 2013;Vingerhoets, Van Tilburg, Boelhouwer, & Van Heck, 2001). Perhaps best documented is the positive association between crying proneness and both neuroticism and empathy. ...
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.
... Although this study was novel in several respects, previous findings with retrospective survey designs helped guide hypotheses. Since we have found that persons with neuroticism (De Fruyt, 1997;Peter et al., 2001) and depression report crying more frequently and report experiencing less post-crying mood improvement relative to non-psychiatric individuals (Rottenberg, Cevaal & Vingerhoets, 2008;Vingerhoets, Rottenberg, Cevaal, & Nelson, 2007), we hypothesized that (1) high dispositional negative mood and low dispositional positive mood would be associated with greater crying frequency, and (2) poorer dispositional mood would predict less experience of mood improvement after crying. Based on our previous work examining predictors of post-crying mood improvement , we further expected that mood improvement after crying would be positively associated with: (3) crying in the presence of one other individual (relative to crying alone or with many other individuals present), (4) experiencing a new understanding or resolution of the situation that triggered the crying, and (5) the experience of a positive event. ...
... Specifically, higher dispositional negative mood and lower dispositional positive mood were associated with more frequent crying and higher reported urge to cry. This result is consistent with previous findings that neuroticism (De Fruyt, 1997;Peter et al., 2001) and depression (Rottenberg, Cevaal & Vingerhoets, 2008) both are associated with more frequent crying, and that sadness is the most common antecedent of crying in healthy individuals (Vingerhoets, van Geleuken, van Tilburg, & van Heck, 1997). ...
We aimed to examine the connections between individual affective characteristics and crying, and to evaluate Rottenberg, Bylsma, and Vingerhoets’ (2008) framework for studying crying and mood. We analyzed the relationship among features of the social environment, mood characteristics of the crier, crying frequency/urge to cry, and mood change across 1004 detailed crying episodes sampled from 97 females. Urge to cry and crying frequency were associated with poorer mood, and urge to cry was associated with greater mood variability. Poorer mood was observed both before and after crying episodes, and one-third of crying episodes resulted in reported mood improvement following crying. Benefits of crying, when they occur, are shaped by the social environment and the affective characteristics of the crier.
... Vingerhoets, 1999, 2001;Vingerhoets and Scheirs, 2000), it was found that women report a higher crying frequency and crying proneness than men. The present study further con®rmed previously reported relations between Neuroticism and crying propensity (De Fruyt, 1997;Vingerhoets et al., 1993;Williams, 1982). On the other hand, the relevance of Extraversion and Agreeableness, as it emerged in the regression analysis, has not been reported before. ...
... A last important ®nding is the lack of clear associations between mood after crying and both gender and personality. Contrary to some previous studies (De Fruyt, 1997;Lombardo et al., 1983;Schlosser, 1986) our data do not suggest that there is a certain subgroup of people who in particular perceive or experience weeping as a useful way to achieve relief and relaxation. It is dif®cult to explain why we failed to replicate these previous ®ndings, since these studies differ in terms of sample characteristics, applied methodology, and assessment issues. ...
This study examined gender differences in crying as well as associations between basic personality traits and self-reported indices of crying. Forty-eight men and 56 women completed the Five-Factor Personality Inventory and the Adult Crying Inventory. Substantial gender differences were demonstrated in crying frequency and crying proneness, but not with respect to mood changes after crying. As predicted, women reported a higher frequency of crying and more proneness to cry both for negative and positive reasons. For women, all these crying indices were negatively associated with Emotional Stability. For men, only a significant negative relationship between Emotional Stability and crying for negative reasons emerged. No clear links were found between personality and mood changes after crying. Multiple regression analysis revealed a significant predictive role of gender for crying proneness, even when controlling for personality differences, but not for crying frequency. Adding personality by gender interaction terms resulted in a disappearance of the main effect of sex, while significant interactions with personality factors showed up for crying frequency and general crying proneness. It is suggested that future research on the relationship between personality and crying should focus more on the underlying mechanisms of observed relationships. Furthermore, it is recommended that future research should examine the role of different emotion regulation strategies. In addition, biological factors, temperament, upbringing measures, and socio-demographic variables should be taken into account. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
... の回復をもたらすことを示唆し，実験による結果は， 気分の悪化を示しており，泣きが気分の変化にもたら す影響については，知見が一貫していない。 こうした知見の不一致をもたらす要因として，泣き 測定のタイミング，泣いたときの社会的文脈，恥ずか しさの 3 つが挙げられている ) 。調査研究では回顧的評価，実験研 究では即時的評価になるため，泣きの効果の測定タイ ミングが異なること，泣くことで親しい人から好意的 な反応が得られるような場合は，カタルシス効果が大 きくなるが ，実験室では 1 人で 映像を見るため，他者の存在が関わることはまれであ ること，実験室では泣いているところを他者に見られ る可能性があり，恥ずかしさといったネガティブな感 情 を 感 じ る こ と が あ る こ と (Miceli & Castelfranchi, 2003 (Barthelmäs & Keller, 2021;De Fruyt, 1997;Rottenberg, Bylsma, Wolvin et al., 2008 ...
Emotional crying has been described as the shedding of tears consequent to an emotional event, a universal and uniquely human behavior. The purpose of the present study was to develop the Japanese version of the Beliefs About Crying Scale (BACS), which assesses beliefs about whether crying is beneficial for gaining positive feelings in both individual and interpersonal contexts. In Study 1, we examined factor structure and re-test reliability. The results indicated that the factor structure of the Japanese version and original version of the BACS are similar and possess acceptable re-test reliability. In Study 2, we tested validity. The results revealed that the Japanese version of the BACS had theoretically reasonable correlations with assumed variables. These results suggest that the Japanese version of the BACS has similar properties as the original version and has acceptable validity and reliability.
... Bu durum net olmasa da kadınların duyguları daha yoğun yaşadığı ve daha fazla dile getirdiği gösterilmiştir (46). Kadınlar erkeklerden daha sık ağlamakta ve ağlamayı bir baş etme mekanizması olarak görmektedirler (47). Ek olarak duygusal dışa vurum sırasında kadınların yüzlerinin erkeklerinkinden daha aktif olduğu bildirilmiştir. ...
Bu derlemede başa çıkma becerileri ile ilgili kilometre taşları ve güncel yayınlar değerlendirilmiştir. Başa çıkma becerilerinin ülkemiz ve dünyadaki tarihsel gelişimi, bu becerilerin cinsiyetler arasındaki farklılıkları, başa çıkma becerileri ile ilgili yaygın kullanılan ölçekler ve başa çıkma becerilerinin psikopatoloji ile ilişkisi hakkında bilgi verilmesi amaçlanmıştır.
... Furthermore, much of this change appears to stem from a reduction in boys' expressions of crying, rather than an increase in girls' . However, this still leaves us with the general finding that women tend to cry more, report more proneness to crying, and often feel better after crying than their male counterparts (De Fruyt, 1997;Vingerhoets and Schiers, 2000;Peter et al., 2001;Becht and Vingerhoets, 2002;van Hemert et al., 2011;Denckla et al., 2014). ...
This study aimed to (1) investigate the variation in self ascription to gender roles and attitudes toward gender roles across countries and its associations with crying behaviors, emotion change, and beliefs about crying and (2) understand how the presence of others affects our evaluations of emotion following crying. This was a large international survey design study (N = 893) conducted in Australia, Croatia, the Netherlands, Thailand, and the United Kingdom. Analyses revealed that, across countries, gender, self-ascribed gender roles, and gender role attitudes (GRA) were related to behavioral crying responses, but not related to emotion change following crying. How a person evaluates crying, instead, appeared to be highly related to one’s beliefs about the helpfulness of crying, irrespective of gender. Results regarding crying when others were present showed that people are more likely both to cry and to feel that they received help around a person that they know, compared to a stranger. Furthermore, closeness to persons present during crying did not affect whether help was provided. When a crier reported that they were helped, they also tended to report feeling better following crying than those who cried around others but did not receive help. Few cross-country differences emerged, suggesting that a person’s responses to crying are quite consistent among the countries investigated here, with regard to its relationship with a person’s gender role, crying beliefs, and reactions to the presence of others.
... Of these, a tendency for crying remained a highly scored response for both genders, which goes against the finding in published literature of major depressive disorder (MDD) which reports females to have an increased frequency of crying when compared to males and weeping in females was seen as a form of coping. [29] Clinicians in Sri Lanka confidentially report seeing these differences and attribute it to be a cultural phenomenon. We also found that females had higher scores of self-criticism and guilt compared to males, in keeping with published literature that women with depression tend to express more self-blame than men. ...
Background: With more effective treatments and improved outcomes in thalassemia, there is increasing focus on its psychological sequelae. Most published data on this topic are from high-income countries and much less so from low- and middle-income countries, where thalassemia is more prevalent.
Aim: The aim of this study was to systematically evaluate the psychiatric morbidity and quality of life in relation to demographic- and illness-related variables among Sri Lankan patients with thalassemia.
Methods: This cross-sectional investigation was conducted at the University of Kelaniya Teaching Hospital in Sri Lanka. Patients with all forms of thalassemia, over 12 years of age, and in stable medical condition (n = 120) were recruited. Assessment tools included a general demographic questionnaire, the Beck Depression Inventory-II, and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Measure–Brief. Statistical analysis was conducted using linear regressions, Chi-squares, and analyses of variance.
Results: Lack of family support, longer duration of inpatient admission, and female gender were associated with higher depression scores and reduced quality of life. Environmental and social quality of life were positively correlated with levels of peer support in males, while increased support from religion correlated with lower depression scores and higher satisfaction with environmental and psychological quality of life in women. There was no association between the type of thalassemia and either depression or quality of life measures.
Conclusion: Several factors may influence the psychological state and well-being of patients with thalassemia in Sri Lanka. Specific service innovations (some gender-specific) may help to address these factors to improve treatment outcome and well-being.
... This suggests that when experiencing physical stress, males and females have a different preferred coping response. Females may experience greater emotion-focused coping due to common assumption that they may express emotion more frequently than men (Brody & Hall, 1993;De Fruyt, 1997), suggesting that gender socialisation theory may be in action. This theory predicts that men are more likely to cope with stressors by denying or avoiding the stressor as they are socialised to not express their emotions (Tamres et al., 2002). ...
Aim: The purpose of this study was to examine stress and coping in both competition and practice in tennis and to further investigate gender difference using Think Aloud protocol (TA) in real-time. Method: 16 (8 males and 8 females) competitive tennis players took part. A within groups design was implemented, and participants verbalised their thoughts between points of a championship tie-break during a practice and a competition condition. Data were transcribed verbatim, analysed for stressors (confidence, performance, external, physical) and coping responses (problem, emotion, avoidance) using deductive analysis. A CSAI-2R questionnaire was used to assess anxiety levels prior to practice and competition. Results: CSAI-2R results showed cognitive anxiety significantly increased from practice to competition. Performance-focused coping (e.g. planning, technical) was verbalised most frequently in both conditions. Performance stressors (e.g. outcome, tactics) were verbalised most frequently in both conditions. Males verbalised significantly more performance stress in competition and physical stress in practice. Females verbalised external stress and utilise problem-focused responses more in competition than practice. Problem-focused coping was utilised most for males and females in both conditions. Conclusion: Through the use of a novel data collection method (TA) this study provides context-specific findings within tennis, which support previous research in stress and coping where gender differences occur only for the type of stressor appraised. TA has also been found to be a viable method to assess stress and coping data in tennis. Findings can inform coaches, players, and psychologists about stressors and coping responses utilised during practice and competition.
... Beispielsweise haben das Geschlecht und das Alter einen Einfluss auf die Häufigkeit und die Neigung zu weinen. Frauen weinen generell häufiger und länger als Männer (De Fruyt, 1997;Peter, Vingerhoets, & Van Heck, 2001;Santiago-Menendez & Campbell, 2013), Kinder häufiger als Erwachsene (Kappas, 2006). Bei Kindern bis ca. 13 Jahre konnte kein Geschlechtsunterschied festgestellt werden (Kappas, 2006). ...
... Overall, although it is possible that clinicians who are more open, agreeable, and extraverted may be slightly more likely to cry in therapy, these findings were equivocal and should be followed up in research with a more nuanced personality inventory. It is notable that clinicians who were more neurotic (defined by the tendency to experience negative emotionality; John & Srivastava, 1999) tended to cry more in daily life, a finding demonstrated in previous studies (De Fruyt, 1997;Vingerhoets et al., 2000;Vingerhoets & Van Heck, 1993) and replicated in the present study. However, the relationship between neuroticism and TCIT is less clear. ...
Objectives:
The majority of psychologists experience therapist crying in therapy (TCIT). This study aimed to determine typical clinical contexts for, and psychologists' experiences of, TCIT.
Method:
Data was examined from 411 psychologists' and psychology trainees' accounts of their most recent TCIT experience.
Results:
TCIT occurred with a diverse group of clients and happened throughout treatment. In 55% of accounts, therapists believed that their client was aware of TCIT. In 73%, the client was crying during TCIT. The most common emotion felt by the therapist was sadness. The most common session content for TCIT was grief. Data regarding therapists' experience of their tears and how they handled TCIT are presented.
Conclusions:
Therapists who discuss their TCIT with clients tended to report improvement in rapport. Suggestions are offered for clinicians regarding how to work with TCIT in therapy sessions.
... Vingerhoets 2013). For example, previous research has shown that more neurotic individuals cry more often (De Fruyt 1997) and more easily (Peter et al. 2001), while, for example, introverted and depressive individuals report more often the absence of mood benefits following crying (De Fruyt 1997;Rottenberg et al. 2008b). Kraemer and Hastrup (1988) tried to solve this issue of confounding individual differences by instructing participants to cry or to suppress their tears, but, as noted above, the adequacy of that solution is arguable because such a manipulation makes the situation rather artificial. ...
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 non-criers. 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.
... Crying. Various studies find that female adolescents and adults report that they cry more often than their male counterparts (Bekker & Vingerhoets, 2001;De Fruyt, 1997;Fischer, Rodriguez, van Vianen, & Manstead, 2004;Lombardo, Cretser, Lombardo, & Mathis, 1983;Lombardo, Cretser, & Roesch, 2001;van Tilburg, Unterberg, & Vingerhoets, 2002;Vingerhoets & Scheirs, 2000). This difference has already been found in self-reports from 11-year-old children (van Tilburg et al., 2002). ...
In this article we examine gender differences in nonverbal expressiveness, with a particular focus on crying and smiling. We show that women cry and smile more as well as show more facial expressiveness in general, but that the size of this gender difference varies with the social and emotional context. We interpret this variation within a contextual framework (see also Brody & Hall, 2008; Deaux & Major, 1987; LaFrance, Hecht, & Paluck, 2003). More specifically, we distinguish three factors that predict the size of gender differences in emotional expressiveness: gender-specific norms, social role and situational constraints, and emotional intensity. These factors interact in different ways for smiling and crying.
... Crying and laughing behaviors. Perhaps the best example of a female propensity to advertise trustworthiness cues is females' greater frequency and intensity of crying behaviors as compared to males' (De Fruyt 1997;Lombardo et al. 2001;Van Tilburg et al. 2002;Vingerhoets & Scheirs 2000;Williams 1982;Williams & Morris 1996). In a meta-analysis of crying behaviors across thirty countries and six continents, Becht and Vingerhoets (2002) found that women reported crying an average of 2 1 2 times more often than men. ...
... Emotional instability (which entails a lower threshold for experiencing emotion and, hence, more frequent emotional experiences) is also higher in women than men cross-culturally (Costa, Terracciano, & McCrae, 2001;Schmitt, Realo, Voracek, & Allik, 2008). Despite this, the association between emotional instability (or neuroticism) and crying proneness is one of the strongest reported for both men and women (Choti, Marston, Holston, & Hart, 1987;De Fruyt, 1997;Peter, Vingerhoets, & Van Heck, 2001;Vingerhoets, Van den Berg, Kortekaas, Van Heck, & Croon, 1993;Williams, 1982). ...
Men cry less frequently and intensely than women, and this sex difference is especially marked for crying in response to anger. We investigated the predictors of crying from sadness and anger in British adolescents and the extent to which they were moderated by gender. We asked participants how often they cried when experiencing each emotion and examined their reports in relation to five potential correlates, including the frequency and strength of the precipitating emotion. Both sexes reported that they were more likely to cry in response to sadness than anger, but, as expected, boys reported crying less than girls from both emotions. The correlates of crying when sad were similar in boys and girls: In addition to the effect of gender (female), other significant predictors were frequency and intensity of feeling sad, feminine gender role, depression, and by greater reported crying when sad. Crying from anger was predicted by gender and greater reported crying when sad. In girls, but not boys, anger intensity was a significant predictor. In boys, depression was a stronger predictor than it was in girls. We highlight the need for further research on emotional expression in boys and men, especially using qualitative techniques that can shed light on the parameters of “acceptable” crying and the extent to which depression may disrupt or subvert these display rules. We recommend that future studies focus on emotion-specific crying and employ measures of the frequency and intensity of precipitating emotions that were examined, for the first time, in this study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)
... We subsequently performed a series of stepwise multiple regressions in order to identify the most parsimonious set of predictors (NEO PI-R facets and control variables) that are most effective in predicting both dependent variables (e.g. De Fruyt, 1997;Watson, 2001). For the concurrent associations between personality facets and perceived employability, stepwise analysis produced a solution accounting for 26.3 per cent of the variance with N3: Depression (16.9%), ...
The present investigation contributes to research on the dispositional source of intrinsic (subjective) career success in three general ways. First, two indicators of career success were considered, i.e. perceived employability and work–family conflict, which closely align with the characteristics of contemporary boundaryless careers. Second, facet‐level associations were examined, providing a more fine‐grained description of personality–success relations. Third, besides concurrent associations, we also examined the prospective effects of traits on career success assessed 15 years later. Overall, our results further substantiated an individual difference perspective on career success, with both outcomes being significantly and substantially predicted by Big Five traits, even when controlling for a number of demographic and career‐related characteristics. Further, results indicated that facet‐level analyses can contribute significantly to our theoretical understanding of trait–success associations. Finally, a comparison of concurrent and longitudinal analyses indicated temporal stability of personality–success relations, although the predictive validity of separate traits was also found to vary across time.
... The personality attributes that have been found to influence crying propensity are empathy, extraversion, ego strength, femininity, neuroticism, and self-monitoring. All of these attributes show positive associations with self-reported "crying frequency" or, more precisely, "crying proneness" (Choti, Marston, Holston, & Hart, 1987;De Fruyt, 1997;Peter et al., in press;Williams, 1982). examined the relationship between crying and personality attributes as measured by the Dutch Personality Inventory (Luteijn, Starren, & Van Dijk, 1985), temperament variables as assessed by the Pavlov Temperament Survey (Strelau, Angleitner, Bantelmann, & Ruch, 1990), and alexithymia, applying the Amsterdam Alexithymia Scale (Bermond, 1991). ...
... The FFPI across cultureseconomy students, participating in a study on personality and vocational preferences (Berings, De Fruyt, & Bouwen, manuscript submitted for publication), and 105 secondyear psychology students and their relatives, participating in a study on personality correlates of emotional expression (De Fruyt, 1997). Croatia N ¼ 678, roughly balanced for sex. ...
In the present study, we investigated the structural invariance of the Five-Factor Personality Inventory (FFPI) across a variety of cultures. Self-report data sets from ten European and three non-European countries were available, representing the Germanic (Belgium, England, Germany, the Netherlands, USA), Romance (Italy, Spain), and Slavic branches (Croatia, Czech Republic, Slovakia) of the Indo-European languages, as well as the Semito-Hamitic (Israel) and Altaic (Hungary, Japan) language families. Each data set was subjected to principal component analysis, followed by varimax rotation and orthogonal Procrustes rotation to optimal agreement with (i) the Dutch normative structure and (ii) an American large-sample structure. Three criteria (scree test, internal consistency reliabilities of the varimax-rotated components, and parallel analysis) were used to establish the number of factors to be retained for rotation. Clear five-factor structures were found in all samples except in the smallest one (USA, N = 97). Internal consistency reliabilities of the five components were generally good and high congruence was found between each sample structure and both reference structures. More than 80% of the items were equally stable within each country. Based on the results, an international FFPI reference structure is proposed. This reference structure can facilitate standardized communications about Big Five scores across research programmes. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
... Neuroticism, or proneness to experience anxiety and distress, has been repeatedly related to crying more frequently (DeFruyt, 1997; Vingerhoets, Van Den Berg, Kortekaas, Van Heck, & Croon, 1993) and more easily (Peter, Vingerhoets, & van Heck, 2001). It is unclear whether neuroticism is also a predictor of mood change after crying: The only study to examine this prediction found no differences in mood change as a function of neuroticism (Peter et al., 2001). ...
Many people report that crying relieves distress and is soothing; however, others report no change in mood after crying, and a minority of people even report worsened mood. What accounts for individual differences in the sequelae of crying? To examine this question, 196 adult Dutch women completed personality and clinical functioning measures, which were used to predict mood change after crying, as well as the frequency and ease of crying episodes. The personality characteristics of neuroticism, extraversion and empathy predicted variation in the frequency and ease of crying episodes, but did not predict mood change. Conversely, clinical characteristics were less related to the frequency and ease of crying episodes than to variation in mood change. Specifically, alexithymia, anhedonia, depression, and anxiety were associated with worsened post-crying mood. Individual difference characteristics are systematically related to different facets of crying. Implications for understanding the heterogeneity of adult crying are discussed.
... Zusammenz‚hlen der berichteten Symptome der folgenden Items: 1-11, 13, 16, 20, 32, 34-40, 42-51, 53 (Maximalwert 33), 2. Kontrollieren der mƒglichen Ausschlusskriterien und komorbiden Stƒrungen (Items 54-68). Folgende Punkte sind notwendig: 55=Nein, 54= mindestens 1 mal oder 58=ja, 62=Ja, 63=€ber 2 Jahre) und/oder des ICD10 (Zusammenz‚hlen der berichteten Symptome der folgenden Items: (2), (4 oder 5), (6), (10), (11), (13 oder 14), (18), (20 oder 21), (9 oder 22 oder 38), (28), (31) (Spitzer et al., 1996 [93], Spitzer et al., 2006 [91]). ...
"Hypothese der vorliegenden Arbeit war es, dass Patienten mit einer dissoziativen bzw. somatoformen Störung als Zeichen ihres gestörten Affektausdruckes weniger weinen können als Patienten ohne diese Erkrankungen. In unseren Studien wurde diese These jedoch widerlegt. Es zeigte sich, dass vor allem Patienten mit einer Dissoziation sogar im Vergleich zu anderen Patienten deutlich mehr weinen. Dieses Weinen wird jedoch nicht als erleichternd oder befreiend empfunden, sondern zum größten Teil als unangenehm, so dass sich Patienten nachdem sie geweint hatten sogar schlechter fühlten als zuvor. Die vorliegenden Ergebnisse werden diskutiert und mit vorangegangenen Studien verglichen." The present paper is based on the hypothesis that patients with a dissociative, respectively somatoform disorder, as a sign of their abnormal expression of emotions, were not able to cry as much as patients without these diseases. In our studies, however, this theory was falsified. It showed that especially patients with dissociation, even in comparison with other patients, cry considerably more often. However, their crying was not conceived of as relieving or releasing but, in most cases, as unpleasant and embarrassing so that patients after crying felt even worse than before. The present results are discussed and compared with previous studies.
... the best example of a female propensity to advertise trustworthiness cues is females' greater frequency and intensity of crying behaviors as compared to males' (De Fruyt 1997;Lombardo et al. 2001;Van Tilburg et al. 2002;Vingerhoets & Scheirs 2000;Williams 1982;Williams & Morris 1996). In a meta-analysis of crying behaviors across thirty countries and six continents,Becht and Vingerhoets (2002)found that women reported crying an average of 2 1 2 times more often than men. ...
Despite a staggering body of research demonstrating sex differences in expressed emotion, very few theoretical models (evolutionary or non-evolutionary) offer a critical examination of the adaptive nature of such differences. From the perspective of a socio-relational framework, emotive behaviors evolved to promote the attraction and aversion of different types of relationships by advertising the two most parsimonious properties of reciprocity potential, or perceived attractiveness as a prospective social partner. These are the individual's (a) perceived capacity or ability to provide expedient resources, or to inflict immediate harm onto others, and their (b) perceived trustworthiness or probability of actually reciprocating altruism (Vigil 2007). Depending on the unique social demands and relational constraints that each sex evolved, individuals should be sensitive to advertise "capacity" and "trustworthiness" cues through selective displays of dominant versus submissive and masculine versus feminine emotive behaviors, respectively. In this article, I introduce the basic theoretical assumptions and hypotheses of the framework, and show how the models provide a solid scaffold with which to begin to interpret common sex differences in the emotional development literature. I conclude by describing how the framework can be used to predict condition-based and situation-based variation in affect and other forms of expressive behaviors.
... Crying and laughing behaviors. Perhaps the best example of a female propensity to advertise trustworthiness cues is females' greater frequency and intensity of crying behaviors as compared to males' (De Fruyt 1997;Lombardo et al. 2001;Van Tilburg et al. 2002;Vingerhoets & Scheirs 2000;Williams 1982;Williams & Morris 1996). In a meta-analysis of crying behaviors across thirty countries and six continents, Becht and Vingerhoets (2002) found that women reported crying an average of 2 1 2 times more often than men. ...
In this commentary, we review evidence that production-based (perceiver-independent) measures reveal few consistent sex differences in emotion. Further, sex differences in perceiver-based measures can be attributed to retrospective or dispositional biases. We end by discussing an alternative view that women might appear to be more emotional because they are more facile with emotion language.
... Crying and laughing behaviors. Perhaps the best example of a female propensity to advertise trustworthiness cues is females' greater frequency and intensity of crying behaviors as compared to males' (De Fruyt 1997; Lombardo et al. 2001; Van Tilburg et al. 2002; Vingerhoets & Scheirs 2000; Williams 1982; Williams & Morris 1996). In a meta-analysis of crying behaviors across thirty countries and six continents, Becht and Vingerhoets (2002) found that women reported crying an average of 2 1 2 times more often than men. ...
In this commentary, the idea of reciprocity potential indicators is tied in with ultimate accounts on sex differences in social sensitivity. It is proposed that, rather than crying, smiling is a more likely cooperative signal. The possibility of coevolution and polymorphism in perceptual and signalling systems are also discussed briefly, with a reference to Theory of Mind and Machiavellianism.
... Its core meaning is conveyed by items such as can easily link facts together, wants to form his/her own opinions, thinks quickly, and analyses problems loading on the positive pole and follows the crowd, copies others, and does what others do loading on the negative pole. In the Dutch data, the Intellect items appeared predominantly blends of Factors V and III economy students, participating in a study on personality and vocational preferences (Berings, De Fruyt, & Bouwen, manuscript submitted for publication), and 105 secondyear psychology students and their relatives, participating in a study on personality correlates of emotional expression (De Fruyt, 1997). ...
The lexically based Five-Factor Personality Inventory (FFPI) was correlated with the factors and facets of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) in Belgian (N = 265), American (N = 116), and Hungarian (N = 320) samples. Results were similar across the three cultures. Analysis of orthogonalized FFPI factors showed that three of them--emotional stability, extraversion, and agreeableness--showed a direct correspondence to their NEO-PI-R counterparts. Autonomy, however, was not clearly related to openness, and facet analysis suggested that it might be interpreted as a dominance factor Better matches to NEO-PI-R conscientiousness and openness could be obtained by using vectors rotated 30 degrees from the FFPI positions. Raw scale scores showed similar results. Researchers should not assume that all measures of the Five-Factor Model are qualitatively similar
Background:
Crying, a complex neurobiological behavior with psychosocial and communication features, has been little studied in relationship to the menstrual cycle.
Methods:
In the Mood and Daily Life study (MiDL), a community sample of Canadian women aged 18-43 years, n=76, recorded crying proneness and crying frequency daily for six months along with menstrual cycle phase information.
Results:
Crying proneness was most likely during the premenstruum, a little less likely during menses and least likely during the mid-cycle phase, with statistically significant differences although the magnitude of these differences were small. By contrast, actual crying did not differ between the three menstrual cycle phases. Oral contraceptive use did not alter the relationship between menstrual cycle phase and either crying variable. A wide range of menstrual cycle phase - crying proneness patterns were seen with visual inspection of the individual women's line graphs.
Limitations:
timing of ovulation was not ascertained. Using a three phase menstrual cycle division precluded separate late follicular and early luteal data analysis. The sample size was inadequate for a robust statistical test of actual crying.
Conclusions:
reproductive aged women as a group report feeling more like crying premenstrually but may not actually cry more during this menstrual cycle phase. Individual patterns vary substantially. Oral contraceptive use did not affect these relationships. Suggestions for future research are included.
This article provides an overview of the inventories and methods available to assess the Big Five personality factors in the Dutch language domain. The review covers both instruments relevant to research and/or clinical practice and includes a discussion of their background, applications and current status. Special consideration is given to new developments regarding the personality assessment of children. In addition, the article provides empirical data on the concurrent validity of the B5BBS25, the NEO-PI-R and the FFPI.
We used meta-analysis to examine recent studies of sex differences in coping. Women were more likely than men to engage in most coping strategies. The strongest effects showed that women were more likely to use strategies that involved verbal expressions to others or the self—to seek emotional support, ruminate about problems, and use positive self-talk. These sex differences were consistent across studies, supporting a dispositional level hypothesis. Other sex differences were dependent on the nature of the stressor, supporting role constraint theory. We also examined whether stressor appraisal (i.e., women's tendencies to appraise stressors as more severe) accountedfor sex differences in coping. We found some support for this idea. To circumvent this issue, we provide some data on relative coping. These data demonstrate that sex differences in relative coping are more in line with our intuitions about the differences in the ways men and women cope with distress.
The subject of therapist's crying in therapy (TCIT) has been virtually ignored in the literature, with only 1 qualitative dissertation and 3 case studies devoted to the topic. This mixed-method survey study explored therapists' experiences with and attitude toward TCIT. Six hundred eighty-four U.S. psychologists and trainees filled out the survey online, revealing that 72% of therapists report having cried in therapy in their role as therapist. Data analysis indicated that the act of crying in therapy has less to do with personality or demographic factors (i.e., Big Five traits, sex, empathy) and more to do with the unique aspects of the therapy itself and the therapist's identity in the therapeutic context (theoretical orientation, clinical experience, affective tone of the session). Clinicians with more experience, who are older, cried more in therapy than novice clinicians, despite lower crying frequency in daily life, suggesting that more experienced therapists feel more comfortable allowing themselves to experience and/or express such emotions in therapy sessions. Psychodynamic therapists reported slightly higher rates of TCIT than cognitive-behavioral therapists despite no difference in crying in daily life. Despite significant differences in crying rates in daily life, male and female clinicians report similar rates of TCIT. Data regarding the relationship between TCIT and Big Five personality traits, empathy, and perceived consequences of TCIT are reported. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).
Crying is one of the most powerfully compelling forms of human emotional expression, and yet, until recently, crying has received little attention from behavioral scientists. In this article, a model of adult crying is presented that describes the situations and emotions that elicit crying and characterizes the possible moderating effects of environmental, personal, and cultural factors on crying. Empirical data relevant to the model are summarized, and areas in need of further investigation are identified. In addition, the question of whether and how crying may affect mood and health is considered. It is concluded that the literature is full of ungrounded speculation and that research until now has been rather unsystematic and not sufficiently theory driven. Recently available data, however, pave the way for formulating a more comprehensive theoretical framework for generating testable hypotheses about crying. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Gender group differences in terror–stress, cognitive appraisals, ways of coping with terror, and stress reactions were explored
in a sample of Israeli adults following prolonged exposure to political violence. Data were gathered at the height of the
Al-Aqsa Intifada uprising (May/July 2002) from a sample of 707 adult participants (60% women and 40% men) residing in Haifa
and northern Israel. Israeli women reported that they were more distressed by political violence than the men did, and they
also appraised the crisis situation as more threatening and less manageable. Women reported using more problem-focused as
well as emotion-focused coping than men did; both men and women used a mixture of coping strategies. Compared to men, women
reported that they experienced more somatic symptoms and more frequent posttraumatic stress symptoms than men did. Negative
affectivity was found to mediate gender differences in appraisals, coping, and outcomes. Overall, the nexus of relations among
key variables was found to be highly similar for men and women. These data suggest that women may be more reactive to chronic
political violence situations than men are. The data are discussed and explicated in the context of stress and coping theory
and prior research on political violence and community disasters.
This research focused on both the psychological benefits and costs of crying. We investigated the relationships of intrapersonal and interpersonal consequences of crying. Female nurses (N = 300) were requested to describe one of the most impressive negative episodes where they had cried. Then, they were asked to complete a questionnaire including a scale of their psychological changes after the crying episode and the social reactions when they cried. Factor analysis revealed five components of the psychological changes scale. Solitary crying had greater effects for both psychological benefits and costs after crying than crying in front of others. Factor analysis revealed three components of the scale of social reactions. When they cried in front of others, "catharsis", "positive attitude", and "recognition of the relationship with others" after crying were associated with "empathy and social support" from others. The factors of "recognition of negative reality" and "negative attitude" were associated with "criticism and slander" from others. These results were discussed in terms of the communicative functions and the reflective functions of adult crying.
Nonverbal emotional vocalizations are one of the most elementary ways of communicating in humans. We examined the impact of sex differences on neural responses to laughter and crying produced by the same and opposite sex. Thirty subjects (15 women) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during a sex identification task for laughter, crying, and neutral voices. The parahippocampal gyrus was involved in both men and women while hearing laughter of the same sex, suggesting greater positive emotional processing and greater attention toward emotional context in response to laughter of the same sex than of the opposite sex. The posterior cingulate was involved in both men and women while hearing crying of the opposite sex, suggesting that empathic processing may occur more in response to crying of the opposite sex than of the same sex. Furthermore, brain responses to crying of the opposite sex seem to reflect upon men's efforts to perform emotional regulation and women's empathic concerns.
This study investigated the effects of parent and child gender on inter-parent agreement on higher and lower level traits in samples of Flemish and Swiss children. One-hundred and forty-four Flemish and 205 Swiss parent pairs provided independent ratings of one of their children aged between 5.6 and 14.4 years using the Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children (HiPIC; Mervielde, I., & De Fruyt, F., 1999). The results showed that parents considerably agree with each other on both the higher and the lower order traits. There were no absolute intra-pair differences per child gender and country, suggesting that agreement between parents was not affected by child gender and was similar across the two countries. Mean-level domain and facet differences were observed for boys and girls and country, but not between fathers and mothers. It is concluded that, for research and applied purposes, fathers and mothers are comparable informants of childhood behaviour.
The Five-Factor Personality Inventory (FFPI) assesses the Big Five factors of personality, both for self-ratings and for others ratings. It consists of 100 brief and concrete statements, and can be administered in 10–15 min. In addition to the five factor scores, the FFPI may be used to assess 40 bipolar facet scores that arise as blends of the Big Five, for the purpose of communicating more specific information about an individuals position in the five-space (applied settings). In the normal population, the five factor scores appear to be internally consistent, stable and valid. As regards specific (e.g. clinical) populations, still further study is needed. The item pool for the FFPI was constructed interactively in Dutch, English and German versions, and proved to be relatively easy to translate into still other languages. Presently also available are the Brazilian, Chinese, Croatian, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Slovak, Spanish and Swedish versions.
Although much has been written about the healing power of tears, the research into this phenomenon has been fragmented, uncoordinated, and inconclusive. Nonetheless, a substantial amount of the literature across multiple disciplines has addressed the subject, both directly and indirectly. In this article, the authors submit crying that heals (CTH) as a concept of possible significance to health care and evaluate CTH using the criteria for concept evaluation proposed by Morse, Mitcham, Hupcey, and Tasón (1996). Using these criteria, CTH is tentatively defined, and its characteristics, boundaries, preconditions, and outcomes are proposed and examined in the context of this definition. Suggestions for additional analysis and research are offered, and the potential importance of CTH to health care professions, especially nursing, is discussed.
This response shows how the socio-relational framework of expressive behaviors may be used to understand and predict social psychological processes, beyond sex differences in the expression of emotion. I use this opportunity to elaborate on several key concepts on the epigenesis of evolved social behaviors that were not fully addressed in the target article. These are: evidence of a natural history of masculine and feminine specialization (sect. R1); phenotypic plasticity and range of reactivity of social behaviors (sect. R2); exploitive and protective functions of social behaviors (sect. R3); and the role of cognition in some affective responses (sect. R4). I conclude by highlighting (in sect. R5) future directions for psychological research from a socio-relational basis.
A sex difference in the tendency to outbreed (female exogamy) is a premise for the target article's proposed framework, which receives some support by being shared with chimpanzees but not with more distantly related primates. Further empirical support is provided, and it is suggested that recognition of sex differences might improve effective fairness, taking sexual assault as a case in point.
The aim of the study was to examine the proneness, the functions and triggering situations of weeping in anorexic and bulimic women.
Participants were 36 anorexic and 31 bulimic female patients and 56 age-matched female controls. All women completed the Questionnaire on Adult Crying. We limited our study to results on 'crying proneness', 'functions of crying' and 'determining factors of crying'.
Bulimic patients reported to have cried significantly more often in the last 4 weeks, to be more likely to cry in situations of distress and to have used weeping significantly more often as a manipulative behavior than control women. Anorexic patients rated their tendency to cry significantly lower and experienced weeping as significantly more negative than controls.
Compared to control women, anorexic patients associated weeping with negative feelings as opposed to bulimic patients who appeared to use weeping on an intentional basis. These deviations from control women seem to mirror the introvert character of anorexic patients and the extrovert impulsive personality of patients with bulimia nervosa, respectively.
Crying is a gendered activity; women in the general population are known to cry more than men. However, crying is also used as a sign of depression. Its use may explain some of the discrepancy in rates of depression in men and women. We suggest that crying is an invalid indicator because of its gendered status and should be removed from the diagnostic criteria for depression. Men may show other symptoms when depressed more than women, such as aggression and irritability. The inclusion of crying items in depression instruments may therefore introduce a gender bias in the assessment of depression.
This article provides an overview of the inventories and methods available to assess the Big Five personality factors in the Dutch language domain. The review covers both instruments relevant to research and/or clinical practice and includes a discussion of their background, applications and current status. Special consideration is given to new developments regarding the personality assessment of children. In addition, the article provides empirical data on the concurrent validity of the B5BBS25, the NEO-PI-R and the FFPI.
The NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI) is intended to operationalize the five-factor model of personality, both at the level of broad factors or domains and at the level of more specific traits or facets of each domain. However, only facets of three of the domains are currently measured. In this paper we describe minor modifications to the facet scales of Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness, and the development of new scales to measure facets of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Conceptual distinctions within these domains were suggested by a review of the literature, and pilot studies provided preliminary evidence for the validity of new facet scales. Item analyses in a large and diverse sample (n = 1539) of adult men and women were used to finalize item selection and to confirm the structure of the Revised NEO-PI (NEO-PIR) at both the item and the scale level. Correlations of the NEO-PIR with a variety of other self-report scales in a second sample of 394 men and women provided evidence on the convergent and discriminant validity of scales to measure Trust, Straightforwardness, Altruism, Compliance, Modesty and Tender-Mindedness as facets of Agreeableness, and Competence, Order, Dutifulness, Achievement Striving, Self-Discipline, and Deliberation as facets of Conscientiousness.
In a comparison of 70 adult men and 70 adult women, all British, the women claimed to weep more often and with more intensity in all the situations or emotional states that were reviewed. Nevertheless, the pattern of susceptibility to different precipitants recorded for the men was similar to that for the women. Scores on a derived index of overall weeping reactivity, based upon 16 precipitants, were associated with sex, the extent of identification with feminine and rejection of masculine sex-role stereotypes, and levels of emotional empathy and neuroticism. Some subjects could remember an age when their childhood levels of weeping had declined; the median of 11 years of age recalled by the men was significantly younger than the median of 16 years recalled by the women.
Two studies on weeping are reported. Study 1, with 131 females as subjects, shows that weeping frequency is associated with alexithymia and coping strategies, in particular Distancing, Self-blame, Daydreams and Fantasies, and Expression of Emotion. The correlation with self-rated health was 0.00. In a regression analysis, Alexithymia and Distancing were found to be significant predictors. In Study 2, personality data were obtained from 55 males and 149 females. For males, weeping frequency was correlated positively with neuroticism and negatively with alexithymia. These links were also obtained for females. In addition, females showed negative correlations between weeping frequency and strength of excitation and inhibition. So, the pattern of significant associations differed slightly between males and females. However, both groups had in common that self-esteem operated as a suppressor variable and thus was a significant predictor in regression analysis.
In view of certain psychometric deficiencies of the original Psychoticism scale, an attempt was made to improve the scale by adding new items. It was attempted to increase the internal reliability of the scale, improve the shape of the distribution and increase the mean and variance score. Two different studies are discussed. Reliabilities are now somewhat improved, distributions are closer to normal and mean scores are higher than on the old scale. Four new short 12-item scales for the measurement of P, E, N and L are also given.