This research tested the hypothesis that emotional crying facilitates coping and recovery, specifically through physiological changes that occur during crying. Female undergraduate students (N = 197) were randomly assigned to either a sad or neutral condition using short videos. Sad videos were selected for their extreme emotion elicitation. We predicted that compared to those who did not cry to the stimuli and those who were exposed to neutral videos, people who cried would (a) be able to withstand a stressful task for longer; (b) show lower levels of cortisol following crying and exposure to the stressor; and (c) have faster recovery (i.e., return to baseline levels of affect). The final groups consisted of the neutral group (n = 65), sad criers (n = 71), and sad noncriers (n = 61). After a 5-min baseline period, participants watched either the sad or neutral videos for 17 min and then completed a physical stressor (cold pressor test). Heart rate and respiration were continuously recorded, whereas salivary samples for cortisol were taken at 4 separate time points during testing. Analyses revealed no differences between the 3 groups in time withstanding the stressor or cortisol changes. Respiration rate, however, increased in the neutral group and noncriers while watching the videos, with criers' respiration remaining stable. Furthermore, heart rate was found to decelerate just before crying, with a return to baseline during the first crying period. These results suggest that crying may assist in generally maintaining biological homeostasis, perhaps consciously through self-soothing via purposeful breathing and unconsciously through regulation of heart rate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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用哭泣应对：悲伤的眼泪对压力的生理反应。

这项研究检验了以下假设：情绪性哭泣有助于应对和恢复，特别是通过哭泣过程中发生的生理变化。使用短视频将女大学生（N = 197）随机分配到悲伤或中立状态。选择悲伤的视频是因为它们具有极端的情感诱因。我们预测，与不对刺激哭泣的人和暴露于中性录像的人相比，哭泣的人将（a）能够承受更长的压力任务；（b）哭泣和暴露于应激源后皮质醇水平降低；（c）恢复速度更快（即恢复到情感的基线水平）。最后一组由中立组（n = 65），悲伤的哭泣者（n = 71）和悲伤的无哭泣者（n = 61）组成。在5分钟的基准时间之后，参与者观看了悲伤或中立的视频17分钟，然后完成了物理压力测试（冷压力测试）。连续记录心率和呼吸，而唾液皮质醇的唾液样品则在测试过程中的四个不同时间点进行采集。分析显示，在承受压力或皮质醇变化的情况下，三组在时间上没有差异。但是，在观看视频时，中立组和非哭泣者的呼吸频率增加，而哭泣者的呼吸保持稳定。此外，发现在哭泣之前心率会降低，在第一次哭泣期间会恢复到基线。这些结果表明，哭泣可能有助于维持体内生物稳态，可能是通过有目的的呼吸有意识地通过自我舒缓来进行的，而在调节心率的过程中是在无意识中进行的。（PsycINFO数据库记录（c）2019 APA，保留所有权利）。