The benefits of expressive writing after the Madrid terrorist attack: Implications for emotional activation and positive affect

The act of written emotional disclosure has been widely studied for the past several decades. Yet, in spite of this, there are limited studies which examine the interplay of expressive writing, self-compassion and positive affect, along with its potential to augment ego identity among students. Using repeated measures experimental design, the present research explored the efficacy of expressive writing in improving levels of positive affect among university students ageing 18-25 (M = 19.23; SD = 1.21). Participants were tested in groups and wrote either about life goals (n = 46), positive experiences (n = 49) or a control topic (n = 46). Two separate three-way ANOVA were carried out to investigate whether writing about life goals has an impact on the students’ positive affect. It further examined how students could benefit according to their self-compassion levels. Regardless of the form of expressive writing, students did not significantly differ on the levels of positive affect. The results of this study are aimed at designing intervention for students to help them develop their ego identity. Future studies employing randomised, controlled designs are warranted. Keywords: expressive writing, positive affect, self-compassion.

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Idiographic Dynamics of Positive Affect in GAD

European Journal of Psychological Assessment ◽

10.1027/1015-5759/a000580 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 36 (3) ◽

pp. 500-509

Author(s):

Hannah G. Bosley ◽

Devon B. Sandel ◽

Aaron J. Fisher

Keyword(s):

Positive Affect ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Alternative Hypothesis ◽

Equation Model ◽

Aggregated Data ◽

Regulatory Strategy ◽

Constant State ◽

Automatic Search ◽

Time Lagged ◽

Exploratory Procedure

Abstract. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is associated with worry and emotion regulation difficulties. The contrast-avoidance model suggests that individuals with GAD use worry to regulate emotion: by worrying, they maintain a constant state of negative affect (NA), avoiding a feared sudden shift into NA. We tested an extension of this model to positive affect (PA). During a week-long ecological momentary assessment (EMA) period, 96 undergraduates with a GAD analog provided four daily measurements of worry, dampening (i.e., PA suppression), and PA. We hypothesized a time-lagged mediation relationship in which higher worry predicts later dampening, and dampening predicts subsequently lower PA. A lag-2 structural equation model was fit to the group-aggregated data and to each individual time-series to test this hypothesis. Although worry and PA were negatively correlated in 87 participants, our model was not supported at the nomothetic level. However, idiographically, our model was well-fit for about a third (38.5%) of participants. We then used automatic search as an idiographic exploratory procedure to detect other time-lagged relationships between these constructs. While 46 individuals exhibited some cross-lagged relationships, no clear pattern emerged across participants. An alternative hypothesis about the speed of the relationship between variables is discussed using contemporaneous correlations of worry, dampening, and PA. Findings suggest heterogeneity in the function of worry as a regulatory strategy, and the importance of temporal scale for detection of time-lagged effects.

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Dispositional Properties of Metaphor

Journal of Individual Differences ◽

10.1027/1614-0001/a000234 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 38 (3) ◽

pp. 175-188 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Adam K. Fetterman ◽

Brian P. Meier ◽

Michael D. Robinson

Keyword(s):

Positive Affect ◽

Food Preferences ◽

Self Control ◽

Taste Preferences ◽

Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽

Prosocial Motivation ◽

Sweet Food ◽

Metaphor Theory ◽

Sweet Foods ◽

Dispositional Properties

Abstract. Metaphors often characterize prosocial actions and people as sweet. Three studies sought to explore whether conceptual metaphors of this type can provide insights into the prosocial trait of agreeableness and into daily life prosociality. Study 1 (n = 698) examined relationships between agreeableness and food taste preferences. Studies 2 (n = 66) and 3 (n = 132) utilized daily diary protocols. In Study 1, more agreeable people liked sweet foods to a greater extent. In Study 2, greater sweet food preferences predicted a stronger positive relationship between daily prosocial behaviors and positive affect, a pattern consistent with prosocial motivation. Finally, Study 3 found that daily prosocial feelings and behaviors varied positively with sweet food consumption in a manner that could not be ascribed to positive affect or self-control. Altogether, the findings encourage further efforts to extend conceptual metaphor theory to the domain of personality processes, in part by building on balance-related ideas.

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Social and Temporal Comparisons as Moderators of Psychological Resources Associations With Wellbeing

Journal of Individual Differences ◽

10.1027/1614-0001/a000193 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 37 (2) ◽

pp. 96-104 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Hasida Ben-Zur

Keyword(s):

Life Satisfaction ◽

Positive Affect ◽

Subjective Wellbeing ◽

Social Comparisons ◽

Self Esteem ◽

Psychological Resources ◽

Low Levels ◽

Age Range ◽

General Wellbeing

Abstract. The current study investigated the associations of psychological resources, social comparisons, and temporal comparisons with general wellbeing. The sample included 142 community participants (47.9% men; age range 23–83 years), who compared themselves with others, and with their younger selves, on eight dimensions (e.g., physical health, resilience). They also completed questionnaires assessing psychological resources of mastery and self-esteem, and three components of subjective wellbeing: life satisfaction and negative and positive affect. The main results showed that high levels of psychological resources contributed to wellbeing, with self-enhancing social and temporal comparisons moderating the effects of resources on certain wellbeing components. Specifically, under low levels of mastery or self-esteem self-enhancing social or temporal comparisons were related to either higher life satisfaction or positive affect. The results highlight the role of resources and comparisons in promoting people’s wellbeing, and suggest that self-enhancing comparisons function as cognitive coping mechanisms when psychological resources are low.

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Physical and Psychological Benefits of Written Emotional Expression

European Psychologist ◽

10.1027/1016-9040/a000231 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 20 (4) ◽

pp. 242-251 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Éva Kállay

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Expressive Writing ◽

Mental Health Problems ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Health Problems ◽

Future Research ◽

Psychological Benefits ◽

Cost Effective Treatment ◽

Meta Analyses

Abstract. The last several decades have witnessed a substantial increase in the number of individuals suffering from both diagnosable and subsyndromal mental health problems. Consequently, the development of cost-effective treatment methods, accessible to large populations suffering from different forms of mental health problems, became imperative. A very promising intervention is the method of expressive writing (EW), which may be used in both clinically diagnosable cases and subthreshold symptomatology. This method, in which people express their feelings and thoughts related to stressful situations in writing, has been found to improve participants’ long-term psychological, physiological, behavioral, and social functioning. Based on a thorough analysis and synthesis of the published literature (also including most recent meta-analyses), the present paper presents the expressive writing method, its short- and long-term, intra-and interpersonal effects, different situations and conditions in which it has been proven to be effective, the most important mechanisms implied in the process of recovery, advantages, disadvantages, and possible pitfalls of the method, as well as variants of the original technique and future research directions.

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