Experimental manipulations of perspective taking and perspective switching in expressive writing

Abstract

Previous studies suggest that those who naturally vary their pronoun use over the course of expressive writing subsequently report the greatest improvements in physical and mental health. To explore possible perspective taking or perspective switching effects, two studies manipulated writing perspectives about emotional events from either a first-person, second-person, or third-person perspective. In Study 1, 55 students were randomly assigned to one of the three writing perspectives and were asked to write from the same perspective for three 5-minute writing sessions. In Study 2, 129 students wrote for three 5-minute sessions, one from each perspective in a counterbalanced order. The results showed that writing from a first-person perspective conferred more perceived benefits and was associated with using more cognitive mechanism words, whether engaged in perspective taking or perspective switching.

Keywords:

• Expressive writing
• LIWC
• Perspective switching
• Perspective taking
• Pronouns

Acknowledgements

Preparation of this manuscript was funded, in part, by the Army Research Institute (W91WAW-07-C002), DOD-CIFA (H9C104-07-C0019), START (DHS Z934002), and NSF (NSF-NSCC-090482).