On the Functions of Sadness and Grief

Huron, David

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-77619-4_5

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 87 publications

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“…Human behavior manifests only a small handful of displays that might qualify as ethological signals. Huron (2018) assembled a detailed case consistent with the claim that human weeping conforms to an ethological signal.…”

Section: Understanding Emotional Displaysmentioning

confidence: 89%

On the Enjoyment of Sad Music: Pleasurable Compassion Theory and the Role of Trait Empathy

Huron

Vuoskoski

2020

Front. Psychol.

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Drawing on recent empirical studies on the enjoyment of nominally sad music, a general theory of the pleasure of tragic or sad portrayals is presented. Not all listeners enjoy sad music. Multiple studies indicate that those individuals who enjoy sad music exhibit a particular pattern of empathic traits. These individuals score high on empathic concern (compassion) and high on imaginative absorption (fantasy), with only nominal personal distress (commiseration). Empirical studies are reviewed implicating compassion as a positively valenced affect. Accordingly, individuals who most enjoy sad musical portrayals experience a pleasurable prosocial affect (compassion), amplified by empathetic engagement (fantasy), while experiencing only nominal levels of unpleasant emotional contagion (commiseration). It is suggested that this pattern of trait empathy may apply more broadly, accounting for many other situations where spectators experience pleasure when exposed to tragic representations or portrayals.

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Section: Understanding Emotional Displaysmentioning

confidence: 89%

On the Enjoyment of Sad Music: Pleasurable Compassion Theory and the Role of Trait Empathy

Huron

Vuoskoski

2020

Front. Psychol.

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“…It is an emotional response to a distressing experience after the death of a loved one or after a loss of trust, safety, autonomy, or identity (Archer & Freeman, 1999;Epstein, 2019). Grief is accompanied by sadness, negative valence, and a higher intensity or physiological arousal (Huron, 2018;Jefferies et al, 2008;Warrenburg, 2020b). Experiences of grief involve a great deal of personal loss that manifests in crying, weeping, or wailing (Huron, 2015b;Vingerhoets & Cornelius, 2012).…”

Section: Vmi Evoked By Sad and Calm Clips In Hcmmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this framework, it is proposed that images are conjured (e.g., a beautiful landscape) while listening to music, and that this evocation induces emotions (Juslin & Västfjäll, 2008). Studies also suggest several underlying factors that influence the formation of VMI, such as environmental cues and shared cultural understanding and experiences of the listeners (Margulis & McAuley, 2022), auditory and visual information encountered in day-to-day life (Day & Thompson, 2019), individual attributes, such as empathy (Vuoskoski & Eerola, 2012), autobiographical memories (Jakubowski & Ghosh, 2021), and the valence of the music itself (Taruffi, 2017). Reaction time experiments on whether VMI precedes perception and induction of an emotion throw light on other mechanisms of the framework, such as brain stem reflexes and musical expectancies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual Mental Imagery Evoked in Indian Classical Music: A Listener-Oriented Study

Borgohain,

Behera,

Patnaik

et al. 2023

Music & Science

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Music and visual mental imagery (VMI) are closely associated. The visual depiction of musical instruments and musical settings is central to music iconography and music-mediated visual culture. Music-evoked VMI, mediated by emotions, is another established field of study. Hindustani classical music (HCM) has a medieval musical pictorial tradition based on dhyanaslokas (meditative verses), which visually represent the ragas (musical modes) based on the evocation of their rasas or aesthetic emotion. This, incidentally, comes close to the contemporary understanding of music-evoked VMI. However, VMI evoked in response to music has received very little attention in studies on HCM, both for contemporary listeners and historically. In this context, we investigated whether HCM evoked VMI and whether its content was related to emotions, such as “calm” and “sad”, that dominate HCM. Additionally, the themes of the VMI in response to calm and sad clips were compared with corresponding VMI in Western music. Finally, medieval dhyanaslokas were analyzed for associated visual imagery (VI) that was compared with VMI generated in these contexts. Findings revealed that HCM evokes VMI, which is well differentiated for calm and sad clips. When the VMI for HCM was compared with Western VMI, though common themes emerged, cultural differences were identified. While VI in dhyanaslokas had similarities to VMI in response to HCM, marked differences also existed.

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“…Sadness can be seen as a negative (aversive) mood that people experience when faced with unfavorable and uncontrollable events (Bondolfi et al., 2015; Bowlby, 1998). These events can have both social (rejection, death of a loved one) and nonsocial (financial problems, poor health) sources (Huron, 2018; Leary, 2015). Therefore, it can be assumed that sadness as a component of loneliness and sadness as a symptom of depression may originate from different sources.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Depressive symptoms and loneliness among early adolescents: a psychometric network analysis approach

Grygiel

Dolata

Humenny

et al. 2023

Child Psychology Psychiatry

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BackgroundPrevious studies demonstrate a high prevalence of depression and loneliness among adolescents. Although they often co‐occur, the relationship between symptoms of depression and loneliness remains poorly understood. This study investigates: (a) the symptoms of depression that are connected to loneliness; (b) the role played by loneliness in the network of depression symptoms; and (c) whether the method used to measure loneliness (single‐item direct or multi‐item indirect) affects the relationship of loneliness with depressive symptoms.MethodsParticipants were 496 Polish adolescents (50.8% girls) aged 11 to 13, who completed: (a) the 10‐item Major Depressive Disorder subscale of the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale; (b) the 11‐item De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale (indirect loneliness), and (c) a single direct question evaluating loneliness: ‘I'm lonely’. Networks were estimated using a Gaussian Graphical Model.ResultsLoneliness shows a direct relationship with three affective symptoms of depression: sadness, worthlessness, and anhedonia, which mediate relationships with somatic symptoms. In contrast to previous studies, loneliness has the lowest level of centrality among all elements of the network. The method used to assess loneliness did not significantly affect the connections between loneliness and depressive symptoms.ConclusionsLoneliness and depression overlap since they are formed by the same cognitive biases and deficits in emotion regulation but differ in the level of generality. In loneliness, they have an interpersonal context, while symptoms of depression can be intrapersonal. This helps us to understand why cognitive interventions, as compared to those which are social, are more effective in reducing loneliness.

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On the Functions of Sadness and Grief

Cited by 10 publications

References 87 publications

On the Enjoyment of Sad Music: Pleasurable Compassion Theory and the Role of Trait Empathy

On the Enjoyment of Sad Music: Pleasurable Compassion Theory and the Role of Trait Empathy

Visual Mental Imagery Evoked in Indian Classical Music: A Listener-Oriented Study

Depressive symptoms and loneliness among early adolescents: a psychometric network analysis approach

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