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The costs and benefits of writing, talking, and thinking about life's triumphs and defeats.
Open accessAbstract
Three studies considered the consequences of writing, talking, and thinking about significant events. In Studies 1 and 2, students wrote, talked into a tape recorder, or thought privately about their worst (N = 96) or happiest experience (N = 111) for 15 min each during 3 consecutive days. In Study 3 (N = 112), students wrote or thought about their happiest day; half systematically analyzed, and half repetitively replayed this day. Well-being and health measures were administered before each study's manipulation and 4 weeks after. As predicted, in Study 1, participants who processed a negative experience through writing or talking reported improved life satisfaction and enhanced mental and physical health relative to those who thought about it. The reverse effect for life satisfaction was observed in Study 2, which focused on positive experiences. Study 3 examined possible mechanisms underlying these effects. Students who wrote about their happiest moments--especially when analyzing them--experienced reduced well-being and physical health relative to those who replayed these moments. Results are discussed in light of current understanding of the effects of processing life events.
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Happiness intervention decreases pain and depression, boosts happiness among primary care patients
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Time-Driven Battlemind Psychological Debriefing: A Group-Level Early Intervention in Combat
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To follow others or be yourself? Social influence in online restaurant reviews
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“Positive and negative affect experiences fluctuate around this baseline, as a function of the events we encounter (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Lyubomirsky, Sousa, & Dickerhoof, 2006).”
Nurturing the Capacity to Savor: Interventions to Enhance the Enjoyment of Positive Experiences
Smith, J. L., Harrison, P. R., Kurtz, J. L., & Bryant, F. B. (2014) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9781118315927.ch3 · Cited by 79
Do sex differences in rumination explain sex differences in depression?
Shors, T. J., Millon, E. M., Chang, H. Y. M., Olson, R. L., & Alderman, B. L. (2017) · Journal of Neuroscience Research · doi:10.1002/jnr.23976 · Cited by 70
“Indeed, empirical evidence suggests that repetitive thought patterns which are negative in content are maladaptive, whereas those that are more positive and reflective are not necessarily so (Lyubomirsky et al., 2006; Segerstrom et al., 2003).”
BackgroundLilgendahl, J. P., McLean, K. C., & Mansfield, C. D. (2012) · Memory · doi:10.1080/09658211.2012.706615 · Cited by 69
Jimenez, W. P., Hu, X., & Xu, X. V. (2021) · Journal of Business and Psychology · doi:10.1007/s10869-021-09742-7 · Cited by 88
Weeks, T. L., & Pasupathi, M. (2010) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2011.00685.x · Cited by 69
Hodges, T. D. (2010) · Lincoln (University of Nebraska) · Cited by 66
Forgeard, M. J. C. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781316979839.017 · Cited by 64
Positive Interventions in Positive Organizations
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Baños, R., Etchemendy, E., Farfallini, L., García‐Palacios, A., Quero, S., & Botella, C. (2014) · The Journal of Positive Psychology · doi:10.1080/17439760.2014.927906 · Cited by 71
“Lastly, Lyubomirsky, Sousa, and Dickerhoof (2006) showed that an intervention that uses positive experiences in an analytic way (analyze step by step, why, and how) may be counterproductive to well-being and health, but an intervention that promotes a repetitive and circular replay of memories will…”
BackgroundNeumeier, L. M., Brook, L., Ditchburn, G. J., & Sckopke, P. (2017) · European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology · doi:10.1080/1359432x.2017.1320281 · Cited by 68
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The evaluative information ecology: On the frequency and diversity of “good” and “bad”
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Abstracting and extracting: Causal coherence and the development of the life story
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“Furthermore, Lyubomirsky,Sousa, and Dickerhoof ( 2006 ) found that positive memory reports were related to higher ratings of well-being when they were processed in a simplistic manner, as compared to ratings of well-being when positive memories were processed with greater complexity, through writing and talking.”
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“Lyubomirsky, Sousa, and Dickerhoof (2006) found similar effects for writing and talking privately.”
Individual differences in the effects of a positive psychology intervention: Applied psychology
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“, 2012) and life satisfaction (Lyubomirsky, Sousa, & Dickerhoof, 2006), as well as better physical and mental health (Lyubomirsky et al., 2006).”
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Posttraumatic stress disorder and positive memories: Clinical considerations
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Metadata
- Authors
- Lyubomirsky, S., Sousa, L., & Dickerhoof, R.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Riverside (US)
- ORCID
- Lyubomirsky, Sonja
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 2006-04
- Volume
- 90
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 692-708
- ISSN
- 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1315
- OpenAlex
- W2126929584
- Cited by
- 472
- References
- 74
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 36 · 2021: 35 · 2020: 33 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 29 · 2015: 29 · 2014: 33 · 2013: 19 · 2012: 34
- FWCI
- 20.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- escholarship.org
- Locations
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- University of California, Riverside
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health via Writing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Identity, Memory, and Therapy
- Keywords
- expressive writing, life events, life satisfaction, well-being, physical health, mental health, positive experiences, negative experiences, rumination, event processing
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Adolescent, Adult, Affect, California, Female, Health Status, Humans, Life Change Events, Male, Personal Satisfaction, Psychological Theory, Speech, Thinking, Writing
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