Level of processing modulates benefits of writing about stressful events: Comparing generic and specific recall

Abstract

Writing about emotional experiences has been shown to improve physical and psychological health (Frattaroli, 2006). The current study aimed to assess whether manipulating the level of information processing during disclosure impacted on psychological variables in individuals with high posttraumatic stress. Fifty-four participants were assigned to one of three conditions: (1) writing about the specific details of a stressful experience; (2) writing about generic information associated with a stressful event such as intrusive thoughts; or (3) writing about a neutral topic. They wrote on the given topic for three consecutive days for 20 minutes each day. Results showed that specifying a stressful event resulted in less distress during subsequent writing sessions, aided participants in making sense of the event, and helped them to feel less anger when thinking about the event.

Keywords:

• Written disclosure
• Emotion regulation
• Specificity
• Stressful event
• Level of processing

Acknowledgements

The writing of this paper has been facilitated by Grants from the “Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique de Belgique” FC 75212 and the “Action de Recherche Concertée” ARC06/11–337.

Notes

¹Given that participants could write about the same event each day or could change the event they wrote about, the number of events disclosed (between 1 and 3) was introduced as a covariate in the analyses. Nevertheless, this did not change the results presented in this section.