Effects of writing about emotions versus goals on psychological and physical health among third-year medical students.
Title | Effects of writing about emotions versus goals on psychological and physical health among third-year medical students. |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2006 |
Authors | Austenfeld JL, Paolo AM, Stanton AL |
Journal | J Pers |
Volume | 74 |
Issue | 1 |
Pagination | 267-86 |
Date Published | 2006 Feb |
ISSN | 1467-6494 |
Keywords | Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Anecdotes as Topic, Burnout, Professional, Expressed Emotion, Female, Humans, Male, Mental Health, Self Disclosure, Self Efficacy, Stress, Psychological, Students, Medical, Writing |
Abstract | A randomized, controlled trial compared writing about emotional topics (EMO) to writing about goals as the "best possible self" (BPS; after King, 2001) and evaluated emotional approach coping, i.e., efforts to cope through processing and expressing emotion, as a moderator of writing effects on psychological and physical health in 64 third-year medical students. In participants with higher baseline hostility, the EMO condition was associated with less hostility at 3 months compared to the BPS and control conditions. Emotional processing (EP) and emotional expression (EE) moderated the effect of experimental condition on depressive symptoms at 3 months; high EP/EE participants reported fewer depressive symptoms in the EMO condition, whereas low EP/EE individuals reported fewer depressive symptoms in the BPS condition compared to the EMO and control conditions. A moderating effect of EP on physical health was also identified, such that low EP individuals who wrote about goals (BPS) had fewer health care visits at 3 months compared to low EP participants in the EMO and control conditions. |
DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2005.00375.x |
Alternate Journal | J Pers |
PubMed ID | 16451232 |