Prospective writing: Randomized controlled trial of an intervention for facilitating growth after adversity

Little is known about how posttraumatic growth (PTG) can be fostered and controversy surrounds how it is best measured. We designed and tested an intervention, prospective writing, to facilitate PTG by encouraging people to explore new possibilities after adversity. Adults (N = 188) with recent adverse experiences were randomly assigned to do prospective writing, factual writing, or no writing weekly for one month. PTG was assessed with both retrospective and current-standing measures. Hierarchical linear modeling and response profile analysis were used to assess the intervention’s impact, and latent growth curve modeling was used to test mediation. Prospective writing participants showed the greatest gains in PTG as assessed by the current-standing measure, but did not reliably show greater retrospective PTG than controls. Although large effect sizes for the mediation paths suggested that engagement with new possibilities may be a plausible mechanism, this result fell short of statistical significance. Prospection-based interventions merit further investigation.     

Writing About Upsetting Family Events: A Therapy Analog Study

This therapy analog study investigated whether a writing intervention based on contextual therapy would have positive effects on physical, mental, and relational health. One-hundred-and-three college students were randomly assigned to write about either an upsetting family event/issue from childhood or a trivial event during a four-day period. As anticipated, relative to the control participants, those in the experimental condition reported an increase in negative mood and physical symptoms immediately after writing each day. Also as anticipated, the experimental participants also reported feeling better about themselves and their topics at post-test. Unexpectedly, there were either no significant differences or differences in the unpredicted direction between the control and experimental groups in physical, psychological, and relational functioning at posttest and follow-up. However, post-hoc analyses revealed differential changes within the experimental group as a function of the personal relevance and the degree of previous disclosure of the topics. Limitations of written expression as a therapeutic tool are discussed.     

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF REINFORCEMENT AND PRACTICE FOR ENHANCING THE CREATIVE WRITING OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN1

Reinforcement (team points) and practice were applied to the written work of 16 fifth graders on three operationally defined components of creative writing, fluency, flexibility, and originality.4 These three components were assessed via five response measures. Fluency was defined as the number of different ideas each student listed in an idea list prepared prior to writing an essay. Flexibility was measured in two ways, idea list flexibility and story flexibility. Idea list flexibility was defined as the number of different kinds of ideas which appeared in each day's list whereas story flexibility was defined as the number of different approaches to the topic that the child used in the story itself. Originality was also measured in two ways, idea list originality and story originality. Idea list originality was defined by the statistical infrequency of ideas in the children's lists of ideas. Story originality was determined by blind, subjective ratings of stories conducted by independent raters. All of the measures of creative responding were demonstrated to be under experimental control. The procedures also raised students' scores on Torrance's Tests of Thinking Creatively With Words on three variables, fluency, flexibility, and originality. Adoption for classroom use seems straightforward.     

Self-control techniques of famous novelists

A statement by a famous contemporary novelist is presented that indicates how he and others, independently of formal behaviorism, used behavioristic methods-specifically, self-recording charts and regularly scheduled daily work hours-to accelerate and maintain their writing outputs. On the basis of his statement and an analysis of his self-recorded data, it is argued that a meaningful and useful analogy can be drawn between writing a novel and emitting a simple operant response on a fixed-ratio schedule.     

Temporal Associations Between Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Depression in Response to Online Expressive Writing Interventions in a Hispanic Sample

Some expressive writing (EW) interventions targeting posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) may reduce both PTSS and comorbid depression symptoms. The temporal associations between PTSS and depression symptom levels in response to EW interventions are unknown. This study examined the directionality of PTSS and depression symptom levels from baseline to 1-week, 1-month, and 3-month follow-ups of two online EW interventions in a Hispanic sample with diverse trauma experiences. Participants (n = 70) completed either emotion-focused or fact-focused writing for 3 consecutive days online. A manifest autoregressive model with cross-lagged effects and treatment condition was analyzed. All but one first-order autoregressive path were statistically significant, with later PTSS and depression scores significantly predicted by those scores at preceding time points. The cross-lagged effects findings suggest that earlier PTSS levels influenced later depression levels, but earlier depression did not influence later PTSS, demonstrating a unidirectional temporal association. Severe PTSS may hinder EW treatment gains in depression. Superior outcomes for emotion-focused writing relative to fact-focused writing were also found.     

汉语阅读发展研究中几种实验任务之间关系的探讨

本研究综合考察汉语阅读获得与发展研究中经常使用的注音、命名与组词,听写与多重选择的关系。结果发现：注音与命名有很强的一致性,并且都与组词有很高的棚关;在这些任务中,听写的难度最大,多重选择最易;几种任务存在共同的加工规律。文章从词汇识别过程讨论了这些结果的理论含义。     

6～14岁儿童对想象物的文字与图画描述

本研究采用开放式问卷法,通过调查810名6-14岁儿童头脑中想象物的文字与图画描述,考察了儿童想象发展的特点。结果发现：(1)儿童对想象物的文字与图画描述可以分划分为3种水平：表象的记忆水平、表象的再造水平和表象创造水平。其中,对想象物的文字描述水平,年龄发展趋势明显,从小学一至二年级之间和四到五年级之间的发展变化最大;而对想象物的图画描述水平,年龄发展趋势不明显。(2)根据儿童对想象物的文字描述和图画描述的发展的匹配程度,可以把儿童的想象发展分为3种类型：文字与图形符号均衡发展型、文字符号型和图形符号型。     

中学生写作中思维品质的发展特点

从洛阳市一所普通中学6个年级随机选取801名被试,使用自编问卷研究了中学生写作中思维品质的发展特点,结果发现:(1)中学生写作中思维品质总体上呈随年级增长显著上升的发展特点,初二到初三阶段更为突出;(2)深刻性和灵活性品质为上升趋势,但在高一年级存在1个回调点;(3)批判性和独创性从初一到高一呈现明显上升趋势,高一以后呈波浪式发展;(4)中学生写作中的思维品质在初一、初二、高一和高三年级存在性别差异.     

Enhancing the Benefits of Written Emotional Disclosure Through Response Training

Writing about a personal stressful event has been found to have psychological and physical health benefits, especially when physiological response increases during writing. Response training was developed to amplify appropriate physiological reactivity in imagery exposure. The present study examined whether response training enhances the benefits of written emotional disclosure. Participants were assigned to either a written emotional disclosure condition (n = 113) or a neutral writing condition (n = 133). Participants in each condition wrote for 20 minutes on 3 occasions and received response training (n = 79), stimulus training (n = 84) or no training (n = 83). Heart rate and skin conductance were recorded throughout a 10-minute baseline, 20-minute writing, and a 10-minute recovery period. Self-reported emotion was assessed in each session. One month after completing the sessions, participants completed follow-up assessments of psychological and physical health outcomes. Emotional disclosure elicited greater physiological reactivity and self-reported emotion than neutral writing. Response training amplified physiological reactivity to emotional disclosure. Greater heart rate during emotional disclosure was associated with the greatest reductions in event-related distress, depression, and physical illness symptoms at follow-up, especially among response trained participants. Results support an exposure explanation of emotional disclosure effects and are the first to demonstrate that response training facilitates emotional processing and may be a beneficial adjunct to written emotional disclosure.