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Experiential Self‐Focus Writing as a Facilitator of Processing an Interpersonal Hurt
Author(s) -
YuHsin Liao Kelly,
Wei Meifen,
Russell Daniel W.,
Abraham W. Todd
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.21886
Subject(s) - psychology , experiential learning , interpersonal communication , rumination , feeling , anger , experiential avoidance , social psychology , facilitator , affect (linguistics) , interpersonal relationship , clinical psychology , psychotherapist , developmental psychology , anxiety , pedagogy , cognition , communication , neuroscience , psychiatry
Objectives This study examined the effects of experiential self‐focus writing on changes in psychological outcomes (i.e., unforgiveness and negative affect) after an interpersonal hurt and the buffering effects of experiential self‐focus writing on the association between anger rumination and these psychological outcomes. Design A sample of 182 college students who had experienced interpersonal hurt were randomly assigned to either the experiential self‐focus writing condition, in which participants wrote about their feelings and experiences related to the hurt, or to a control writing condition in which they wrote about a recent neutral event. Results Latent growth curve analyses indicated that changes in unforgiveness over time did not differ between the experiential self‐focus writing and the control writing conditions. However, relative to the control writing condition, negative affect decreased faster during writing and increased more slowly at follow‐ups in the experiential self‐focus writing condition. Conclusions The results supported the hypothesis that negative affect resulting from an interpersonal hurt would significantly decrease over time among participants in the experiential self‐focus writing group compared with the control group. Implications of experiential self‐focus writing for interpersonal hurt and directions for future studies are discussed.