Glossary // Glossary term Empirical

Expressive writing

A procedure, developed by Pennebaker and colleagues, in which people write about their deepest thoughts and feelings concerning a difficult experience, typically for 15 to 20 minutes on several consecutive days. In early studies, writing about both facts and feelings was followed by health benefits compared with control writing. Later analyses linked benefit to the development of a coherent account and to changes in causal and insight words, which points to cognitive processing rather than discharge alone.

Where the site uses it

What catharsis is: from purgation to an empirical question
A short history of the concept of catharsis from Aristotle's Poetics through Breuer and Freud's cathartic method to empirical research on emotional expression, with the working definition used by this project.
Write about difficult experiences to make sense of them, not to empty them
Structured expressive writing about both facts and feelings is associated with later health benefits, which appear to depend on building a coherent account rather than on discharge. A practical protocol and its limits.

Studies behind it

The works the definition rests on, with the level of evidence each was appraised at.

Pennebaker, J. W., & Beall, S. K. (1986). Confronting a traumatic event: Toward an understanding of inhibition and disease. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.95.3.274

Level B Experiment

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.
Pennebaker, J. W. (1997). Writing about emotional experiences as a therapeutic process. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.1997.tb00403.x

Level D Review

Supports the claim that changes in cognitive and linguistic processes during writing predict better health more than reduced inhibition alone. A review by the paradigm's originator; later meta-analyses report variable effects.