喜极而泣——积极情绪的二态表达

积极情绪的二态表达(the dimorphous expressions of positive emotion;DEPE),指当个体处于强烈的积极体验时,这种积极体验不仅诱发了与之相对应的积极表达,而且伴随着消极的外显表现,喜极而泣便是其中的典型。DEPE蕴含了一般情绪现象产生的基本过程,但又和其他情绪现象(如,"悲喜交加"和"乐极生悲")具有本质性区别。未来研究可以运用各类新近技术,进一步细化和完善其理论模型,从不同视角考察影响DEPE产生的因素,并探讨DEPE中消极表达在人际间所起到的功能及其机制。     

Revisiting the revisit: added evidence for a social chemosignal in human emotional tears

In a study by Gelstein et al., we found that human emotional tears act as a social chemosignal. In the first of three different experiments in that study we observed that sniffing women’s emotional tears reduced the sexual attractiveness attributed by men to pictures of women’s faces. In a study partly titled “Chemosignaling effects of human tears revisited”, Gra?anin et al. claim failed replication of this effect in a series of experiments, one they described as “exactly the same procedure” as Gelstein. Given that Gra?anin et al. refused our extended offer to jointly replicate the experiment at our expense, we can merely comment on their effort. We find that Gra?anin, who are not a chemosignaling laboratory, used methodology that falls short of standards typically applied in chemosignaling research. Thus, their experiments were profoundly different from Gelstein. Finally, we found that in reanalysing their raw data we could in fact replicate the effect from Gelstein. Thus, we conclude that the failed replication in Gra?anin is neither a replication nor failed.     

Perception of emotional tears with body postures,visual scenes,and written scenarios

Emotional tears tend to increase perceived sadness in facial expressions. However, it is unclear whether tears would still be seen as an indicator of sadness when a tearful face is observed in an emotional context (e.g., a touching moment during a wedding ceremony). We examine the influence of context on the sadness enhancement effect of tears in three studies. In Study 1, participants evaluated tearful or tearless expressions presented without body postures, with emotionally neutral postures, or with emotionally congruent postures (i.e., postures indicating the same emotion as the face). The results show that the presence of tears increases the perceived sadness of faces regardless of context. Similar results are found in Studies 2 and 3, which used visual scenes and written scenarios as contexts, respectively. Our findings demonstrate that tears on faces reliably indicate sadness, even in the presence of contextual information that suggests non-sadness emotions.     

Counselling students' views and concerns about weeping with clients: A pilot study

This study examines counselling students' concerns and views about a phenomenon that has received little attention in the counselling literature: the counsellor weeping during a session with a client. Over 20 per cent of the counselling students who were surveyed reported being concerned about weeping in session with clients. However, the majority of students believed, to varying degrees, that weeping with clients could facilitate the therapeutic process. This paper sheds light on this unexplored dimension of countertransference, and has implications for those involved in providing counsellor training.     

Chemosignalling effects of human tears revisited: Does exposure to female tears decrease males’ perception of female sexual attractiveness?

Gelstein et al. reported the results of three experiments suggesting a dampening influence of inhalation of female emotional tears on males’ arousal and perception of female sexual attractiveness, specifically in non-sexual situations. This prompted the hypothesis that crying exerts its influence on others not only via the auditory and visual mode but also via chemosignals. In three studies, we attempted to replicate and extend Gelstein et al.’s findings by including an additional condition with irritant tears, by using pictures of sexually attractive women, and by testing related hypotheses on the pro-social effects of exposure to tears. All three studies, separately or combined in a meta-analysis, failed to replicate the original inhibitory effects of tears. In addition, sniffing tears did not affect measures of connectedness, aggression and pro-social behaviour. It is concluded that the effects of female tears on male arousal and perception of female sexual attractiveness, if any, are very weak at best. Rather, it seems that crying exerts its strong inter-personal effects through the visual and auditory sensory channels.     

The significance of psycho‐peristalsis and tears within the therapeutic relationship

This paper represents a heuristic study of the significance of involuntary, intuitive gut responses (psycho‐peristalsis) and tears within the therapeutic relationship. Autobiographical material and qualitative data were gathered from case‐notes and semi‐structured interviews with four client/co‐participants. Data on occurrences of psycho‐peristalsis and tears were collected from 92 clients seen within a six‐year period. Eleven elements of a ‘general constitutional structure of experience’ were identified. A central finding of the study concerns the gut's apparent ability to ‘pick up’, at an unconscious level, significant material that might otherwise have been overlooked. The research suggests some possible clues to the process of unconscious communication and healing, and adds an interesting psychological dimension to recent findings in the fields of neuroscience and cell biology which amount to the discovery of a ‘second brain’ in the walls of the small intestine. These phenomena are examined in the light of theoretical debates in counselling and psychotherapy.