Do positive expectancies explain the effects of expressive writing?

Carrie J Aigner, Purdue University

Abstract

Writing expressively about personal trauma, upsetting experiences, and illness has been demonstrated to have beneficial consequences on psychological well-being and physical health. Many theories of written emotional disclosure, or expressive writing, have been proposed but none have offered a convincing explanation of how expressive writing achieves its beneficial results. A recent model of written emotional disclosure that has received little attention is an expectancy model, which proposes that the benefits of expressive writing are the result of positive expectancies. People popularly believe that emotional expression of an upsetting event is beneficial; therefore, expectancies may be responsible for the observed changes and the act of writing expressively about a trauma may have little or no importance. From this expectancy perspective, the beneficial effects of expressive writing can be viewed as a specific case of the related theories of placebo, optimism, and hope, among others. In support of this view, one recent study found that positive expectancies about expressive writing were related to improvements in emotional and physical well-being. The current study experimentally manipulated positive expectancies by creating a writing group in which students who write about their daily activities (the standard control) were given positive expectancies about the beneficial nature of the writing (control + expectancy). Expectancies were induced in this group by showing students a video in which a professor of psychology explained the beneficial effects of engaging in this writing exercise. Because the control writing topic, writing non-emotionally about one's daily activities, has no documented therapeutic benefit, any changes in the outcome variables in the control + expectancy group could then be attributed to expectancies. In this study, students were assigned to either the traditional expressive writing group (writing expressively about trauma), traditional control group (writing about daily activities), or the expectancy group (control + expectancy). The outcome measures of psychological and physical health were assessed both before and after writing. Consistent with previous research findings, it was hypothesized that the participants in the expressive writing group would have greater health and psychological benefits, when compared to the control. It was further hypothesized that those participants in the control + expectancy group would also have greater health and psychological benefits, when compared to the control. The hypotheses were tested using multiple regression, which allowed for examination of the main effects for expectancy and experimental group and a group x expectancy interaction. The hypotheses were not supported. No significant differences were found between the three groups on any of the three outcome variables. This lack of findings is examined within a motivational placebo model and suggestions are made for future research examining the role of expectancy in expressive writing.

Degree

M.S.

Advisors

Svanum, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Psychology|Clinical psychology

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