Adult Crying - Literature review Example

? Adult Crying First School Affiliation Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 0 Introduction 3 1 Background Information 3 1.2 Rationale and theoretical framework of the study 4 2.0 Literature Review 5 2.0.1 Gender 5 2.0.2 Culture 7 2.0.3 Personality 8 2. 1 Present Study 9 3.0 Methodology 10 3. 1 Participants 10 3.2 Data gathering and analysis 10 Discussion and conclusions 11 References 12 1.0 Introduction 1. 1 Background Information The ability to cry is a part of being human. Vingerhoets, Bylsma and Rottenberg (2009), assert that crying is a universal form of human expression that permeates human life, from the beginning (primal scream) until the end, when a person dies. Individuals from all cultures and of all ages cry at certain times. Crying can occur to express emotions during positive or negative events, such as the break-up of a relationship, during funerals, at a wedding, achieving great success, losing a friend or relative. William and Morris (1996) compared Israeli and British students and found a significant cultural difference in crying frequencies. They also found that crying decreases with age in both cultures. Szabo and Frey (1981) carried out a study that asked Hungarian students and American students to keep crying dairies, where the Hungarian men and women reported crying less frequently than Americans. Van Hemert, Van de Vijver and Vingerhoets (2011) carried out a study across thirty-seven countries. They suggested that crying could not be connected to distress, but to personality and emotional expression – when measuring different countries. The aim of the present study is to investigate crying in relation to cultural aspects covering the expression of distress, or as a result of differences in personality, in relation to gender differences. In this study we will test participants from three different cultures (Arabs, Europeans and Iranians). This study will use cultural and psychological perspectives in the research. Hypothesis 1: Iranians cry more than Arabs. Hypothesis 2: Crying is more common in European culture than in Arab culture. Hypothesis 3: Individuals with higher scores on neuroticism cry more often than individuals with lower scores on personality aspect. Hypothesis : There will be interaction between gender and culture. 1.2 Rationale and theoretical framework of the study This study had been selected to examine the influence of culture, personality and gender on adult crying. There is need to understand the reasons behind variation and patterns in adult cry. It is always a wonder how some individuals are seen and registered to cry more than others in cases of sadness, depressing moments, when scared and when overwhelmed by emotions. This study is interested to know the factors that influence the variation in crying. The importance of crying in some studies has been concluded to be the fact that it removes excessive quantities of prolactin out of the body and thus restoring biochemical conditions that lead to an improvement in mental status (Frey 1985). The differences in gender on basis of emotions have commonly been accounted for in relationship with the cultural and social setting in an environment, particularly as an outcome of socialization based on stereotypical ideas on gender (Shields, 2002; Jansz, 2000; Brody & Hall, 1993). A number of cross-cultural research have reported distinct sex differences in personality characteristics (Costa, Terracciano, & McCrae, 2001), depressive disorders (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1987), stereotype based on gender (Williams & Best, 1990), and loving connection (Schmitt et al., 2003). This concurs to support the idea of different patterns in adult crying among adults. 2.0 Literature Review The crying score of a country is strongly related to the extraversion, well-being, wealth, freedom, politics, and individualism of that nation (Van Hemert et al., 2011). This study also showed that women living in a country where women (compared to men) have less power will cry less (for example in non-western countries) than women in countries who have more power (for example in western countries). 2.0.1 Gender Do women and men live diverse lives emotionally, and do they express and experience their emotions in diverse techniques, or with varying intensity or frequency (Fischer, Mosquera, and Vianen, 2004)? This is one factor that has been under study and researchers have come up with review on how gender influences crying in adults. Crying has been seen to be an act devised to look for social empathy from others. This can even be seen when a dog kind of empathizes with a stranger who is in a foul mood and is crying. Adult crying has been witnessed more on women compared to male adults. This divergent observation on adult crying on both male and female has led to conclusions that gender as a role in adult crying. One of the factors that has been seen to lead to this divergence in character is the fact that from a small age, boys are encouraged not to cry and if need be, they should not do this publicly. As infants, you will often get that the rate of crying in both male and female is at per. But as growth continues, the crying starts to reduce in both male and female but at different degrees of reduction. In female, the reduction in crying is gradual and thus they are seen to cry even in their adulthood but in men, the crying reduces significantly and it may even cease completely in several men. This has been attributed to the fact that at a small age the boy is told that crying is not for men (Grossman & Wood, 1993). Crying has even been classified to be done by weaklings and no man would enjoy being referred to as a weakling. Thus they reduce or cease their crying. Discouragement from crying among ladies during growth is at its minimal hence you will find that almost every adult lady has cried severally over a certain period of time. A significant discovery in research on crying is that towards puberty there isn’t a variation between females and males in the number of times they cry (Hastrup, Kraemer, Bornstein, & Trezza, 2001). This changes when the male starts to show traits involved with powerful emotions and will therefore exhibit hostility more than the females and thus a reduction in the crying intensity. Another observation that has been made based on gender is that in the adults who cry, the women are observed to cry intensely than men. This variation in the intensity is not an indication that crying has more effect or benefits towards women than it has to men. In a study, despite the variation, the benefits of crying were recorded as similar in both men and women. They all said they felt better after crying. Other studies and researches on social behavior have come up in a bid to try and explain or offer an alternative explanation as to the reason behind the differences observable in emotions between men and women. They have argued from a biological point of view to explain these differences in emotion. They have said that the influences by the hormone are the reason behind the regular actions of crying in women. (Cornelius, Vingerhoets, Becht & Van Heck, 2000; Frey, 1985). There is consideration of emotions being part of the social roles that both men and women normally hold (Eagly, 1987; Alexander & Wood, 2000; Grossman & Wood, 1993; Eagly & Wood, 1991; Brody & Hall, 1993). Vingerhoets, Bylsma and Rottenberg (2009) suggested that when women feel angry they are more likely to cry than men and men displayed a positive feeling after crying. Also, Vingerhoets and Scheirs (as cited in Vingerhots, 2009) identified that women cry more easily than men. Frey (1985) discovered that women weep more often and understand that crying is a behavioural model to cope with their problems. Frey’s (1985) study showed no gender differences over the experiences of negative or positive effects of weeping. 2.0.2 Culture The differences in crying have commonly been accounted for in relationship with the cultural and social setting in an environment, particularly as an outcome of socialization based on stereotypical ideas (Shields, 2002; Jansz, 2000; Brody & Hall, 1993). Conventionally, in Western business culture, women have been observed to have nurturing and domestic roles more than men, where there foremost task is to take emotional care of other people around her. Men on the other hand, will often cater for the material needs and will thus be in roles in the business world more than women (Fischer, Mosquera, and Vianen, 2004). The world is characterized by different cultures, which have several distinctions between them. Darwin (1872; 1965) and Borgquist (1906) argued that crying was more common in non-Western cultures than Western culture, particularly in regards to England. Borgquist (1906) reported that crying is a global human phenomenon. According to Borgquist (1906) differences in crying behaviour is not only being biological aspect, also are due to specific cultural influences and current rules. On the other hand, Sulaiman Sultana, Bhugra Dinesh and de Silva Padmal (2001) determined, from their focus group study in Dubai, that for older Arab women crying was shameful and unusual, especially for women with depression. Women should not show their feelings in front of others, but should keep them on the inside. If these feelings become too much then she should cry alone. There are no previous studies that have investigated crying in Iranian and Arab cultures. However, a number of studies (in different fields) have compared the two cultures to identify that they have unique differences, even though they are neighbouring countries and share similar beliefs. Haosseini and Khaghninezhad (2011) showed that the Iranian English learner does significantly better than their Arab counterpart. The authors argued that this is due to the cultural characteristics of Iranians and the results showed that culture plays an important role in recall tasks. Shahbazian, Dibaeiand and Barfi (2006) carried out a study on organ donation after death, with results showing that Arabs have fewer tendencies for organ donation than Iranians which results from their beliefs. There is a variation on how different cultures view each other. The Arabs for example have been known to have a stereotypical view of the Iranians. The Iranians are seen to be lazy and they lack morale for industrialization (Beattie, Agahi and Spencer, 1982). In study by Triandis and Vassiliou (1967), there has been conclusions that when an individual comes into contact with other people in a different culture it may lead to the individual viewing their culture as being low or high in superiority to the other culture. Such as the Arabs view the Iranians lowly The Iranians are at a higher risk of suffering from multiple sclerosis than the Arabs (Sharafaddinzadeha, Moghtaderib, Majdinasaba, Dahmardehb, Kashipazhaa, & Shalbafana, 2012). It leads to social dependence and thus the Iranians are more likely to have symptoms of emotions that may lead to crying hence are likely to can more than the Arabs. 2.0.3 Personality Past study recommended that sex variations in personality traits are bigger in healthy, flourishing, and egalitarian societies in which females have opportunities close to equivalent with those of their male counterparts. Women have scored low on self-esteem compared to the score in men (Showers and Buswell). Women have also been observed to exhibit negative emotions more than men, such as shame, anxiety, depression and anger (Lynn & Martin, 1997). In recent studies, there has been a hypothesis that gender variations in depression and various other negative emotions may be because of the high levels of sensitivity that have been observed in women to these (Rossy & Thayer, 2000). Women have been observed to be more self-conscious than men a fact that makes them sensitive to their surrounding and hence a small negative aspect may make her feel bad to the point of crying (Feingold, 1994). Those with cases of neuroticism are often going to cry more often than those without. Vingerhoets et al. (2000) concluded that personality is an important aspect in determining whether individuals cry in specific situations. Furthermore, Vingerhoets et al. (1993) identified several positive relationships between crying frequency and personality features in men and women. Vingerhoets and Van Hech (2001) asserted that personality and gender are associated with crying, and De Fruyt (1997) demonstrated a significant relationship between neuroticism and crying tendency. Van Hemert et al (2011) 2. 1 Present Study We analyze crying propensity and pattern in crying in three different cultures. The information was gathered in the perspective of the International Study on Adult Crying (ISAC; Becht & Vingerhoets, 2002). The current study explores whether culture variations in crying can be better considered as an indication of being under duress, as an indication of cultural normality about the distress expression (see Scheff, 1979), or due to variations in personality/character. Moreover, hypotheses about cross-cultural gender variations in crying which are derived from culture and personality are analyzed. 3.0 Methodology 3. 1 Participants The data collected for the study incorporating a total of 150 participants/individuals. The participants participating in this study include an equal number of males and females in each culture group. The sample consists of friends and relatives, aged between 20 and 45 years old, who are volunteers from the three different cultures. The sample size will be fifty participants from an Arab culture, fifty from a European culture, and fifty from an Iranian culture. Our interest in the results will be to come up with an estimate statistical review of the effects of difference in culture, gender and personality in crying among adults. 3.2 Data gathering and analysis Both crying questionnaires, The Adult Crying Inventory (ACI; Vingerhoets and Becht, 2001) and Tendency to Cry (Vingerhoets and Cornelius, 2001), and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised Short Form (EPQR-S; Eysenck and Eysenck, 1975) will be used. The ACI questionnaire focuses on feelings and emotional experiences and has six parts: part A describes the situation in which one can cry (7-point scale, ranging from never to always). Part B describes some functions of crying (10-point scale, ranging from hardly cry to easily cry). Part C describes the factors that determine breaking out in tears at certain times (6-point scale, ranging from not at all to very much). Part D describes crying episodes (7-point scale, ranging from less than one day ago to more than a year ago). Part E is for women only (2-point scale; yes or no). Part F describes the general tendency to cry (7-point scale, ranging from very unlikely to very likely). The ACI questionnaire has been translated into Arabic and Farsi. An Arabic version already exists and we will translate the ACI questionnaire into Farsi. The English version of the tendency to cry and EPQ-S questionnaires will be presented to all participants. Data collected from the study is to be analysed quantitatively. The data under analyses is measurable because it is dealing with the number of people. From the data, we will tell the number of people who cry in each culture, gender and exhibiting certain personality traits and this will be comparable among the various cultures under study. Discussion and conclusions Studies have shown that there will always be variation between how a person expresses their emotion, to what intensity they are going to express their feelings, and how able they are to control both the powerless emotions and powerful emotions based on the personality, gender and culture that an individual exhibits. There is notable variation among various cultures and also in terms of gender. Traits to vary from one individual to the other. These variations include the behavioral element of the individuals and thus there is a difference in their expression of emotions that are inclusive of crying. Culture, Gender and personality are in a way connected References Alexander, M. G., & Wood, W. (2000). Women, men and positive emotions: A social role interpretation. In A. H. 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