Studies // Cited work
Confronting a traumatic event: Toward an understanding of inhibition and disease
Pennebaker, J. W., & Beall, S. K. (1986). Confronting a traumatic event: Toward an understanding of inhibition and disease.
Level B Experiment doi:10.1037/0021-843X.95.3.274
What this study supports
Cited for the historical origin of the expressive-writing paradigm and later health benefits of writing about facts and feelings. Sample size and outcomes were not re-verified from an abstract and are not stated on the site.
- Who was studied
- Not verified: no abstract was retrievable; the study is an expressive-writing experiment with assigned writing conditions.
- Design
- Experiment
- Level of evidence
- Controlled studies: randomised or experimental designs, and syntheses of correlational work.
Claims that rest on it
Each claim states what the site asserts, at what strength, and with what caveat.
EmpiricalLevel BConfidence MODERATE
Writing about both the facts and the feelings of a distressing experience has been associated with later health benefits, and these benefits appear linked to building a coherent account rather than to discharge alone.
- Scope
- Structured writing over several short sessions, mostly in student and non-clinical samples.
- Caveat
- Effects vary across studies; short-term distress often rises after writing, and it is not a treatment for severe or recent trauma. The 1986 abstract could not be re-verified.
Last reviewed · Review due · expressive-writing-coherence