According to leading psychosocial models of worry, the reduced imagery and concreteness of worries may prevent emotional processing and ultimately maintain fear. Given that Pennebaker’s written emotional disclosure paradigm may facilitate emotional processing, the present study investigated whether writing about potential problems about which individuals were worried had physical and psychological health benefits similar to the benefits of writing about other emotionally meaningful topics (e.g., decreased physician visits, reduced symptoms of psychopathology). Participants were randomly assigned to write either emotionally or objectively about a potential problem worrying them or a neutral topic (a 2 x 2 between-participants design). Each group completed four 15-min writing sessions on four consecutive days. Physician visits, generalized anxiety symptoms, trait worry, and problem appraisals were monitored six weeks before (visits), immediately after (all variables), one month after (symptoms, worry, and appraisals), and 3 months after (visits) writing. Contrary to past research, the present research revealed no beneficial effects of written emotional disclosure about potential problems. However, among emotional disclosure participants who wrote about the same worry across all four writing sessions, there was a subsequent decrease in trait worry scores one month later. Affective data suggested that disclosure facilitated slight fear activation and habituation, although these effects were small. Potential reasons for these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

According to leading psychosocial models of worry, the reduced imagery and concreteness of worries may prevent emotional processing and ultimately maintain fear. Given that Pennebaker’s written emotional disclosure paradigm may facilitate emotional processing, the present study investigated whether writing about potential problems about which individuals were worried had physical and psychological health benefits similar to the benefits of writing about other emotionally meaningful topics (e.g., decreased physician visits, reduced symptoms of psychopathology). Participants were randomly assigned to write either emotionally or objectively about a potential problem worrying them or a neutral topic (a 2 x 2 between-participants design). Each group completed four 15-min writing sessions on four consecutive days. Physician visits, generalized anxiety symptoms, trait worry, and problem appraisals were monitored six weeks before (visits), immediately after (all variables), one month after (symptoms, worry, and appraisals), and 3 months after (visits) writing. Contrary to past research, the present research revealed no beneficial effects of written emotional disclosure about potential problems. However, among emotional disclosure participants who wrote about the same worry across all four writing sessions, there was a subsequent decrease in trait worry scores one month later. Affective data suggested that disclosure facilitated slight fear activation and habituation, although these effects were small. Potential reasons for these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Evolutionary theory provides a useful framework for understanding the possible genesis and benefits of spirituality and/or religiosity. Research within psychology on Attachment and Object Relations Theory indicates congruence between the way we relate and perceive others and the way we relate to and perceive “God”. In addition research has indicated that spirituality and religiosity in general are related to better health outcomes. This study examined the possible differential benefits of using the Pennebaker Written Emotional Disclosure paradigm with or without a spiritual/religious framework. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that any incremental benefits would be moderated by attachment style and level of object relations development. This study provided no support for either a differential effect of writing instructions or for a moderating effect of attachment style or level of object relations development. Implications and suggestions for future inquiry are discussed.

Previous research has suggested that emotional expression is important for psychological adjustment to disease (e.g., Stanton et al., 2000). Indeed, experimentally prescribed emotional disclosure (traditionally, expressive writing) in the context of illness has been shown to provide benefits for mental and physical health (Pennebaker, 1993). However, the experimentally prescribed disclosure in previous research has typically been asocial, akin to writing in a diary. In contrast, the present research, by experimentally manipulating the intended audience of one’s disclosure, examined the effect of addressing one’s emotional disclosure to specific types of listener, namely a therapist or one’s spouse. Cardiac couples in which one partner had a recent cardiac event took part in the current study. First, partners completed pre-study characteristics questionnaires. Next, in a lab session, partners (in separate rooms) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) they disclosed their thoughts and feelings about the cardiac event as though speaking to their partner; (2) they disclosed their thoughts and feelings about the event as though speaking to a therapist; or (3) in a non-disclosure, control condition, they spoke about a neutral topic. Partners then engaged in a dyadic discussion about each partner’s experiences, thoughts and feelings about the cardiac event. Finally, a one-month follow-up measure assessed their relational outcomes since participation. It was hypothesized that the partner-oriented condition would lead to better outcomes than the therapist-oriented condition, and that disclosing overall would be more beneficial than non-disclosure. The study also examined the influence of pre-study characteristics on in-lab and follow-up outcomes, with the hypothesis being that participants doing less well initially (i.e., higher on psychological distress, Type D personality, emotional suppression, and lower on mindfulness, cognitive reappraisal, relationship satisfaction, and perceived social support) would experience relatively more benefits from participation than those initially doing well. In addition, the study investigated whether type of event (unexpected and sudden vs. planned and more gradual) would differentially influence measures throughout the study, with the hypothesis being that couples who experienced a sudden event (MI) would be more distressed and therefore benefit more from participation than those who went through a planned procedure. Hypotheses were partially supported. Although the manipulation of disclosing to one’s partner vs. a therapist did not elicit many differences, one important and novel finding emerged regarding the orientation of disclosures: partner-disclosures yielded a more communal orientation whereas therapist-disclosures yielded a more self-focused orientation. The importance of patients’ disclosure orientation (me vs. we) was revealed when it emerged that greater communal focus led to better outcomes for both partners, but greater self-focus led to less positive outcomes for spouses. Compared to non-disclosure, disclosure generally was found to provide greater benefits for relational communication as well as marital satisfaction at follow-up. Consistent with predictions, participants who seemed most in need at pre-study (i.e., greater distress, Type D personality, emotional suppression, and less marital satisfaction and perceived support) experienced better outcomes than those who were initially well. Finally, couples who went through a sudden event were found to be more in need and benefited more than those whose event was planned, and this was especially pronounced in the effects on the spouses. Directions for future research and implications for clinical practice were discussed. For example, in addition to highlighting the value of emotional disclosure in the context of serious illness, the findings identified characteristics of cardiac couples who may be more in need of communication interventions and drew attention to important, relatively unmet needs in the patients’ spouses.

Previous studies evaluating the impact of trauma history and PTSD on pain sensitivity yield inconsistent findings; the presence of trauma-related negative affective states may account for these discrepancies. Therefore, the proposed study aimed to evaluate the effect of trauma-related negative affect and PTSD symptoms on sensory and affective components of pain sensitivity among trauma-exposed women. Adult women (N = 87) with low and high PTSD symptoms underwent an emotional disclosure paradigm, during which they wrote about a traumatic event or a neutral topic. Participants then completed a pain induction procedure. Compared to women with low PTSD symptoms, women with high PTSD symptoms demonstrated increased time to pain detection (e.g., threshold) and ability to withstand pain (e.g., tolerance), as well as increased pain intensity and when accounting for relevant covariates. Women with high PTSD symptoms who wrote about their worst traumatic experience reported higher pain unpleasantness relative to women with high PTSD symptoms who wrote about the neutral topic and women with low PTSD symptoms who wrote about either topic. Results suggest that PTSD symptoms and trauma-related negative affect may facilitate alterations in pain sensitivity in trauma-exposed women, but this relationship is complex and requires further exploration.

Previous research has produced heterogeneous findings regarding the effectiveness of expressive writing in reducing grief symptomatology among the bereaved (e.g., Collison, 2016; Lichtenthal & Cruess, 2010; Stroebe et al., 2006). The purpose of this study was to address these mixed results by exploring the effects and linguistic characteristics of a novel writing task (i.e., the acrostic poem) among bereaved undergraduates, using an innovative data analysis technique (i.e., Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count). The current study recruited 68 undergraduates who had lost a loved one. Participants were randomly assigned to write over multiple days using the acrostic poem, emotional disclosure prompt, or a control writing prompt. Consistent with previous research, the results indicated no significant differences in grief between conditions over time; however, there were key group differences in linguistic content. Further, while all participants endorsed improvements in grief one week following the intervention, the participants returned to baseline one month later. Patterns of writing, coping, religiosity/ spirituality, physical symptoms, and grief in bereaved emerging adults were also assessed. The results suggest that while expressive writing might not be an effective intervention for the bereaved, the content of writing might provide clinicians some insight on psychological and spiritual processes at play in bereaved emerging adults.

Previous research has shown how venting one’s feelings can reduce the negative emotions of a consumption experience. This study proposes a general process of how consumers with feelings of unfairness due to a negative consumption experience can achieve emotional disclosure and reduced unfairness by posting online reviews. By using an experimental design with scenarios, this study tests how the perceived unfairness in this process is affected by the party encouraging the consumer to post an online review and the consumer’s public commitment. A student sample was divided into four groups and the perception of unfairness was compared between the groups depending on whether the party encouraging the feedback was a company perceived to be responsible for the sense of unfairness or an independent party and whether when the consumer was identifiable or anonymous to see if public commitment had an effect. Results showed that emotional disclosure was found to reduce the perceived unfairness in all groups. There was no significant difference between being encouraged by the company or independent party. Furthermore, no public commitment was in effect, even when participants’ answers were thought to become known to others. The results indicate that companies may prefer to encourage consumers to provide feedback themselves rather than using a third party and that posting online reviews will not make the consumer committed to their feeling of unfairness.

No description available.

In the area of positive youth development, mentoring programs are often looked upon to help disadvantaged youth connect with caring adults in order to increase positive behaviors and decrease negative behaviors. The benefits of these programs were often assumed and it was not until recently that large-scale research has examined their effectiveness. The results of the research are modest, at best, suggesting that youth mentoring programs provide only minimal benefits to its participants. A closer examination of the research reveals that the effectiveness of the programs increased if they adhered to specific practices, in particular specific aspects of the mentoring relationship. The aspects of the mentoring relationship that contributed to greater effects include emotional expressiveness by the youth and non-hierarchical collaboration between the youth and mentor. Although theories on mentoring have not been well-established, many point to the life-span development literature as the basis for their effectiveness. However, these theories may be based on a Western worldview of mentoring relationships that contradict with Eastern values of emotional moderation and hierarchical relationships. Current mentoring programs may be less salient to Asian populations, specifically the notion that successful mentoring requires emotional expressiveness and non-hierarchical relationships. This study examined the acculturation level of Asian participants and its impact on distress disclosure, willingness to emotionally-self-disclose to peers and mentors during early adolescence, and relational health with peers and mentors during early adolescence. Values acculturation significantly predicted distress disclosure but did not predict emotional self-disclosure. However, the number of years lived in the U.S. did predict emotional self-disclosure. No interactions were found for relational health and emotional self-disclosure across values acculturation level and relationship type; main effects were found for both variables in that relational health and emotional self-disclosure tended to be less with mentors than with peers. Exploratory analyses using behavioral acculturation found an interaction for emotional self-disclosure across relationship type; those who were less acculturated were more willing to disclose emotions to mentors during early adolescence, a finding in an unanticipated direction. The behavioral and values aspect of acculturation is discussed as well as the cultural influence of the community in mentoring.

No description available.