Date of Award
4-30-2020
Document Type
Honors Thesis
Department
Behavioral Sciences
First Advisor
Harvey J. Burnett, Jr.
Abstract
This study is under a larger study on the efficacy of psychological first aid compared to expressive writing as a crisis intervention method for individuals exposed to a traumatic event using a randomized controlled trial (RCT). Research has shown that expressive writing can be beneficial to improve the mental and physical health of patients (Gortner, Rude, & Pennebaker, 2006). Research has shown that the use of positive emotion and insight words through expressive writing can reduce state anxiety (Shen, Yang, Zhang, & Zhang, 2018). This study examined the effect of expressive writing on state anxiety by comparing the intervention with a Superficial writing (control) condition. Using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-S Anxiety (Spielberger, 2010) to measure anxiety, subjects’ responses were analyzed using a two way ANOVA. Results indicated that there was a statistically significant difference in anxiety over time. These findings support the hypothesis of the study.
Recommended Citation
Norman, Emerald Danielle, "Express Yourself : A Study of Expressive Writing and State Anxiety" (2020). Honors Theses. 242.
https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/honors/242/
https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/honors/242
Subject Area
Anxiety; Written communication
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
DOI
https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/honors/242/