Cameron & Nicholls, 1996: Writing feelings about entering college or formulating coping plans reduced doctor visits among incoming college students within a month
Reference:
Cameron, L. D., & Nicholls, G. (1998). Expression of stressful experiences through writing: Effects of a self-regulation manipulation for pessimists and optimists. Health Psychology, 17(1), 84.
Download PDFSummary:
Asking students entering college to write about (1) thoughts and feelings about entering college and formulating coping plans (self-regulation) or (2) expressing thoughts and feelings only (disclosure only) in three weekly writing sessions reduced doctor visits over the following month among dispositionally optimistic students, relative to students who wrote about trivial topics. Among pessimists, only the self-regulation task reduced doctor visits. The disclosure task also raised grades.
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 current or upcoming emotions, states, and experiences negative and undermining?Are current or upcoming emotions, states, and experiences negative and undermining?Psychological Question Addressed
Are current or upcoming emotions, states, and experiences negative and undermining?Psychological Process 2:
Psychological Process 3:
Social Area:
Education; Health
Intervention Technique:
Active reflection, on negative experiences