Greenberg et al., 1996: Writing about personal or imagined trauma reduced doctor visits among undergraduate women over a month
Reference:
Greenberg, M. A., Wortman, C. B., & Stone, A. A. (1996). Emotional expression and physical health: Revising traumatic memories or fostering self-regulation?. Journal of personality and social psychology, 71(3), 588.
Download PDFSummary:
Asking undergraduate women with a history of trauma to write about a personal experience of trauma or the imagined trauma another woman experienced reduced doctor visits 1 month later relative to women who wrote about trivial events.
Psychological Process:
What Desired Meaning is At Stake?
What is the Person Trying to Understand?
Selves (My Own and Others')Approach to Desired Meaning
What about it?
Changing beliefs about emotions, states, and the valence of the self-conceptHow?
Psychological Question Addressed
Are negative past emotions, states, and experiences ongoing and undermining?Are negative past emotions, states, and experiences ongoing and undermining?Psychological Question Addressed
Are negative past emotions, states, and experiences ongoing and undermining?Psychological Process 2:
Psychological Process 3:
Social Area:
Health
Intervention Technique:
Active reflection, on negative experiences