3/5/2012

Go Ahead, Say It
Expressing Emotion

James Pennebaker

Trained as a Social Psychologist Chair, Dept of Psychology/ U Texas, Austin Interested in Writing
How it impacts health How it impacts p behavior Looks closely at word usage linguistic analysis linked to deception/ connection/ personality

Opening Up

Polygraph Confession Effect

Why do we tell our secrets to our hairdresser or bartender but not our best friend? Why do we seek out therapists and clergy to share our secrets?

People who are deceptive during a polygraph heart rate/ BP accelerate breathing speeds sample When they confess they relax and often feel grateful reduces our anxiety and physiological stress (explains the drive to share secrets, yes?)

Why do so many religions have confession rituals?

Pennebaker argues that over time the work of inhibition (holding back) gets harder and harder and begins to undermine the bodys defenses, the functioning of the brain/ memory

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Sparks of Pennebakers Interest

Inhibition, Pennebaker

People feel relaxed/ satisfied when they talk in groups After confessing a crime, bodies relax Understanding links between psychology and health improves health

Inhibition is the scotch tape of society (what does that mean?) Active Effortful and requires attention Weight loss / smoking cessation initially takes active inhibition/ often painful control Passive Automatic/ no conscious effort With time dieting and not smoking becomes easier and we control without much effort Practice makes perfect . . .

Holding Back/ Letting go continuum

Finding the right balance is the key

Inhibition is work agitates physiology affects long term health prevents understanding/ integration

Letting Go/ Opening UP calms physiology better health /lowers stress supports understanding language aids assimilation of experience

Sharing

Deep Sharing/ Deep Listening

Swamplands Story Telling of our traumas is a natural, healthy response when they are blocked/ inhibited it negative impacts health Why? Others listen this helps us create perspective, integrate the experience this helps us figure out what to do and get assistance, if needed

Deep Sharing open, honest expression linking thoughts and feelings gaining insight Deep Listening warm engaged warm, engaged, compassionate listening listening without judgment listening without solving the problem

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Can we share alone?

Pennebakers Work

Writing provides a possible avenue Anything else?

First study in 1986 Four groups

Vent emotions Write about facts of trauma Vent and also write facts Write about the details of your outfit

Write for 15 minutes on 4 consecutive days entirely anonymous --- no names attached Depicted stories of immense importance
felt horrible after writing about their traumas more distress those writing about emotions & thoughts visited health center 1/3 as often as those in the other groups Also reported better moods and more positive outlook

More studies

Real World Study

Two groups
Vent emotion and also write facts of the trauma Write about the details of your outfit

100 engineers laid off Half asked to write about their thoughts and feelings about this Half asked to wrote about time management Felt better after writing about the lay off trauma g group p 27% had found work within 3 months 53% had found work within 6 months time group 5% had found work 18% had found work within 6 months

Write for 15 minutes on 4 consecutive days entirely anonymous --- no names attached Blood drawn before the study, after the study, & 6 weeks later looking for t-lymphocytes a measure of immune function Those who wrote about emotion & facts heightened immune function
Most pronounced right after the study still present 6 weeks later

Both groups had the same number of job interviews

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Dozens of studies accumulated

What is emotional regulation?

College students, grade school kids, the elderly, medical students, prisoners, new mothers, rape victims Same results over and over Improvements p in: anxiety and depression grades positive coping health

What are your goals when you try to regulate emotions? What works for people you know? Can people regulate all emotions?

Emotion Regulation: strategies to control:

Which emotions we have How strongly we experience them How strongly we express them Guided by personal & social motives

Effective Writing

How does it work

Letting Go Experience
Voice tone changes lower/ more serious Speaking voice pace increases Topic cueing one topic reliably triggers another less use of words to convince truly, honestly Lose their sense of time and space --- less self conscious

Write about meaningful, active issues Explore with objective facts (what happened) AND deepest emotions Explore what you feel and why you feel it Keeping it to yourself seems to make it easier to be disclosing At least 15 minutes a day for 4-5 days Expect immediate distress over the experience but then an improvement within a short period

Skin conductance drops when inhibition lessons Study: measured skin conductance, BP, HR, Muscle tension, skin temperature talked about traumatic and superficial topics high disclosers lower skin conductance during trauma topics higher BP, HR during discussions but lower after they were over -- release low disclosers - skin conductance higher when discussing trauma

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Brain & Disclosure

Trauma --- different elements processed but not integrated Inhibition prevents any subsequent integration The left brain/ right brain activity will not be synchronized
Negative emotion is not integrated with the language based aspects images/ negative emotions will right brain active inhibiting g and judgmental j g thoughts g will be left brain active

Disclosure brings about right and left brain congruence the two hemispheres fire in a more synchronized way
Measure EEG and the two hemispheres were synchronized after disclosure Level of congruence was positively correlated with drops in skin conductance