Elaborate notes of all the lectures of the course: Emotions: Scientific & Clinical Aspects. An overview of the subjects:
Lecture 1: Crying,
Lecture 2: Mindfulness,
Lecture 3: Emotions,
Lecture 4: Evolution,
Lecture 5: Emotion appraisal,
Lecture 6: Matter of emotion,
Lecture 7: Commu...
Lecture 1: Crying
Why is the study of crying interesting?
- Two major claims
o Hear that people say crying is healthy -> what’s the scientific evidence of that?
o Crying with tears has contributed significantly to our phylogenetic development ->
the tears have helped us to become the ultrasocial species that we are
- More clinical interest
o Crying is a behavior that is displayed often in a therapeutic setting -> in patients and
in therapists themselves
How important is it? Does it interfere with the psychotherapy?
o Crying if you do that relatively often/if you have a low threshold to cry -> included in
many questionnaires used to screen for depression
One questionnaire -> more likely to be depressed if you indicate that you
have lost the ability to cry, so you don’t cry more, but less or never
o Patients with neurological disorders -> stroke, dementia -> often see that they suffer
from pathological crying -> seems that neurologists (who wrote the literature) don’t
understand anything about crying -> important that psychologists teach them
- Topic crying shows how emotion can be approached from different perspectives
- Charles Darwin (book on expression of emotions in man and animals) -> Ad was fascinated
about this book, because his idea was that emotions and expressions are very important for
our wellbeing -> but he said that emotional tears don’t serve any function/they were
purposeless
o Could Ad prove that Charles Darwin was wrong in this perspective?
Crying: the ‘hardware’
- The lacrimal gland and its neural innervation
o Above the eyes the tear glands are located -> around eyebrow
Tears are released from here
2
, If production of tears is greater than the capacity of our drainage system, the
tears will roll over our cheeks and that is what we call weeping
o The right picture -> nerves from the eye to the brain and from the brain to the
lacrimal gland -> reflex tears/irritation tears -> if we are exposed to onions -> nerves
detect the pollution and they give a signal to the brain -> brain stimulates the
lacrimal glands to release tears to clean the eye
Nucleus between the nerve originating of the eye and the nerve going to the
lacrimal gland -> under the influence of the limbic brain, so in that way the
lacrimal gland can’t only be innervated by the impulses from the sensory
nerves (eye), but also from the emotional brain
See that in the next picture -> influences of the sensory nerves and the limbic
brain -> the neurobiology of crying
In addition to tears -> vocal crying, separate system -> under the influence of
the limbic system
- Facial muscles involved in crying
o Several muscles, which to some extent are active when we cry
o Not just the muscles, but also the vessels in the face -> picture/fragment of someone
with infrared camera -> more red means higher temperature and blue and green
means low temperature
Nose was rather green, but becomes very red, so extremely warm
Evolutionary background
- Crying is displayed by all mammals (also in several bird species) -> not talking about
production of emotional tears, but of the vocal aspect of crying
- Guinea Pigs only cry when the youngers are rather young and only display it when they are
separated from the mother (and even more when they are put in a novel situation without
their mom)
- Humans are the only species which produces emotional tears -> and we cry throughout our
lives
The most helpless creature
- Human babies are among the most helpless creatures that exist
o Monkeys can cling to the fur of their mother -> human baby can’t
o Ducklings -> as soon as released from the egg -> motoric skills to follow the mother
- What does a baby have to help it survive?
o Looks/appearance -> big, round head, relatively big eyes, large forehead -> special
features of the human baby that more or less automatically stimulate caregiving
reactions in adults -> want to hug them when we see these babies with these looks
In cartoons and stuffed animals -> designers are aware of the importance of
the round forms and big eyes, which they use in cartoons and stuffed
animals
o Smile -> use to attract attention
o Crying -> initially this is vocal crying (6-8 weeks) -> hungry, when they feel pain or
discomfort -> also important for them is being in the company of the mother
(physical contact with the mother)
3 conditions -> counted the crying of newborns as a function of how they
were treated
3
, Blue -> put in a cot, separated from the mother -> a lot of crying
Red -> skin to skin contact -> in the beginning a little bit and later
none
Yellow -> in the cot first, but halfway they were put on the breast of
the mother -> crying stopped halfway
Human crying consists of two components
- Acoustical component (that we share with most other mammals and birds)
o Emitted in all directions
o Mother lost baby -> important that baby could display this behavior (also in dark and
dense vegetation)
o Acoustical umbilical cord -> this emphasized the importance
But not only noticed by the mother, also attract attention of neutral
people/aggressors -> danger to acoustical crying
- Visual component -> important for more close interactions
o When someone has lost a child (vocal crying important to attract parents) ->
dependent on whose attention has been attracted, the tears may have an important
function
If you attracted the attention of a caregiver (parent, romantic partner) ->
tears stimulate caregiving, providing comfort and succor
Neutral person (stranger) -> important that the stranger feels responsible for
your wellbeing -> stimulates social bonding
Aggressor -> important if the tears had the capacity to reduce aggressive
impulses
Why do only humans weep?
- Because humans are unique with their long childhood (most mammals are infants for a few
weeks and then already grow up very fast)
o Most animals are born ready made -> brains have developed and in their physical
appearance and behavior they are already quite fully adapted to the normal
situations that they live in
Visit the zoo, you see information boards with (this animal lives in the
mountain) -> perfectly fit with their looks and behavior to that specific
environment
o Humans live in all kinds of different situations -> brain keeps developing until the age
of 20/25 -> during our childhood we are really learning machines -> dependent on
the protection, love and care of adults
Especially in phase in which we are motorically fully developed -> so it’s
important to dispose of behavior that is very helpful to solicit the attention
and love and protection of others without warning the whole environment
that you are weak or in pain -> better to have tears than vocalization
And why specifically producing tears and no other reaction?
- If you look at infants who cry, they put much pressure on the lacrimal glands (contract the
eye muscles) and our (Ad says our) idea is that they also stimulate the sensory nerves and
that this produces the tears -> crying and production of tears became coupled
Developmental aspects of crying
4
Voordelen van het kopen van samenvattingen bij Stuvia op een rij:
Verzekerd van kwaliteit door reviews
Stuvia-klanten hebben meer dan 700.000 samenvattingen beoordeeld. Zo weet je zeker dat je de beste documenten koopt!
Snel en makkelijk kopen
Je betaalt supersnel en eenmalig met iDeal, creditcard of Stuvia-tegoed voor de samenvatting. Zonder lidmaatschap.
Focus op de essentie
Samenvattingen worden geschreven voor en door anderen. Daarom zijn de samenvattingen altijd betrouwbaar en actueel. Zo kom je snel tot de kern!
Veelgestelde vragen
Wat krijg ik als ik dit document koop?
Je krijgt een PDF, die direct beschikbaar is na je aankoop. Het gekochte document is altijd, overal en oneindig toegankelijk via je profiel.
Tevredenheidsgarantie: hoe werkt dat?
Onze tevredenheidsgarantie zorgt ervoor dat je altijd een studiedocument vindt dat goed bij je past. Je vult een formulier in en onze klantenservice regelt de rest.
Van wie koop ik deze samenvatting?
Stuvia is een marktplaats, je koop dit document dus niet van ons, maar van verkoper irenelinderhof. Stuvia faciliteert de betaling aan de verkoper.
Zit ik meteen vast aan een abonnement?
Nee, je koopt alleen deze samenvatting voor €2,99. Je zit daarna nergens aan vast.
