feeling about interpersonal traumatic and trivial events in 20-min sessions over ... n,egative emotion after each session of either vocal or written expression.
Lebowitz and Roth
Journal of Traumatic Stress, Vol. 7, No.3, 1994
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Emotional Processing in Vocal and Written Expression of Feelings About Traumatic Experiences Edward J. Murrayl and Daniel L. Segall
The purpose of this study was to compare vocal and written expression of feeling about interpersonal traumatic and trivial events in 20-min sessions over a 4-day period. Similar emotional processing was produced by vocal and written expression of feeling about traumatic events. The painfulness of the topic decreased steadily over the 4 days. At the end, both groups felt better about their topics and themselves and also reported positive cognitive changes. A content analysis of the sessions suggested greater overt expression of emotion and related changes in the vocal condition. Finally, there was an upsurge in n,egative emotion after each session of either vocal or written expression. These results suggest that previous findings that psychotherapy ameliorated this negative mood upsurge could not be attributed to the vocal character of psychotherapy. KEY WORDS: interpersonal trauma; emotional processing; vocal expression; written expression.
cond Assault: Rape and Public Altitudes,
I I,
I
INTRODUCTION
Emotional processing has been defined by Rachman (1980) as "...a process whereby emotional disturbances are absorbed and decline to the extent that other experiences and behavior can proceed without disrup tion." The term catharsis has been used for such processing but this term implies a simple affective discharge, which is not supported by the evidence (Nichols and Zax, 1977). Instead, emotional expression may facilitate cog 1Center for Psychological Studies, Nova Southeastern University, 3301 College Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 33314.
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