Seeing Through Tears

Nelson, Judith Kay

doi:10.4324/9780203955758

Cited by 15 publications

(33 citation statements)

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“…As sadness and helplessness are closely related, we expected that the display of tears would increase the perceived helplessness of a person, which in turn leads to a higher willingness to help that person (see also Horstmann 2003 ). Throughout ages, from the seventeenth century philosopher Thomas Hobbes to, more recently, emotion psychologist Frijda ( 1986 ) and evolutionary biologist Hasson ( 2009 ), scholars have emphasized that it is, in particular, helplessness as well as loss and separation that are the main antecedents of tears all over the life span (Nelson 2005 ; Vingerhoets 2013 ; Vingerhoets et al 1997 for empirical findings).…”

Section: Why Crying Might Elicit Helping Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the current literature on adult crying (see Vingerhoets 2013 ; Vingerhoets and Bylsma 2015 ), two possible major functions of crying have been postulated: (1) catharsis and emotional recovery (an “intra-individual” function) and (2) signaling to others one’s need for support and succor, which results in a change in their ongoing behavior and in the directing of their attention to the crier (the “inter-individual” function). The main theories that address the interpersonal functions of crying (e.g., Bowlby 1969 ; Hasson 2009 ; Nelson 2005 ; Vingerhoets 2013 ; Walter 2006 ) hypothesize that crying elicits helping behavior in others. However, this hypothesis has not yet been firmly empirically established in adults.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The social impact of emotional tears

2016

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The question what specific functions the production of emotional tears fulfills has received only limited attention of behavioral scientists. We report the results of two studies on the social impact of emotional tears. In Study 1 (96 Dutch females), perceived helplessness and felt connectedness predicted the willingness to help a person depicted as crying tearfully, while perceived friendliness did not. In Study 2 (US sample, 128 males, 68 females) all three of these variables mediated the effect the display of tears had on the willingness to help. Our results replicate and extend previous work and add to current knowledge by showing that tearful crying facilitates helping behavior and by identifying reasons why people are more willing to help criers. These findings help to put forth novel predictions on the impact of tearful crying on others.

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Section: Why Crying Might Elicit Helping Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The social impact of emotional tears

2016

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“…Interpersonally speaking, the intention of resistance could be seen as an attempt to restore through regressive means a state of relatedness that has been altered. Resistance could be construed as opposition to a subjective experience of loss (Nelson, 2005) that change would effect.…”

Section: Resistance As Misunderstood Attachment Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given that her new model of other was someone whose soothing proximity was available but unreliable, it would have been expected that Sarah would develop what Ainsworth and Bell (1970) would describe as an insecure anxious attachment characterized by feelings of anxious ambivalence relative to significant others. In this context, Sarah's help-rejecting behavior represented her attempt to respond to her attachment system's biological imperative while simultaneously protecting herself against the pain of anticipated loss (Nelson, 2005).…”

Section: Re-reflectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“We Don't Get Fooled Again”…Or Do We? One Social Worker's Artistic Perspective on Supervisee Resistance and the Process of Meaning Making in Contemporary Psychodynamic Clinical Supervision

Pres

2015

The Clinical Supervisor

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In the following article I analyze the construct of resistance in contemporary psychodynamic supervision. I reframe supervisee behaviors that have been labeled as resistance and advance the idea that, at times, these behaviors may be better understood as attachment behaviors intended to reduce anxiety through the restoration of a particular state of relatedness to the supervisor. I supply a vignette from my own work to illustrate this point. Throughout, I highlight the influence of epistemology on supervision and advocate that the objectivist/constructivist distinction presents a dialectic to be embraced rather than a conflict to be resolved.

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“…Theorists have argued that crying may be of intrapersonal therapeutic utility by facilitating emotional processing and acceptance of loss (Nelson, 2005 ; Hendriks et al, 2008 ). Interpersonally, crying is a key attachment behavior, intended to elicit care and comfort from close others throughout life (Bowlby, 1969 ; Nelson, 2005 ). Hendriks et al ( 2008 ) argue that the social support elicited by crying fully explains its benefits.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holding Back the Tears: Individual Differences in Adult Crying Proneness Reflect Attachment Orientation and Attitudes to Crying

et al. 2016

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Despite being a universal human attachment behavior, little is known about individual differences in crying. To facilitate such examination we first recommend shortened versions of the attitudes and proneness sections of the Adult Crying Inventory using two independent samples. Importantly, we examine attachment orientation differences in crying proneness and test the mediating role of attitudes toward crying in this relationship. Participants (Sample 1 N = 623, Sample 2 N = 781), completed online measures of adult attachment dimensions (avoidance and anxiety), attitudes toward crying, and crying proneness. Exploratory factor analyses in Sample 1 revealed four factors for crying attitudes: crying helps one feel better; crying is healthy; hatred of crying; and crying is controllable; and three factors for crying proneness: threat to self; sadness; and joy. Confirmatory factor analyses in Sample 2 replicated these structures. Theoretically and statistically justified short forms of each scale were created. Multiple mediation analyses revealed similar patterns of results across the two samples, with the attitudes “crying is healthy” and “crying is controllable” consistently mediating the positive links between attachment anxiety and crying proneness, and the negative links between attachment avoidance and crying proneness. Results are discussed in relation to attachment and emotion regulation literature.

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Seeing Through Tears

Cited by 15 publications

References 0 publications

The social impact of emotional tears

The social impact of emotional tears

“We Don't Get Fooled Again”…Or Do We? One Social Worker's Artistic Perspective on Supervisee Resistance and the Process of Meaning Making in Contemporary Psychodynamic Clinical Supervision

Holding Back the Tears: Individual Differences in Adult Crying Proneness Reflect Attachment Orientation and Attitudes to Crying

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