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Go Ahead, Say ItGo Ahead, Say ItExpressing Emotion

James James PennebakerPennebaker Trained as a Social Psychologist Chair, Dept of Psychology/ U Texas, Austin

Interested in Writing How it impacts health How it impacts behaviorp

Looks closely at word usage linguistic analysislinked to deception/ connection/ personality

Opening UpOpening Up 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?

Why do so many religions have confession 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

Polygraph Confession EffectPolygraph Confession Effect People who are deceptive during a polygraph

heart rate/ BP acceleratebreathing speedssample

When they confess they relax and often feel gratefulreduces our anxiety and physiological stressreduces our anxiety and physiological stress(explains the drive to share secrets, yes?)

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

Holding Back/ Letting go continuum Holding Back/ Letting go continuum

Inhibition is work Letting Go/ Opening UPagitates physiology calms physiologyaffects long term health better health /lowers stressprevents understanding/ integration supports understanding

language aids assimilation of experience

Finding the right balance is the key

Inhibition, Inhibition, PennebakerPennebaker Inhibition is the scotch tape of society (what does that mean?)

Active Effortful and requires attention Weight loss / smoking cessation initially 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 . . .

SharingSharing 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 experiencethis helps us figure out what to do and get assistance, if needed

Deep Sharing/ Deep ListeningDeep Sharing/ Deep Listening Deep Sharing

open, honest expressionlinking thoughts and feelingsgaining insight

Deep Listeningwarm engaged compassionate listeningwarm, engaged, compassionate listeninglistening without judgmentlistening without solving the problem

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Can we share alone?Can we share alone? Writing provides a possible avenue Anything else?

PennebakersPennebakers WorkWork 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 daysentirely 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 studiesMore studies Two groups

Vent emotion and also write facts of the trauma

Write about the details of your outfit

Write for 15 minutes on 4 consecutive daysentirely anonymous --- no names attached

Blood drawn before the study, after the study, & 6 weeks laterlooking 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

Real World StudyReal World Study 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 group 27% had found work within 3 monthsg p

53% had found work within 6 monthstime group 5% had found work

18% had found work within 6 months

Both groups had the same number of job interviews

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Dozens of studies accumulatedDozens of studies accumulated College students, grade school kids, the elderly, medical students, prisoners,

new mothers, rape victims

Same results over and over

Improvements in:panxiety and depressiongradespositive coping health

What is emotional regulation?What is emotional regulation? 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 WritingEffective Writing 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

How does it workHow does it workLetting 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 consciousLose their sense of time and space less self conscious

Skin conductance drops when inhibition lessons

Study: measured skin conductance, BP, HR, Muscle tension, skin temperaturetalked about traumatic and superficial topics

high disclosers lower skin conductance during trauma topicshigher BP, HR during discussions but lower after they were over -- release

low disclosers - skin conductance higher when discussing trauma

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Brain & DisclosureBrain & 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 and judgmental thoughts will be left brain activeg j g g

Disclosure brings about right and left brain congruencethe 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