Individual and Social Factors in Crying Appraisal and Recovery: An Exploration into the Functions of Crying Leah Sharman Bachelor (with Honours) of Psychological Science, University of Queensland A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Queensland in 2019 School of Psychology ii Abstract We are currently thought to be the only animal that cry emotional tears throughout the lifespan, with crying in humans apparent in infants, children, and adults. Crying in adulthood has been theorised by a number of researchers in the field to have an intrapersonal, self- soothing, and cathartic effect on the crier. Others have argued that crying has a social (interpersonal) function by attracting the attention of people who may provide us with social support and resources. The research reported in this thesis explores our understanding of adult crying and how it functions in individual and social settings to either help or hinder emotional recovery according to a Multifunctional Model of Crying. This thesis is comprised of six chapters, with the first chapter providing a comprehensive review of previous research on crying and the second summarising the various methodologies used in crying research, while also capturing the various difficulties in eliciting and measuring crying. The third chapter reports on a psychophysiological investigation into perspectives on crying that see crying as aiding physical and emotional recovery, as well a first effort to understand if crying acts as a barrier to immediate future stressors. Compared to those who did not cry to the stimuli and those who were exposed to neutral videos, I predicted that people who cried would (a) be able to withstand a stressful task for longer; (b) show lower hormonal stress levels following crying and exposure to the stressor; and (c) have faster recovery (i.e., return to baseline levels of affect). Heart rate and respiration were continuously recorded while salivary samples for cortisol were taken at four separate time points during testing. Analyses revealed no differences between the three groups in time withstanding the stressor or cortisol changes. Respiration rate, however, increased in the neutral group and non-criers while watching the videos, with criers’ respiration remaining stable. Furthermore, heart rate was found to significantly decrease heart rate just before crying, with heart rate returning to baseline during crying. These results suggest that rather than a physical barrier to stress or pain specifically, crying may engage the body in attempts to maintain homeostasis, perhaps both consciously through self-soothing via purposeful breathing, and unconsciously through regulation of heart rate. The next chapter 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. This yielded three subscales: Helpful Beliefs, Unhelpful-Individual Beliefs, and Unhelpful- Social Beliefs. These subscales showed differential relationships with measures of personality traits, crying proneness, emotion regulation and expressivity, and emotional iii identification (alexithymia). Overall, 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. Chapter 5 reports a large, international study of the role of gender, culture, and social reactions to crying. Data were collected from participants in Australia, Croatia, the Netherlands, Thailand, and the United Kingdom. In understanding the role of gender, the results suggest that across cultures a person’s gender and their adherence to gender roles is highly related to behavioural crying responses, but not related to evaluations of crying. How a person evaluates crying, instead, appears to be highly related to our beliefs about the helpfulness of crying, with no apparent relationship to gender. Crying in social contexts showed that a person is 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. Importantly, when a crier said that they were helped, they tended to report feeling better following crying than those who did not receive help from those around them. The final chapter concludes the thesis by discussing its findings from and their relationship with elements of a Multifunctional Model of Crying developed for this thesis. Overall, this thesis finds that individual differences, social norms, biological factors, and the presence of others all play a role in how people evaluate and understand their crying experiences. iv Declaration by Author This thesis is composed of my original work, and contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference has been made in the text. I have clearly stated the contribution by others to jointly-authored works that I have included in my thesis. I have clearly stated the contribution of others to my thesis as a whole, including statistical assistance, survey design, data analysis, significant technical procedures, professional editorial advice, financial support and any other original research work used or reported in my thesis. The content of my thesis is the result of work I have carried out since the commencement of my higher degree by research candidature and does not include a substantial part of work that has been submitted to qualify for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution. I have clearly stated which parts of my thesis, if any, have been submitted to qualify for another award. I acknowledge that an electronic copy of my thesis must be lodged with the University Library and, subject to the policy and procedures of The University of Queensland, the thesis be made available for research and study in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968 unless a period of embargo has been approved by the Dean of the Graduate School. I acknowledge that copyright of all material contained in my thesis resides with the copyright holder(s) of that material. Where appropriate I have obtained copyright permission from the copyright holder to reproduce material in this thesis and have sought permission from co- authors for any jointly authored works included in the thesis. v Publications Included in This Thesis 1. Sharman, L. S., Dingle. G. A., Vingerhoets, A. J. J. M., Vanman, E. J. (2019). Using crying to cope with emotional and physical pain: Physiological responses to stress following emotional tears. Emotion. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000633 2. Sharman, L. S., Dingle. G. A., & Vanman, E. J. (2019). Does Crying Help? Development of the Beliefs About Crying Scale (BACS). Cognition and Emotion, 33, 722–736. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2018.1488243 3. Sharman, L. S., Dingle. G. A., Baker, M., Fischer, A., Gračinan, A., Kardum, I., Manley, H., Manokara, K., Pattara-angkoon, S., Vingerhoets, A. J. J. M., Vanman, E. J. (2019). The relationship of gender roles and beliefs to crying in an international sample. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02288 vi Other Publications During Candidature Peer-reviewed Journal Publications 1. Williams, E., Dingle, G., Calligeros, R., Sharman, L.S., & Jetten, J. (2019). Enhancing mental health recovery by joining arts-based groups: a role for the social cure approach. Arts and Health. https://doi.org/10.1080/17533015.2019.1624584 2. Price, E.*, Sharman, L.S.*, Douglas, H., Sheeran, N., & Dingle, G.A. (2019). Experiences of reproductive coercion in queensland women. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260519846851 *co-first authors 3. Sharman, L.S., Douglas, H., Price, E., Sheeran, N., & Dingle, G.A. (2018). Associations between unintended pregnancy, domestic violence, and sexual assault in a population of Queensland women. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law. Accepted without revision, July 2018. https://doi.org/10.1080/13218719.2018.1510347 4. Loxton, N. J., Mitchell, R., Dingle, G. A., & Sharman, L. S. (2016). How to tame your BAS: Reward sensitivity and music involvement. Personality and Individual Differences, 97, 35-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.03.018 Book Chapters 5. Dingle, G., Sharman, L., & Larwood, J. (2019). Young people’s uses of music for emotional immersion. Chapter for Oxford Handbook of Music and Adolescence. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Government and Public Reports 6. Utting, S., Douglas, H., Sheeran, N., Dingle, G. A., Bell, J., & Sharman, L. S. (2018). The cost of abortion access in Queensland: Data from the Children by Choice financial assistance program for disadvantaged women 2015-2017. Brisbane, Australia: Children by Choice. 7. Sharman, L.S., Douglas, H., Price, E., Sheeran, N., & Dingle, G.A. (2018). Experiences of QLD women seeking support for unplanned pregnancy. Report submitted to Queensland Parliament. 8. Dingle, G., Williams, E., Sharman, L., & Jetten, J. (2016). School of Hard Knocks QLD – Final Evaluation Report. School of Psychology, The University of Queensland. 9. Dingle, G., Williams, E., & Sharman, L. (2015) Interim report of the School of Hard Knocks QLD Evaluation. School of Psychology, The University of Queensland. Online Articles 10. Sharman. L.S. (2018, November). No, crying doesn't release