By Tara Parker-Pope
Tara Parker-Pope on living well.
The scientific research on the benefits of so-called expressive writing is
surprisingly vast. Studies have shown that writing about oneself and personal
experiences can improve mood disorders, help reduce symptoms among cancer
patients, improve a person’s health after a heart attack, reduce doctor visits
and even boost memory.
Now researchers are studying whether the power of writing — and then
rewriting — your personal story can lead to behavioral changes and improve
happiness.
The concept is based on the idea that we all have a personal narrative that
shapes our view of the world and ourselves. But sometimes our inner voice
doesn’t get it completely right. Some researchers believe that by writing and
then editing our own stories, we can change our perceptions of ourselves and
identify obstacles that stand in the way of better health.
It may sound like self-help nonsense, but research suggests the effects are
real.
In one of the earliest studies on personal story editing, researchers
gathered 40 college freshman at Duke University who were struggling
academically. Not only were they worried about grades, but they questioned
whether they were intellectual equals to other students at their school.
The students were divided into intervention groups and control groups.
Students in the intervention group were given information showing that it is
common for students to struggle in their freshman year. They watched videos of
junior and senior college students who talked about how their own grades had
improved as they adjusted to college.
The goal was to prompt these students to edit their own narratives about
college. Rather than thinking they weren’t cut out for college, they were
encouraged to think that they just needed more time to adjust.
The intervention results, published in The Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, were startling. In the short term, the students who had
undergone the story-changing intervention got better grades on a sample test.
But the long-term results were the most impressive.
Students who had been prompted to change their personal stories improved
their grade-point averages and were less likely to drop out over the next year
than the students who received no information. In the control group, which had
received no advice about grades, 20 percent of the students had dropped out
within a year. But in the intervention group, only 1 student — or just 5
percent — dropped out.
In another study, Stanford researchers focused on African-American students
who were struggling to adjust to college. Some of the students were asked to
create an essay or video talking about college life to be seen by future
students. The study found that the students who took part in the writing or
video received better grades in the ensuing months than those in a control
group.
Another writing study asked married couples to write about a conflict as a
neutral observer. Among 120 couples, those who explored their problems through
writing showed greater improvement in marital happiness than those who did not
write about their problems.
“These writing interventions can really nudge people from a self-defeating
way of thinking into a more optimistic cycle that reinforces itself,” said
Timothy D. Wilson, a University of Virginia psychology professor and lead
author of the Duke study.
Dr. Wilson, whose book “Redirect: Changing the Stories We Live By,” was
released in paperback this month, believes that while writing doesn’t solve
every problem, it can definitely help people cope. “Writing forces people to
reconstrue whatever is troubling them and find new meaning in it,” he said.
Much of the work on expressive writing has been led by James Pennebaker, a
psychology professor at the University of Texas. In one of his experiments,
college students were asked to write for 15 minutes a day about an important
personal issue or superficial topics. Afterward, the students who wrote about
personal issues had fewer illnesses and visits to the student health center.
“The idea here is getting people to come to terms with who they are, where
they want to go,” said Dr. Pennebaker. “I think of expressive writing as a life
course correction.”
At the Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute, life coaches ask
clients to identify their goals, then to write about why they haven’t achieved
those goals.
Once the clients have written their old stories, they are asked to reflect
on them and edit the narratives to come up with a new, more honest assessment.
While the institute doesn’t have long-term data, the intervention has produced
strong anecdotal results.
In one example, a woman named Siri initially wrote in her “old story” that
she wanted to improve her fitness, but as the primary breadwinner for her
family she had to work long hours and already felt guilty about time spent away
from her children.
With prompting, she eventually wrote a new story, based on the same facts
but with a more honest assessment of why she doesn’t exercise. “The truth is,”
she wrote, “I don’t like to exercise, and I don’t value my health enough. I use
work and the kids to excuse my lack of fitness.”
Intrigued by the evidence that supports expressive writing, I decided to
try it myself, with the help of Jack Groppel, co-founder of the Human
Performance Institute.
Like Siri, I have numerous explanations for why I don’t find time for
exercise. But once I started writing down my thoughts, I began to discover that
by shifting priorities, I am able to make time for exercise.
“When you get to that confrontation of truth with what matters to you, it
creates the greatest opportunity for change,” Dr. Groppel said.