Managing Emotions (continued)

Class 16

Disclosure and Immunocompetence (continued)

Results: Which group produced more antibodies to mitogen?

Thoughts and Feelings

Control groupX

Role of Insight: 80% of T&F writers report insight-related benefits (perspective shift, new ideas about self, etc.)

Quality of Writing: Writing that improved health was:

1. More emotional2. Images and analogies 3. Clear organization: Beginning, middle, end.

Other Disclosure Studies Show:Disclosure higher T-Cell count

improved antibody response to Epstein-Barr

improved antibody response to Hepatitis B

Improved management of chronic illness:

Diabetes

Asthma

Other chronic illness

Effect replicated in scores of studies, by many different researchers

Why Does Writing Promote Coping?Harber & Pennebaker, 1991

Thought Intrusions classic symptom of trauma

Ironic effect of suppression

Emotions and recurring thoughts

Schemas and EmotionMighty tree that sheds acorns?

Soft drink, rival of Pepsi?

Very brief story with funny ending?

Gray/black fumes that arise from a fire?

The white part of an egg?

Oak

Coke

Joke

Smoke

Albumin

Fundamental Assumptions

The world is just

The world is orderly, not chaotic or random

One’s self is good and competent

Traumas are events that violate fundamental assumptions (aka "basic beliefs")

Discrepancy Theories of Emotion and TraumaEmotions arise from schema violationsEmotions alert us when schemas (beliefs) and experience (facts) conflictEmotions stay active until schemas and experience difference is resolvedTraumas arise when fundamental beliefs are violated by experience

Changing fundamental beliefs very hard, people resist doing so

Victim blaming, traumatic amnesia, emotional dissociation

Listeners don't want to hear stories that offend their own basic beliefs.Trauma victims in compound double bind: internal and external

resistance to revealing trauma.

World is well-orderedWorld is justSelf is good, competent, worthy

Writing and Traumatic Recovery

Writing about negative events may boost morale. How so?

Active coping

Purposeful activity Improved self-image Psychologically and socially safe

Bonanza Model of Writing and Traumatic Recovery

Tulving, Paivio dual code systems of memory

a. Episodic – imagistic, holistic, emotional, self-relevant, chronologically organized—"analog"

b. Semantic – fact-based, non-emotional, category based,elemental rather than holistic – "digital"

Work of emotional assimilation is converting episodic into semantic.

Writing (and verbal disclosure) promote this psychological digestion.a. Dissolves phenomenal whole into semantic bits.b. Associates traumatic experience with existing memory

and beliefs.c. Consider the "unpacking" of semantic network

Intra-Psychic Benefits of Writing

Does Writing Actually Heal Traumatic Memory?

Bernard Rimé: No, it doesn't.

Ss write/don't write about trauma.

X days later return, Ss asked to think about trauma

Ss rate how upsetting to recall trauma.

No differences between expt. groups.

This being so, what good is writing?

Bernard Rimé

Hey Bernie, Not So Quick!

Harber & Pennebaker:

No claims about the potency of intentionally-recovered memories. Instead, focus on their ability to spontaneously intrude.

Real question: Does writing reduce thought intrusions?

Yes -- Klein & Boals, 2001. Expressive writing reduces intrusions.

Class 17: Collective Coping

Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989

The Loma Prieta Earthquake

Characteristics of Quake

7.1 on Richter scale

Duration: 15 seconds

Most intense seismic event since 1906 quake, which destroyed SF

Effects of Quake

Deaths = 60 +

Injured = 3700

Displaced = 12,000

Damage = $6 billion

Disclosure and CopingSchacter Anxiety and Affiliation Studies

a. Clarify causes of distress

b. Validates own emotions

Sympathetic Listening as Key to Social Support

a. Making sense of trauma

b. Perspective, insight

Failure to Disclose is a Health Risk

a. Suppression physically effortful

b. Prolonged suppression chronic stress

c. Disclosure stops suppression, reduces illness

Health Benefits of DisclosureImmediate Lowered heart rate

Lowered skin conductance

Reduced muscle tension

Long term health Fewer MD visits

Fewer symptoms

Stronger immune system

Long term coping Reduced depression, stress

higher grades, less absenteeism

Quicker re-employment after loss

Listening Isn’t EasyContagion of Distress

Holocaust survivors study

Vicarious traumatization among therapists

Avoidance of the supporter role

Pseudo-sympathetic responses

Outright rejection

Social Dilemma of Collective Coping

People simultaneously placed in two roles:

1. Seek out others for support

2. Sought out as a support source for others

AND

1. Telling your problem advances coping

2. Hearing others disclose is a stressor

Survey of Disaster Research from 1959 to 1989: A Review of 73 Published Studies.

Gathered comparison group data: 27%

Gathered data two times after event 30%

Gathered data 3 + times after event 14%

Gathered data no later than weeks after event 25%

Meet all the above criteria 0

Quake Study Survey Locations

Timeline of Quake Study

Q WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK --- WEEK --- WEEK --- WEEK

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 16 28 50

Quake Study Method

Sample size: 789 residents (SF, Sac, S. Cal, Dallas)

Data gathering method:

Phone survey

Random digit dialing

Calls made 6:30 – 9:30, weeknights only

Survey lasts 10 minutes

Survey Content

Communication: Thinking, talking, listening

Emotional reactions

Physical symptoms

Coping tactics: praying, joking, drinking

Rates of Talking and Thinking Following the Loma Prieta Earthquake: Bay Area Only

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Start Week1

Week2

Week3

Week6

Week8

Week16

Thought

Talked

“Thank you for not sharing your earthquake experience with me”

T-shirts in Palo Alto during weeks 3-6 after the quake

Percent Reporting an Earthquake-Related Dream, SF vs. Other Locations

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Per

cent

San Francisco

ComparisonCities

Percent Reporting an Argument with Family or Co-Workers During the Prior Week

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Pe

rce

nt

San Francisco

ComparisonCities

Percentage Change in Aggravated Assaults From Year Before Quake to Year After Quake

-6

-4

-2

0

2

4

6

8

Pe

rce

nt

Rates of Quake Related Joking

-0.6-0.4-0.2

00.20.40.60.8

11.21.41.6

Ra

ting

s in

Z u

nits

San Francisco

ComparisonCities

A Need to Be Shaken and Stirred?

“But deep in my heart I know not that a major disaster would be deliverance from my drab, wretched life – salvation from the old week-by-week, a chance for two-bit heroics blown up on the front page … . I’ve talked to others, and I’m not alone. Maybe we crave a chance to be stouthearted for once and have a real situation to cope with.”

Michael Hood, NPR Reporter

Commenting on minor quake in Seattle, WA

05/09/96

The Three Stage Model of Collective Coping

The Three Stage Model of Collective Coping

Persian Gulf War I

500000 US soldiers in harms way

Experts predict 1000s of US casualties

Fears of nuclear weapons, poison gas

Fears of terrorism at home

Yellow ribbons, prayer sessions

Media barrage of war-relate stories

Persian Gulf War Study

Survey nearly identical to that used in Quake Study

Participants contacted randomly

All participants were Dallas, TX residents

No “comparison sample” possible

Rates and Talking and Thinking Following the Persian Gulf War

02468

101214161820

Ra

ting

s in

Z u

nits

Thought

Talked

Rates of Event-Related Dreaming, Following the Quake and Following the War

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Ra

ting

s in

Z u

nits

Quake (SF)

War (Dallas)

Rate of Increased Aggravated Assaults, Dallas, 1991 (War) vs. 1990 (Pre-War)

-40

-200

2040

6080

100

Pe

rce

nt

of

Incre

ase

d A

ssa

ults

Implications of Collective Coping Research

1. Coping appears to occur in a three-stage manner

1. Emergency

2. Inhibition

3. Recovery

2. Public safety should be on especial alert during inhibition stage

3. Emotions are negotiated events; we need to share the burden of disclosure and listening.

MIDTERM GRADES

Grading Formula

86-100 A83-85 B+78-83 B75-77 B-73-75 C+70-72 C67-69 C-59-65 D0-58 F