Francis & Pennebaker, 1992: Writing about traumatic experiences reduced absenteeism and stress among university employees
Reference:
Francis, M. E., & Pennebaker, J. W. (1992). Putting stress into words: Writing about personal upheavals and health. American Journal of Health Promotion, 6(1), 280-287.
Download PDFSummary:
Asking university employees to write about personally traumatic experiences for 20-minutes once a week for four weeks showed drops in selected blood measures associated with stress and disease and lower absentee rates during the month of writing, relative to employees who wrote about nontraumatic topics.
Psychological Process:
What Desired Meaning is At Stake?
What is the Person Trying to Understand?
Selves (My Own and Others')Approach to Desired Meaning
What about it?
Changing beliefs about emotions, states, and the valence of the self-conceptHow?
Psychological Question Addressed
Are negative past emotions, states, and experiences ongoing and undermining?Are negative past emotions, states, and experiences ongoing and undermining?Psychological Question Addressed
Are negative past emotions, states, and experiences ongoing and undermining?Psychological Process 2:
Psychological Process 3:
Social Area:
Health; Work
Intervention Technique:
Active reflection, on negative experiences