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Tears...What purpose do they serve ?
Socio-psychological aspects of crying.

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Tears...What purpose do they serve ?

beans
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Posted 03/24/05 - 02:13 AM: Subject: Tears.	#1
Why do we cry? Why do we laugh? I suppose I've been wondering this for a while. Aside from the fact that these are forms of nonverbal communication, they aren't necessarily done in front of people all the time. Crying, especially, is the most confusing. There are ways to show being upset without crying so why do we do it? I don't find my eyes becoming unbearably dry when I'm upset. *edit Perhaps this was moved on the grounds of it being a poorly presented topic or a poor topic altogether, but I did think this had a bit to do with psychology. Nevertheless, let me rephrase considering I was moved The physical act of forming tears as an expression of an emotion doesn't quite make sense. In general there are physical references to indicate an individual's emotional state, but why? I suppose the heart of the matter is when or where does something mental become something physical? I am familiar with the term "localizability" however I'm not satisfied with any explaination of the relationship between the two states that I have read... as of yet. Now can I be moved somewhere else? Because being in here totally emasculates my thread Edited by beans on 03/24/05 - 03:53 AM. Reason: it was moved into pseudophilosophy.

Paul
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Posted 03/24/05 - 12:47 PM:	#2
Odd, I can't find any record of the thread being moved in the moderator logs. Are you sure you didn't post it in the wrong forum? I'll move it to anth/soc/psych pending any word from moderators on if anyone did move it. As for tears, I remember in a previous similar thread someone mentioned that it could simply be that physical and mental pain are not easily distinguished (evolutionarily it's easier to have a similar pain response for both), and if you've got something in your eye tears are useful. 'Course it seems a little odd since there are so many other sorts of pain not involving things in your eye, but there's no disadvantage to crying the rest of the time and it's come to serve a social purpose. Laughing is a little harder for me to imagine a physical reason for. Perhaps it's just something like making loud non-threatening noises indicates you're not afraid of predators and having a good time with others. There are clear advantages to having a reaction such as lauging, but it's not clear why laughs are exactly what they are. Edited by Paul on 03/24/05 - 12:51 PM

Gramm
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Posted 03/24/05 - 03:23 PM:	#3
Beans wrote: Perhaps this was moved on the grounds of it being a poorly presented topic or a poor topic altogether, but I did think this had a bit to do with psychology. Nevertheless, let me rephrase considering I was moved Beans, I moved it, because in its original form it was poorly presented. The question itself had merit but needed more depth and clarification....most particularly your last senence made no sense... Also giving a thread a one word title....doesn't really give a reader much of a clue as to what your on about... In anycase, you should know that moving a thread to Pseudo does not always mean it remains there...as you can see...And I hasten to point out, that there are occasions (admitedly rare) when a thread develops enough to be returned to the mainstream... Gramm
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rabeldin
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Posted 03/24/05 - 04:07 PM:	#4
The basic reality of tear formation is biological. Only after we have understood the biological basis of weeping will we be ready to examine the cultural and psychological correlates.
Leave no assumption unquestioned.

fluidmosaic
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Posted 03/25/05 - 12:11 PM:	#5
beans wrote: I suppose the heart of the matter is when or where does something mental become something physical? Maybe they are not separate to begin with
Knowledge is not made for understanding, it is made for cutting. Truth itself has a history. -Foucault

zOOmz
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Posted 03/25/05 - 02:05 PM:	#6
Emotions originate from ductless glands located throughout the body that secrete hormones directly into the bloodstream. These hormones are responsible for the changes that we notice when we experience emotions such as melancholy, that could be considered a disorder in the biochemistry, a poison, The tears shed carry the harmones out of the body, and the end result is relief. If you chop up an onion, there is only water and salt in the resulting tears.. z
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Neuroweave
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Posted 03/25/05 - 03:01 PM:	#7
Tears purify in every sense... they also keep the eye humid and clean Socio-psychologically: just like laughing, which "is contageous", and often generates an atmosphere of fun, tears, together with the facial expression of sadness, evoke compassion and sometimes comprehension. Unless the sad person encounters cold-heartedness, she is thereby more likely to get necessary human attention. Try to imagine yourself helping and talking to a person without tears, and then to a person with tears. Is there a difference? Edited by Neuroweave on 03/26/05 - 12:34 AM. Reason: new ideas
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nxixcxk2
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Posted 03/25/05 - 06:38 PM:	#8
beans wrote: Why do we cry? Why do we laugh? I suppose I've been wondering this for a while. Aside from the fact that these are forms of nonverbal communication, they aren't necessarily done in front of people all the time. Crying, especially, is the most confusing. Those are interesting questions. I'm sure there are, or at least will be, scientific answers for why we do such things as expressing our emotions through body language...but why laughter instead of frantically jiggling our hands and feet? Why tears instead of farts, when were sad or experience something that elicits that which makes us tear? I know that if I try to supress my laughter (like when my classmates and I crack jokes during class), I perspire profusely and my face turns bright red--all occurring while my body minutely spasms. Regardless, whenever I experience an intense emotion, it must "come out" physically--I've never been able to simply "turn it off." Peace Nick

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Posted 03/25/05 - 07:31 PM:	#9
zOOmz wrote: Emotions originate from ductless glands located throughout the body that secrete hormones directly into the bloodstream. These hormones are responsible for the changes that we notice when we experience emotions such as melancholy, that could be considered a disorder in the biochemistry, a poison, The tears shed carry the harmones out of the body, and the end result is relief. If you chop up an onion, there is only water and salt in the resulting tears.. z Heh, I had always kind of wondered what was happening on a biological level. Interesting.

beans
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Posted 03/27/05 - 12:14 AM:	#10
Gramm wrote: In anycase, you should know that moving a thread to Pseudo does not always mean it remains there...as you can see...And I hasten to point out, that there are occasions (admitedly rare) when a thread develops enough to be returned to the mainstream... Gramm But I felt like someone just flicked me on the forehead when it was moved ...but it's all better now. As for the replies... these are all interesting thoughts but they all gave rise to more questions than answers- philosophy is a long process However, I did some reading and apparently there are structural differences between men and women's tear glands. And statistically women cry more then men... I suppose that's not very surprising but still, if crying rids the body of certain stress related chemicals can I assume women would be under more stress than men? Or men have no heart? But this brings up an interesting point: if men get rid of these chemicals differently then women, one can assume crying isn't necessary. Then why would you still do it? As I was reading, I saw that crying is a pretty efficient method of removing toxins from the body... so why don't we cry more often? Have you noticed that the sometimes when you are the most "stressed" or the most upset... you can't cry? I have. For example, I've heard many people say at funerals they are unable to cry. That doesn't seem very logical considering the tears' purpose.

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