Health Psych Lecture 8 Coping with and Reducing Stress 1 I Emotional disclosure A Traumatic experiences subsequent health problems Intense and long lasting emotional changes Disruptions in social networks Lifestyle changes B Life changes that are kept secret stronger link to health problems C Effect of disclosure Emotional disclosure expressive writing a Revealing emotional experiences to other people b Treatment condition write about emotional events Pennebaker 1997 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Health benefits Reduced number of doctor visits Enhances immune functioning Lower blood pressure and heart rate Effect size d 47 Writing vs Talking alone vs Talking to others Timing c Potential mechanisms 1 Countering inhibition But there is mixed evidence 2 Emotional expression Emotions vs Facts Pennebakbr i Linguistic inquiry Word count ii Contributed to emotional disclosure iii 3 Habituation to emotional stimuli Repeated exposure Led to changes in perception of event Pennebakbr a b c a a b i Experiment wrote about same or different topics d Landauer i Noted more similar writing content from day to day basis II Humor A Induces positive emotional states Increases pain tolerance Enhances immunity Undoing cardiovascular consequences of negative emotions B Fredrickson and Levenson 1988 Experiment participants viewed fear electing film Randomly assigned to second film elicited contentment amusement neutrality sadness Measured cardiovascular activation 1 2 3 1 1 2 3 1 2 3 a Sadness longest time for cardiovascular recovery Followed by neutral amusement then contentment 1 C Potential mechanisms 1 2 3 Moderates adverse effects of stress on health a Enhances an effective way of coping Martin and Dobbin 1988 a Daily hassles scale and measured the trait sense of humor Main effect of hassles Interaction between hassles and sense of humor 1 2 Lefcourt et al 1997 a Interaction between gender and humor b Females higher humor lower systolic BP c Males higher humor higher systolic BP d Mechanisms Increasing social support 1 Gratitude III A Emma s and McCullough 2003 1 3 groups a Gratitude b Hassles c Events 2 Expressing gratitude psychological and physical well being