A Current Paradigm: Written Emotional Disclosure
A Current Paradigm: Written Emotional Disclosure

Summary/Abstract: It has been supposed for years that expressing feelings and thoughts about stressful or traumatic events is helpful for health. In this regard, Pennebaker developed “Written Emotional Disclosure Paradigm” that refers to the importance of not only verbal but also written disclosure of feelings and thoughts. He suggested that written emotional disclosure improves physical and psychological health. The studies pointed out that individuals who are healthy or have health problems experience positive changes in various health outcomes when they wrote for 3-4 consecutive days, for at least 15 minutes and after about 2 months from traumatic or stressful experiences. Also, important findings from studies that examine who can benefit from this paradigm attracted attention. The aim of this article is to review the structure of written emotional disclosure paradigm, its effects and benefits, mechanisms of action underlying these effects, its procedure and relationship with individual differences on the basis of the studies in the literature and to discuss the implications of these studies in terms of practice.

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