Renzi Alesia, Mariani Rachele, Di Trani Michela, Tambelli Renata
Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Res Psychother. 2020 Sep 7;23(2):452. doi: 10.4081/ripppo.2020.452.
Expressive writing techniques are methods focusing on written emotional expression that require people to write about traumatic or difficult experiences, with the objective of promoting an elaboration of these events. The general aim of the study is to investigate the influence of alexithymia, a deficit in emotional regulation processes, on the effects of an expressive writing intervention, analyzing the writing protocols through the use of the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWIC) and Referential Process (RP) linguistic measures via IDAAP software. Thirty-five women undergoing an assisted reproductive treatment participated in the study and filled out a sociodemographic questionnaire, the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale. They also underwent three session of writing, following a request that they write about their emotions regarding their current situation. The women enrolled were divided into two groups: low alexithymia and high alexithymia, comprising individuals with a TAS-20 total score lower or higher than the mean, respectively. Analyses within the groups during the three writing sessions revealed that the women with low alexithymia reported a greater number of words expressing affectivity, sadness and future perspective, whereas no significances in the high alexithymia group emerged. Moreover, when analysing differences between the groups, high-alexithymia women reported lower scores in RP indexes and fewer words expressing sadness, future perspectives and we verbal. In conclusion, these preliminary findings may confirm the hypothesis that alexithymia affects the effectiveness of expressive writing through a difficulty in becoming involved in the writing process and a lack of symbolizing processes.
表达性写作技巧是专注于书面情感表达的方法，要求人们写下创伤性或困难的经历，目的是促进对这些事件的详细阐述。该研究的总体目标是调查述情障碍（一种情绪调节过程中的缺陷）对表达性写作干预效果的影响，通过IDAAP软件使用语言查询与字数统计（LIWIC）和指称过程（RP）语言测量方法来分析写作记录。35名接受辅助生殖治疗的女性参与了该研究，并填写了一份社会人口统计学问卷以及20项多伦多述情障碍量表。她们还按照要求进行了三次写作，内容是关于她们对自身现状的情绪。参与研究的女性被分为两组：低述情障碍组和高述情障碍组，分别由多伦多述情障碍量表（TAS-20）总分低于或高于平均值的个体组成。在三次写作过程中对组内的分析表明，低述情障碍的女性报告表达情感、悲伤和未来展望的词汇数量更多，而高述情障碍组则未出现显著差异。此外，在分析两组之间的差异时，高述情障碍的女性在RP指标上得分较低，表达悲伤、未来展望和“我们”的词汇较少。总之，这些初步发现可能证实了这样一个假设，即述情障碍通过参与写作过程的困难和缺乏象征化过程来影响表达性写作的效果。
