Stress Research Group, Department of Psychology, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
Br J Health Psychol. 2018 Nov;23(4):857-871. doi: 10.1111/bjhp.12320. Epub 2018 Jun 3.
Type D personality is associated with psychological and physical ill-health. However, there has been limited investigation of the role of Type D personality in interventions designed to enhance well-being. This study investigated associations between Type D personality and the efficacy of positive emotional writing for reducing stress, anxiety, and physical symptoms.
A between-subjects longitudinal design was employed.
Participants (N = 71, M = 28.2, SD = 12.4) completed self-report measures of Type D personality, physical symptoms, perceived stress, and trait anxiety, before completing either (1) positive emotional writing or (2) a non-emotive control writing task, for 20 min per day over three consecutive days. State anxiety was measured immediately before and after each writing session, and self-report questionnaires were again administered 4 weeks post-writing.
Participants in the positive emotional writing condition showed significantly greater reductions in (1) state anxiety and (2) both trait anxiety and perceived stress over the 4-week follow-up period, compared to the control group. While these effects were not moderated by Type D personality, a decrease in trait anxiety was particularly evident in participants who reported both high levels of social inhibition and low negative affectivity. Linguistic analysis of the writing diaries showed that Type D personality was positively associated with swear word use, but not any other linguistic categories.
These findings support the efficacy of positive emotional writing for alleviating stress and anxiety, but not perceived physical symptoms. Swearing may be a coping strategy employed by high Type D individuals. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Type D (distressed) personality is characterized by high levels of both negative affectivity and social inhibition, and has been associated with adverse physical and psychological health. Positive emotional writing is known to reduce subjectively reported physical symptoms and increase positive affect. What does this study add? Positive emotional writing was shown to attenuate (1) state anxiety immediately post-writing, and (2) trait anxiety and perceived stress 4 weeks post-writing. The findings demonstrate that positive writing might be a useful intervention for attenuating the adverse psychological effects of Type D personality in the general population. Type D personality was associated with more frequent use of swear words, which may be a coping mechanism used by high Type D individuals.
D 型人格与心理和身体健康不良有关。然而，对于 D 型人格在旨在提高幸福感的干预措施中的作用，研究还很有限。本研究调查了 D 型人格与积极情绪写作降低压力、焦虑和身体症状的功效之间的关系。
采用了被试间纵向设计。
参与者（N=71，M=28.2，SD=12.4）在完成积极情绪写作或非情感控制写作任务之前，先完成 D 型人格、身体症状、感知压力和特质焦虑的自我报告测量，每个任务每天进行 20 分钟，连续三天。在每次写作会议前后都测量了状态焦虑，并且在写作后 4 周再次进行了自我报告问卷调查。
与对照组相比，在积极情绪写作组中，参与者在 4 周的随访期间，（1）状态焦虑和（2）特质焦虑和感知压力均显著降低。虽然这些效果不受 D 型人格的调节，但在报告社交抑制和消极情感低水平均较高的参与者中，特质焦虑的下降尤为明显。写作日记的语言分析表明，D 型人格与咒骂词的使用呈正相关，但与任何其他语言类别无关。
这些发现支持积极情绪写作减轻压力和焦虑的功效，但不能减轻感知到的身体症状。咒骂可能是高 D 型个体采用的一种应对策略。
