Personality, gender, and crying

Abstract

This study examined gender differences in crying as well as associations between basic personality traits and self-reported indices of crying. Forty-eight men and 56 women completed the Five-Factor Personality Inventory and the Adult Crying Inventory. Substantial gender differences were demonstrated in crying frequency and crying proneness, but not with respect to mood changes after crying. As predicted, women reported a higher frequency of crying and more proneness to cry both for negative and positive reasons. For women, all these crying indices were negatively associated with Emotional Stability. For men, only a signi®cant negative relationship between Emotional Stability and crying for negative reasons emerged. No clear links were found between personality and mood changes after crying. Multiple regression analysis revealed a signi®cant predictive role of gender for crying proneness, even when controlling for personality differences, but not for crying frequency. Adding personality by gender interaction terms resulted in a disappearance of the main effect of sex, while signi®cant interactions with personality factors showed up for crying frequency and general crying proneness. It is suggested that future research on the relationship between personality and crying should focus more on the underlying mechanisms of observed relationships. Furthermore, it is recommended that future research should examine the role of different emotion regulation strategies. In addition, biological factors, temperament, upbringing measures, and socio-demographic variables should be taken into account.

Crying in Context: Understanding Associations With Interpersonal Dependency and Social Support

“…Interestingly, although DD was unrelated to crying tendency, HD was negatively associated with crying tendency. As noted, a few prior studies have shown greater crying to be associated with greater neuroticism (De Fruyt, 1997;Peter et al, 2001;Rottenberg, Bylsma, Wolvin, et al, 2008), attachment characteristics (Laan et al, 2012), and greater empathic skills (Williams, 1982). Consistent with these few works, our findings suggest that DO, in particular, may be an important predictor of crying proneness in adults.…”

“…Gender, in particular, has been shown to be a powerful predictor of crying, in that women report more crying than do men in adulthood (e.g., Peter, Vingerhoets, & Van Heck, 2001;Van Tilburg, Unterberg, & Vingerhoets, 2002;Vingerhoets, 2013;Vingerhoets et al, 2000). There is also quite a lot of empirical evidence to support the idea that crying proneness is influenced by personality (Rottenberg, Bylsma, Wolvin, & Vingerhoets, 2008;Vingerhoets, 2013;Vingerhoets, Van Tilburg, et al, 2001;Vingerhoets et al, 2009).…”

“…Namely, the link between DO was sustained despite our controlling for a host of demographic, intrapersonal, and contextual variables. In addition to controlling for gender (Peter et al, 2001) and relationship status, it is noteworthy that the link between DO and crying remained even when controlling for stress, loneliness, and depressive symptomology. Although crying occurs in response to many internal states , persons with greater neuroticism (a trait negative affect construct) consistently report more frequent crying (Rottenberg, Bylsma, Wolvin, et al, 2008).…”

“…Control variables -For our primary regression analyses we included several control variables that have established associations with crying and/or social support, particularly among adolescents and young adults: gender (Antonucci, 2001;De Fruyt, 1997;Peter et al, 2001;Shumaker & Hill, 1991), romantic relationship status (Connolly & Johnson, 1996), stress (Choti, Marston, Holston, & Hart, 1987;Cohen & Wills, 1985), loneliness (Jones & Moore, 1987;Rubenstein & Shaver, 1982), and depressive symptoms (Vingerhoets, Rottenberg, Cevaal, & Nelson, 2007).…”

“…Given that crying may or may not elicit support (Averill, 1968;Harber et al, 2008;Hendriks, Croon, et al, 2008;Hendriks & Vingerhoets, 2006;Nelson, 1998;Sander, Frome, & Scheich, 2007) and may or may not lead to feeling better or to the receipt of support , a fuller understanding of crying necessitates examinations of the interactions between individual difference factors and the contexts in which both crying and social support occur (Peter et al, 2001;Vingerhoets et al, 2000). As expected, analyses in the current report showed that although DO predicted greater crying, this effect was moderated by social support such that the positive link between DO and crying was stronger among persons reporting higher levels of social support.…”