title: Stepping back to move forward: Expressive writing promotes self-distancing.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Jiyoung
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California.
authors.forename: Özlem
authors.initials: Ö
authors.lastname: Ayduk
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Michigan.
authors.forename: Ethan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kross
mesh_terms: D000066498:Emotional Adjustment; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008037:Linguistics; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D013850:Thinking; D013997:Time Factors; D014956:Writing; D055815:Young Adult