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The scientific
research on the benefits of so-called expressive writing is surprisingly
vast. Studies have shown that writing about oneself and personal
experiences can improve mood disorders, help reduce symptoms among cancer patients, improve a person’s health after a heart attack, reduce doctor visits and even boost memory.
Now researchers are
studying whether the power of writing — and then rewriting — your
personal story can lead to behavioral changes and improve happiness.
The concept is based
on the idea that we all have a personal narrative that shapes our view
of the world and ourselves. But sometimes our inner voice doesn’t get it
completely right. Some researchers believe that by writing and then
editing our own stories, we can change our perceptions of ourselves and
identify obstacles that stand in the way of better health.
It may sound like self-help nonsense, but research suggests the effects are real.
In one of the earliest
studies on personal story editing, researchers gathered 40 college
freshman at Duke University who were struggling academically. Not only
were they worried about grades, but they questioned whether they were
intellectual equals to other students at their school.
The students were
divided into intervention groups and control groups. Students in the
intervention group were given information showing that it is common for
students to struggle in their freshman year. They watched videos of
junior and senior college students who talked about how their own grades
had improved as they adjusted to college.
The goal was to prompt
these students to edit their own narratives about college. Rather than
thinking they weren’t cut out for college, they were encouraged to think
that they just needed more time to adjust.
The intervention
results, published in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
were startling. In the short term, the students who had undergone the
story-changing intervention got better grades on a sample test. But the
long-term results were the most impressive.
Students who had been
prompted to change their personal stories improved their grade-point
averages and were less likely to drop out over the next year than the
students who received no information. In the control group, which had
received no advice about grades, 20 percent of the students had dropped
out within a year. But in the intervention group, only 1 student — or
just 5 percent — dropped out.
In another study, Stanford researchers focused on African-American students
who were struggling to adjust to college. Some of the students were
asked to create an essay or video talking about college life to be seen
by future students. The study found that the students who took part in
the writing or video received better grades in the ensuing months than
those in a control group.
Another writing study
asked married couples to write about a conflict as a neutral observer.
Among 120 couples, those who explored their problems through writing
showed greater improvement in marital happiness than those who did not
write about their problems.
“These writing
interventions can really nudge people from a self-defeating way of
thinking into a more optimistic cycle that reinforces itself,” said
Timothy D. Wilson, a University of Virginia psychology professor and
lead author of the Duke study.
Dr. Wilson, whose book
“Redirect: Changing the Stories We Live By,” was released in paperback
this month, believes that while writing doesn’t solve every problem, it
can definitely help people cope. “Writing forces people to reconstrue
whatever is troubling them and find new meaning in it,” he said.
Much of the work on
expressive writing has been led by James Pennebaker, a psychology
professor at the University of Texas. In one of his experiments, college
students were asked to write for 15 minutes a day about an important
personal issue or superficial topics. Afterward, the students who wrote
about personal issues had fewer illnesses and visits to the student
health center.
“The idea here is
getting people to come to terms with who they are, where they want to
go,” said Dr. Pennebaker. “I think of expressive writing as a life
course correction.”
At the Johnson &
Johnson Human Performance Institute, life coaches ask clients to
identify their goals, then to write about why they haven’t achieved
those goals.
Once the clients have
written their old stories, they are asked to reflect on them and edit
the narratives to come up with a new, more honest assessment. While the
institute doesn’t have long-term data, the intervention has produced
strong anecdotal results.
In one example, a
woman named Siri initially wrote in her “old story” that she wanted to
improve her fitness, but as the primary breadwinner for her family she
had to work long hours and already felt guilty about time spent away
from her children.
With prompting, she
eventually wrote a new story, based on the same facts but with a more
honest assessment of why she doesn’t exercise. “The truth is,” she
wrote, “I don’t like to exercise, and I don’t value my health enough. I
use work and the kids to excuse my lack of fitness.”
Intrigued by the
evidence that supports expressive writing, I decided to try it myself,
with the help of Jack Groppel, co-founder of the Human Performance
Institute.
Like Siri, I have
numerous explanations for why I don’t find time for exercise. But once I
started writing down my thoughts, I began to discover that by shifting
priorities, I am able to make time for exercise.
“When you get to that
confrontation of truth with what matters to you, it creates the greatest
opportunity for change,” Dr. Groppel said.
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