Saturday, January 15, 2011

Benefits of Expressing Life Goals

Abstract

This study employed a 2 (writing vs. talking) x 2 (life goals vs. daily schedule) fully crossed, factorial design to examine whether health benefits might accrue for talking and/or writing about life goals.

Participants assigned the life goals topic had fewer illness-related health center visits, regardless of mode of expression, compared to participants assigned the non-emotional topic.

Counter to expectation, optimism did not moderate the effect of topic on illness-related health center visits.

Participants in talking groups rated post-intervention mood as less negative than those in writing groups and participants rated talking about life goals as more diYcult than writing about life goals.

Keywords: Expressive writing; Expressive talking; Life goals; Health; Disclosure

Harrist, S., Carlozzi, B.L., McGovern, A.R., Harrist, A.W. (2007). Benefits of expressive writing and expressive talking about life goals. Journal of Research in Personality, 41, 923–930

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