Park Jiyoung, Ayduk Özlem, Kross Ethan
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts.
Department of Psychology, University of California.
Emotion. 2016 Apr;16(3):349-64. doi: 10.1037/emo0000121. Epub 2015 Oct 12.
Prior research indicates that expressive writing enhances well-being by leading people to construct meaningful narratives that explain distressing life experiences. But how does expressive writing facilitate meaning-making? We addressed this issue in 2 longitudinal studies by examining whether and how expressive writing promotes self-distancing, a process that facilitates meaning-making. At baseline in both studies, participants reflected on a distressing life experience. In Study 1 participants were then randomly assigned to write about their distressing experience or a non-emotional topic for 15 min on 3 consecutive days; in Study 2 participants were randomly assigned to write or think about their distressing experience or write about a non-emotional topic for the same amount of time. One day following the intervention, expressive writing participants in both studies self-distanced more when they reflected over their distressing experience compared with participants in the other conditions, which in turn led them to experience less emotional reactivity 1 month (Studies 1 and 2) and 6 months (Study 2) after the intervention. Analyses using data from both studies indicated that expressive writing reduced physical symptoms indirectly through its effects on self-distancing and emotional reactivity [that is, expressive writing group (vs. comparison groups) → greater self-distancing → less emotional reactivity → fewer physical symptoms]. Finally, linguistic analyses using essays from both studies indicated that increased use of causation words and decreased use of negative emotion words and first-person singular pronouns predicted increases in self-distancing over time. These findings demonstrate that expressive writing promotes self-distancing and illustrate how it does so.
先前的研究表明,表达性写作通过引导人们构建有意义的叙事来解释痛苦的生活经历,从而提升幸福感。但表达性写作是如何促进意义建构的呢?我们在两项纵向研究中探讨了这个问题,研究表达性写作是否以及如何促进自我疏离,这是一个有助于意义建构的过程。在两项研究的基线阶段,参与者都反思了一段痛苦的生活经历。在研究1中,参与者随后被随机分配,连续3天每天花15分钟写下他们痛苦的经历或一个非情感主题;在研究2中,参与者被随机分配,花相同的时间写下或思考他们痛苦的经历,或者写下一个非情感主题。干预后的一天,与其他条件下的参与者相比,两项研究中进行表达性写作的参与者在反思痛苦经历时自我疏离程度更高,这反过来又使他们在干预后1个月(研究1和研究2)和6个月(研究2)时情绪反应性更低。对两项研究数据的分析表明,表达性写作通过对自我疏离和情绪反应性的影响间接减轻了身体症状[即,表达性写作组(与对照组相比)→更大程度的自我疏离→更低的情绪反应性→更少的身体症状]。最后,对两项研究中的文章进行的语言分析表明,随着时间的推移,因果关系词使用的增加、负面情绪词和第一人称单数代词使用的减少预示着自我疏离的增加。这些发现表明表达性写作促进了自我疏离,并说明了其实现方式。