Abstract
The authors hypothesized that writing longhand about a stressful experience, compared to typing, arouses greater negative emotion. Eighty college students were randomly assigned to describe either a neutral or stressful topic by typing or writing longhand, in a 2 × 2 factorial design. Students describing the stressful topic, compared to the neutral topic, wrote for a longer period, used more words, and reported greater negative and less positive affect. Consistent with prediction, writing about a stressful experience longhand induced greater negative affect than typing, and led to more self-rated disclosure. These findings suggest a method whereby therapists can help patients control their levels of negative affect when producing a trauma narrative.
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Brewin, C.R., Lennard, H. Effects of Mode of Writing on Emotional Narratives. J Trauma Stress 12, 355–361 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024736828322
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024736828322