• Br J Health Psychol · Sep 2013

    Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study

    Dispositional emotion coping styles and physiological responses to expressive writing.

    • Rie Tamagawa, Rona Moss-Morris, Alexandra Martin, Elizabeth Robinson, and Roger J Booth.
    • Department of Psychological Medicine, The University of Auckland, New Zealand. rie.tamagawa@albertahealthservices.ca
    • Br J Health Psychol. 2013 Sep 1; 18 (3): 574-92.

    ObjectivesThe purpose of these two studies was to assess how repressors and defensive, high-anxious individuals exhibit their psychological and health characteristics subjectively through self-reports and objectively through physiological markers and ratings of emotional expression.DesignCross-sectional descriptive design (study one) and randomized controlled design (study two).MethodsIn the first descriptive study, repressors, defensive, high-anxious individuals and low-anxious individuals were identified from a pool of 748 undergraduates. Participants were asked to complete questionnaires assessing psychological and health characteristics. In the second experimental study, the three groups were randomized into either emotional or non-emotional writing conditions. Participants were asked to write three essays on either an emotional or a non-emotional topic in a single day.ResultsIn the first study, defensive, high-anxious individuals reported significantly more distress, symptoms, sickness behaviours and difficulty expressing anger relative to repressors. In the second study, there was a significant difference in salivary cortisol concentrations between the two writing conditions regardless of the emotional coping grouping. Analysis of the writing showed no significant differences among repressors, defensive, high-anxious and low-anxious individuals in their cognitive and affective expression.ConclusionsWhereas self-reports of health outcomes and psychological traits clearly distinguish repressors and defensive, high-anxious individuals, more objective indices of emotional expressiveness and physiology do not appear to do so. The results also indicate that expressive writing may be helpful to reduce physiological arousal towards emotionally charged memories.© 2012 The British Psychological Society.

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