Expressive writing, self-criticism, and self-reassurance

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Intervention Studies

Background:

• Self-criticism and self-reassurance are key for emotional regulation.
• Interventions to enhance these mechanisms are under-explored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate expressive writing as an intervention to increase self-reassurance and decrease self-criticism.
• To explore psychological processes underlying changes in self-criticism.

Main Methods:

• Randomized controlled trial with 46 participants.
• Intervention group: 15-min expressive writing on life goals (n=23).
• Control group: 15-min writing on a neutral topic (n=23).
• Measures of self-criticism, stress, and positive affect assessed at baseline and 2-week follow-up.
• Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) analysis of intervention group writing.

Main Results:

• Participants writing about life goals showed reduced self-criticism at 2-week follow-up compared to controls.
• No significant changes in self-reported stress or positive affect were observed.
• Linguistic analysis indicated that use of subjunctive mood words correlated with less reduction in self-criticism.

Conclusions:

• Expressive writing focused on life goals is a promising method for reducing self-criticism.
• Further research is needed to confirm if reduced self-criticism translates to improved psychological health.