Pennebaker & Beall, 1986: Writing about traumatic life events increased negative mood and blood pressure suring those days, but decreased self-reported illness among college students the next 6 months
Reference:
Pennebaker, J. W., & Beall, S. K. (1986). Confronting a traumatic event: toward an understanding of inhibition and disease. Journal of abnormal psychology, 95(3), 274.
Download PDFSummary:
Asking undergraduates to write about personally traumatic life events, including both the emotions they experienced and the facts of this experience, on 4 consecutive days increased blood pressure and negative mood immediately but reduced doctor visits and self-reported illness over the next 6 months relative to students who wrote about trivial 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
Intervention Technique:
Active reflection, on negative experiences