Expression of negative and positive events through writing: Implications for psychotherapy and health

Abstract

Abstract Previous researchers have found that subjects who wrote about traumatic experiences demonstrated improvements in physical health and have concluded that writing is a form of self-disclosure which helps to decrease inhibition and, thereby, improve health. Our experiment extended this research by examining whether writing about positive life events also affected physical health as well as psychological health and mood. Also investigated were the relationships between self-disclosure and inhibition and we examined how self-disclosure, inhibition and psychological distress differentially effected health outcomes. One hundred and fifty-six participants were randomly assigned to the Negative Feelings Group (NFG). Positive Feelings Group (PFG) and Control Group (CG) and wrote about negative. positive. and neutral life events respectively. No significant improvements in physical health were noted across all three groups. There were significant improvements in psychological health and decreases in psychol...