Effects of Reappraisal and Self-Compassion Expressive Writing on Emotion Regulation

TL;DR

This study explores how two types of expressive writing—reappraisal and self-compassion—help regulate emotions and reduce stress in college students.

Contribution

The study introduces two novel expressive writing instructions focused on emotion regulation and measures their physiological effects.

Findings

Expressive writing reduced heart rate and alexithymia in both groups.

The reappraisal group showed a higher LF/HF ratio, indicating autonomic nervous system changes.

Results support expressive writing as a tool for emotion regulation.

Abstract

Expressive writing is the disclosure of negative events in a safe and non-threatening environment while focusing on the feelings and emotions associated with an experience. Studies have proposed that alternative expressive writing instructions can influence expressive writing outcomes and shed light on the benefits of the intervention. Thus, we created two novel expressive writing instructions susceptible to inducing emotion regulation: a reappraisal and a self-compassion instruction. Sixty-six college students at a university were randomly assigned to either reappraisal or a self-compassion expressive group. Positive and negative affect, emotion regulation, anxiety, and alexithymia were measured before and after writing. Electrocardiogram was recorded during the experiment to examine the effects of the writing exercise on the Autonomous Nervous System. We found that expressive writing decreased Heart-Rate (HR) (d = 0.63) and alexithymia (d = 0.55) in both groups. In addition, the LF/HF ratio was higher in the reappraisal expressive group (d = 0.70). These findings support the use of expressive writing as a tool to promote emotion regulation.

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