Kansei — learning: emotional writing work on programming lectures

A method of teaching programming is proposed for consideration, which, like Kansei-engineering [1], is based on managing the emotional background in the classroom during classes to enhance the individual significance of the quality of the assignment. The need for the method is due to the fact that during the oral presentation of the material by the lecturer, students today do not use note-taking, and there is also no feedback. The ways of increasing the effectiveness of teaching programming by means of developing the ability to “think with your hands”, as an activation of creativity, through the use of additional emotional stress. In this direction, an initiative is proposed to supplement the written dictation at the lecture. It obliges the student not only to implement written decisions, but also to emotionally assess their quality by making special notes in the margins. Such an innovation will allow not only to develop and strengthen the skill of writing software code, but also at the same time to check its correctness individually, since the selfassessment of the quality of the result is formed emotionally. It is assumed that the introduction of regular lecture emotional writing practices will allow students to hone their algorithmic thinking skills more effectively, and the teacher to manage the tendency of individual learning. It can be expected that an emotional insight will occur in the student’s mind at a certain moment, associated with the assessment of his own work, which will determine the initial moment of the emerging understanding. An emotional reaction in conjunction with a written result will mean the initialization of an individual educational process.

Online writing about positive life experiences reduces depression and perceived stress reactivity in socially inhibited individuals

Therapeutic writing can enhance psychological and physical health. Recent studies have suggested that these kinds of interventions can be effective when delivered online. The present study investigated whether positive emotional writing online can influence psychological and physical health in individuals reporting high levels of negative affectivity, who are most likely to benefit from psychological intervention (N = 72, Mage = 28.5, SDage = 8.7), and further, to investigate the potential moderating role of social inhibition. Participants completed self-report measures of physical symptoms, perceived stress, perceived stress reactivity, depression and generalised anxiety, before completing either i) positive emotional writing, or ii) a non-emotive control writing task on an online portal, for 20 minutes per day over three consecutive days. State anxiety was measured immediately after each writing session, and self-report questionnaires were again administered four weeks post-writing. Socially inhibited individuals exhibited significant reductions in depression and perceived stress reactivity four weeks following positive emotional writing, relative to writing about a neutral topic. The present study supports the efficacy of online therapeutic writing in individuals who, due to their socially inhibited nature, are most likely to benefit from online interventions which avoid interaction with a therapist or other clients.

Sharing One’s Story

This chapter discusses the use of translating emotional experiences into words as a coping tool. It outlines the basic paradigm and research findings, factors related to the efficacy of story sharing (writing versus talking, disclosure, duration, social factors, and individual differences), the clinical benefits of emotional writing, and the central questions of why writing or talking about emotional experiences influence health and coping.