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In this article, I present the case for a narrative approach to emotion, identifying conceptual and presentational weaknesses in standard ethnographic approaches. First-person and confessional accounts, increasingly offered as a corrective to the distancing and typifying effects of cultural analysis, are shown to be unreliable; shared experience turns out to be an illusion. Instead, I suggest we look to literary examples for lessons in how to capture the full significance of emotion in action. Here, however, we reach the limits of ethnography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined whether coping style can be assessed using a text analysis of expressive writing samples. Participants (n = 153) wrote about a stressful college experience and then completed a depression scale and three coping measures, including the COPE. Writing samples were analysed using Pennebaker's Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count computer programme. Depression scores were related to the use of words denoting negative emotions but were unrelated to the use of the pronoun ‘I’. Respondents who used more words denoting negative emotions in their essays obtained lower problem-focused coping scores on the COPE. The use of insight-related words was associated with lower scores on measures of emotion-focused coping. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bereavement-specific written disclosure trials have generally demonstrated null effects, but these studies have not directed the focus of writing. This randomized controlled trial compared directed writing that focused on either sense-making or benefit-finding, both associated with adjustment to loss, to traditional, non-directed emotional disclosure and a control condition. Bereaved undergraduates (n = 68) completed three 20-min writing sessions over 1 week. Intervention effects were found on prolonged grief disorder, depressive, and posttraumatic stress symptoms 3 months postintervention, and the benefit-finding condition appeared particularly efficacious. Physical health improved over time in all treatment groups. Findings suggested that directing written disclosure on topics associated with adjustment to bereavement may be useful for grieving individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's insights regarding contemporary novel. The author says that with regards to writing contemporary novel, the words are not taken from the mouth, but rather in not separating them from what binds them. He also mentions that in Marcel Proust's novel, literature has determined its palatal place, considering the use of words. The author adds that Eugène Savitzkaya's "Cochon farci" is considered as a contemporary novel since it contains some play in its genre.

Objective: This study tested the effectiveness of an expressive writing intervention for gay men on outcomes related to psychosocial functioning. Method: Seventy-seven gay male college students (mean age = 20.19 years, SD = 1.99) were randomly assigned to write for 20 mm a day for 3 consecutive days about either (a) the most stressful or traumatic gay-related event in their lives or (b) a neutral topic. We tested an exposure-based hypothesis of written emotional expression by asking half of the participants who were assigned to write about gay-related stress to read their previous day's narrative before writing, whereas the other half did not. Posttest and 3-month follow-up outcomes were assessed with common measures of overall psychological distress, depression, physical health symptoms, and positive and negative affect. Gay-specific social functioning was assessed with measures of gay-related rejection sensitivity, gay-specific self-esteem, and items regarding openness and comfort with one's sexual orientation. Results: Participants who wrote about gay-related stress, regardless of whether they read their previous day's writing, reported significantly greater openness with their sexual orientation 3 months following writing than participants who wrote about a neutral topic, F(1, 74) = 6.66, p < .05, 12 = .08. Additional analyses examined the impact of emotional engagement in the writing, severity of the expressed topic, previous disclosure of writing topic, tendency to conceal, and level of perceived social support on mental health outcomes. Conclusions: The findings suggest that an expressive writing task targeting gay-related stress can improve gay men's psychosocial functioning, especially openness with sexual orientation. The intervention seems to be particularly beneficial for those men who write about more severe topics and for those with lower levels of social support. The findings suggest future tests of expressive writing tasks for different aspects of stigma-related stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay the author discusses her belief that literary publication is essential for an author because it is their only opportunity to experience their work as something that is separate from themselves. The author states that she chooses to publish her writing so that she can begin working on a new story.

Questionnaires were administered to 120 students. Cluster analysis was used to examine whether specific groups could be described by a writing self-efficacy scale, English writing anxiety scale, and a written General English Proficiency Test. Three clusters were observed. Demographic variables were compared for each cluster, including age, sex, program of study, years of English instruction, native language, and number of English speaking acquaintances. Efforts to reduce writing anxiety and promote writing self-efficacy could enhance writing scores of participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within a practical environment that 'reeks of the possibility of failure' (Zarrilli 2002a: 163), psychophysical performer trainers, like Phillip Zarrilli and Sandra Reeve, discursively construct alternative rules and understandings of mistakes and failure. Participants' sustained assimilation of these alternative rules lead to the necessary reconsideration and removal of conditioned responses to mistakes and failure. Through a selection of examples, and from the position of participant-observation, this article highlights how these alternative rules of mistakes and failure can be usefully examined within, and applied to, the reflective documentation of such psychophysical practices. The examination and application of these alternative rules can help to create a more embodied, performative form of articulation that engages with the experiences of the live, fallible, processual body. Such articulation works to tackle, upon the page and then through to the practice space, participants' disembodied conditioned responses to mistakes and failure, and supports development of a fuller psychophysical engagement. This article explores the means of, and results from, creating this embodied articulation in pertinent and reflexive dialogue with Luce Irigaray and, particularly, Hélène Cixous's theoretical writings. These writings explore and play with notions of bodies, embodiment and embodied writing. Moreover, direct and stimulating connections can be drawn between the practical alternative understandings of mistakes and Cixous's and Irigaray's emphasis upon the importance of frailty, error and kindness within the processes of writing. Therefore, through the focus of mistakes and failure, this article proposes a new interpretation of the role of written articulations of pre-performative practice that can be used by, and taught to and by, training participants and practitioners. It demonstrates processes of written reflection that offer access to, feed, and critically analyse the embodied, creative and intuitive experiences of the psychophysical training space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study that examines the potential benefits of expressive writing for the psychosocial being of male college students in the U.S. who have varying restrictive emotionality levels. The study revealed that the men's restrictive emotionality was negatively relative to being in a romantic relationship, as well as to positive relations with others. Multiple regression analysis was utilized after the experimental and controlled writing intervention involving 150 male college students. Results of the study suggest that expressive writing used by clinicians is better comapare to problems encountered by the subjects.

Reflective writing fosters critical thinking skills. It helps students to delve deeper into complex scientific concepts and theories and learn insightfully. Reflective writing enhances the development of students' empathy and helps them to become more conscious of self and others. Reflective journaling, as a way of student-teacher communication, allows mutual exchanges of thoughts and feelings, which cannot be accomplished in any other way and certainly not in limited class time. The teacher can provide valuable feedback on the students' reflections and guide them accordingly. Many students with deficient interpersonal skills, shyness, or hesitancy to interact with the teacher in class are given the opportunity to do so by this learning method. Reflective journaling provides ample opportunities for students to express themselves, even artistically, by writing poems, making drawings, and creating metaphors. This active form of learning helps students synthesize and construct new knowledge. A review of the literature supports the notion that journal writing is closest to natural speech, aids memory, and provides a context for healing and growth. This instructional method has gained popularity in the past three decades; however, it is still underused, especially in science courses. The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of journal writing as an aid to students learning pathophysiology material. Focus groups and individual semistructured interviews were conducted. The emerged data would help us modify our teaching method by integrating journal writing into the design of our science courses in order to provide a learner-centered environment that enhances reflexive awareness and also facilitates meaning making and knowledge construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Writing improves physical and psychological health when done expressively, or in a way characterized by cognitive-emotional engagement (Pennebaker, 1997). While numerous theories attempt to explain the relationship between expressive writing and health, no singular mechanism emerges as conclusive or dominant. This theoretical dilemma is likely due to the paradigm's vast and thus self-fulfilling directions, which place a premium on the participant's biases and positive expectations (Langens & Schüler, 2007). Accordingly, the current review builds a theory of perceived control, which makes three propositions: (1) Perceived control promotes health; (2) Traumatic and stressful events lead to loss of perceived control and therefore decrements in health; and (3) Expressive writing restores perceptions of control, thereby improving health. Indeed, perceived control is associated with the very process of expressive writing and has extensive ties to both physical and psychological well-being. Unlike other proposed models, a theory of perceived control identifies which individuals should benefit from writing and explains why health benefits are often short-term. Expressive writing, due to its appeal as a healing ritual, is likely to build up confidence in one's health and prospects, without taking into account the uncertainties of day-to-day events and circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is devoted to the importance of interpersonal and phenomenological perspectives in writing about an analytic relationship that can convey the emotional depth and intensity necessary for the analysis to be successful enabling the patient to alter her life. The writer should be able to describe the interactive experiences of the patient and analyst as two whole people motivated to create greater coherence to their experiences or how the analyst and patient have worked together to enable the patient to transform fragmented parts of his or her story into a narrative that can be told to the analyst. By using examples from a case conference on writing about what occurred in an analysis, I highlight some of the principles that are described in the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I consider the manner in which the created object reveals the creator through consideration of the theoretical contributions of Winnicott and Bucci followed by the creative contributions of the painter Cezanne and the poet/psychoanalyst Akhtar. This leads to Bernstein's format for clinical writing, which I consider a creative process with an important self-analytic function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To establish whether writing about experiences of the first episode of psychosis may alleviate trauma-like symptoms among carers of people with psychosis. Method: A total of 37 people caring for someone with early psychosis were randomized to two conditions: either writing about the first psychotic episode, or writing about time management. Data were collected before and after intervention, and 8 weeks later. Results: Those in the writing group were significantly less likely to avoid reminders and feelings associated with their relative's episode at follow up. Furthermore, carers in this group who exhibited trauma-like symptoms had significantly greater reductions in trauma severity. Conclusions: Written emotional disclosure can help carers who are experiencing trauma symptoms following a relative's first episode of psychosis. If writing about emotional events is beneficial through mechanisms of exposure then screening participants for trauma symptoms may eliminate previous research inconsistencies. These results, however, need to be replicated in a larger study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Where courses have as an aim the promotion of reflective practice, it will enhance the achievement of the goal if the level of reflective thinking is assessed. To do this in a satisfactory way requires a reliable protocol for assessing the level of reflection in written work. This article presents a protocol that can be used to guide the allocation of work to four categories, namely: habitual action/non-reflection, understanding, reflection, and critical reflection. Intermediate categories can also be used. Detailed descriptors of each category to guide the process are provided. The protocol was tested by four assessors independently using it to grade a set of written work, and very good agreement was obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study about expressive writing and its therapeutic benefits. According to the study, it is used for self-understanding and behavioral therapy for psychological stress. Dr. James W. Pennebaker started the scientific study in 1980 wherein a nonclinical person wrote about personal challenging experiences for 15 minutes for several days. An overview on several diseases that relate to expressive writing is offered.

This study focused on interrelations between graphometric variables of the signature and measures of perception, cognitive function, and personality. Signatures from a sample of psychiatric and somatic outpatients (N=205) were analyzed into 23 graphometric variables and correlated with tests of IQ, cognitive and perceptual function, and personality. The results of a factor analysis of the graphometric, perceptual, and cognitive variables were very much like results from previous studies. Relationships with the graphometric variables can be described in five categories of intelligence, psychomotiity, flexibility and speed of closure, and personality. Graphometric signs of Extraversion and Neuroticism were identified, and the two capitals in the signature indicated different psychological meanings. Measurements of the signature offered important personality information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has repeatedly shown that writing about an important value, compared with writing about an unimportant value, reduces defensiveness in response to self-threatening information, but has not identified why. Study 1 showed that participants who wrote about an important value reported more positive other-directed feelings, such as love and connection, than participants who wrote about an unimportant value. Study 2 replicated this effect, and showed that loving and connected feelings, but not positive or negative self-directed feelings, completely accounted for the effect of a values-affirmation manipulation on smokers' acceptance of information indicating that smoking harms health. These studies, in concert with previous research, suggest that values affirmation reduces defensiveness via self-transcendence, rather than self-integrity (i.e., self-worth or self-images). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the possible positive effects of the Expressive Writing paradigm on a sample of Romanian female cancer patients. The major tenet of this paradigm is that if individuals with high levels of distress express in writing, for three or four consecutive writing sessions, their deepest thoughts and emotions regarding the activating event and its consequences, on the follow-up assessment they would experience significantly lower levels of distress, and improved physical and/or psychological functioning. Our study has evinced, that the participants of the sample we investigated has experienced at the follow-up assessment significantly lower levels of distress, and significantly higher levels of positive meaning in life and benefit finding, however, the results may depend on the pre-intervention levels of depression. Nevertheless, the Expressive Writing task has not significantly contributed in our sample to the enhancement of the levels of positive emotions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. Manipulations of the setting and instructions were tested for effects on language use and reported health following expressive writing (EW). Methods. Participants (N = 76) wrote in one of three conditions that differed by setting and the delivery of writing instructions. Results. The results showed that altering the context for EW influences participants' language use and their perceptions of the experience. There was no effect of conditions on self-reported health. Conclusions. Future research should attend to the ways in which manipulations of EW context affect proposed mediators such as language, as well as outcomes of EW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effects of expressive narrative writing in 607 participants. Compared with a control group, the participants randomly assigned to write about their feelings and thoughts after the Madrid train attack on M11 report less negative emotions related to the recall of the collective trauma at a 2-month follow-up after the attacks. However, no effectswere found on positive affect, probably because the study hadonlyone writing session of brief duration. Stronger feelings of joy, use of positivewords, and low use of negative words in the narratives predicted low emotional activation at follow-up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tested the lower boundary of the dosage required to garner health benefits from written emotional expression. Participants wrote about either a personal trauma, a positive life experience, or a control topic for 2 minutes each day for 2 days. Emotion word usage in the essays was examined and physical health complaints were measured 4-6 weeks after the last writing session. Trauma and positive experience essays contained more emotional content than the control essays and such content was of a similar percentage to that demonstrated by past research. Both the trauma and the positive experience conditions reported fewer health complaints at follow-up than the control condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. The study compared emotionally disclosive writing and writing about goals as the 'best possible self' to a control condition and evaluated coping through emotional processing (EP) and expression (EE) as moderators of effects at 1-month follow-up. Method. Undergraduates (N = 63) were randomly assigned to emotional disclosure (EMO), best possible self (BPS), or a control condition (CTL). Outcomes were hostility, medical visits, depressive symptoms, physical symptoms, and blood pressure. Results. At 1 month, hostility decreased in high-EP participants in EMO relative to BPS and decreased in low-EP participants in BPS relative to EMO. Low-EP participants had fewer medical visits in BPS, whereas high-EP participants had more visits in BPS relative to other conditions. Conclusions. Benefits may accrue when the expressive task is matched to the individual's preferred coping strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various topics published within the issue including one by Arden L. Corter and Keith J. Petrie which highlights the effect of context on participant' language use and experience and another by Henriët van Middendorp and Rinie Geenen which examines the associations between alexithymia and emotional and cognitive word use with subsequent health.

Objective. Examine distress, emotional approach coping, and attachment as moderators of effects of written (WED) versus interpersonal (IED) emotional disclosure and written time management (WTM). Design/Methods. Fifty-seven undergraduates with stressful experiences randomized to a single session of WED, IED, or WTM. Assessment of immediate reaction (NA) and 6-week follow-up (intrusions/avoidance). Results. Those with higher baseline distress had increased NA, avoidance and intrusions when engaged in WED or IED (vs. WTM). For emotional processors, WED (vs. IED) produced less NA, avoidance, and intrusions. Attachment predicted increased NA in WTM. Conclusions. Baseline distress and personality characteristics form boundary conditions for written disclosure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. In a test to determine whether a brief version of the expressive writing (EW) method was viable, 106 college students participated in an experiment dealing with the study of life transitions. Design. Individuals were randomly assigned to write for 15 minutes on three occasions: either three times separated by 10-min break (1-hour condition), 35-min break (3-hour condition), or 24-hour break (3-day condition). Methods. Participants were randomly assigned to write about their thoughts and feelings about the transitions (N = 80), or to describe daily behaviours surrounding the transitions in a non-emotional way (N = 26). Results. The three emotional writing conditions did not vary in terms of their engagement with writing, their emotional reactions, short- or long-term reactions to the intervention. Compared to controls, those in the experimental conditions evidenced fewer symptom reports 9 months after writing. Conclusions. The findings suggest that a brief 1-hour EW is more emotionally demanding, but that it has comparable effects on physical symptoms as the traditional 3-day method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MOST INSTRUCTORS TEACHING WRITING courses seek ways to improve student writing and facilitate more active student engagement in the revision process. One way to do this is through teaching students to provide high-quality peer reviews. In this study, we followed first-year composition students for one semester and assessed the quality of their peer reviews when they gave audio versus written feedback to their classmates. Audio feedback was digitally-recorded using iPods or similar technology. In general, we found that the quality of audio reviews was higher than written reviews. Students, however, preferred giving and receiving written feedback. Our results suggest that instructors should adopt audio peer review when possible, but may need to help students recognize its value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the impact that writing about personal emotions had on distress levels in police officers. A total of 67 police officers randomly assigned to either a writing intervention or a non-writing control group completed the study. Over a period of 4 work days the intervention group members wrote for 15 minutes a day about their strong emotions related to work or not, and what they planned to do about the emotions. All participants completed measures of stress, anxiety, and depression before and after the intervention. The results showed that the writing group experienced significantly lower levels of stress and anxiety post-intervention than the control group. The results suggest that writing about emotions can help reduce distress in police officers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses how a writing teacher is to deal with a student who reveals personal problems through their writing. The author states that with the advent of student-originated writing assignments, students are able to express more personal views and thus reveal inner personal problems that may be plaguing them. The author recounts a history of student-initiated writing in the United States, noting the reaction against the form by the Christian religious right. The author also offers examples of writing by troubled students in the novels "Up the Down Staircase," by Bel Kaufman and "Ordinary People," by Judith Guest. The massacre at Virginia Tech University in Blackburg, Virginia on April 16, 2007 is also discussed.

In this article the author, a French feminist, writer and philosopher, considers the act of not writing. In discussing the book she did not write she compares writing to a number of activities, including the sowing of seeds and the digging of holes. She describes having donated her manuscripts to the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Family therapy is the success story of the past century but in this century it faces great many challenges to prove its usefulness within a larger context of drastic societal and cultural changes. To meet these challenges and widen its applicability to larger numbers of troubled families, family therapists need to expand their repertoires traditionally based on face-to-face talk to include "compass sentences," and increased frequency of homework assignments with greater reliance on distance writing, and inclusion of low-cost approaches to promote physical and mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Practice on a novel sequence of movements can lead to two expressions of procedural memory consolidation: delayed performance gains evolving hours after training, and a decrease in the susceptibility of the training-related gains to interference by subsequent experience. It has been assumed that behavioral interference occurs only if a critical overlap between the representations of the two tasks exists, and that such overlap is more likely when the two tasks are novel, competing for general resources for their execution. We investigated whether the delayed gains in the simple finger-opposition sequence (FOS) learning task are more prone to interference by well practiced than by less practiced complex hand movements. Participants were trained on the FOS task in a baseline (no interference) and an interference training condition. In the Interference condition, after FOS practice, participants wrote Hebrew common words in Hebrew (native script) or a Latin script (Heblatin). Native script writing but not the less practiced Heblatin, interfered with FOS learning, with significantly reduced delayed gains. Our results show that interference can occur even when two tasks share little or no kinematic or dynamic features and indicate that the representation of complex but well-practiced movement sequences may overlap with the representation of simpler ones. This result is in line with the notion that well-practiced complex movement sequences come to be represented as simpler ones in long-term motor memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The question of violence and of danger in psychiatry has been raised quite often these last few months within the Société Médico-Psychologique. The author has chosen to focus her reflexion on psychological violence and, more particularly, on the ascendancy or hold that some parents have on their children. This theme will be illustrated by examples taken from clinical facts and from literary fiction and the literature will echo the psychotherapeutic clinical observations. Some clinical observations do indeed resemble novels, and correspondingly fiction that presents secret grief unveils psychological truths by wording the souls'' pains. Writing may, in this way, help exorcise what is intolerable in suffering and anguish: hate and rage burst out in Vipère au Poing, cruelty and humiliation are the daily lot of Poil de Carotte, possessive love becomes murderous love in Genitrix and in Une Histoire sans Nom. Kafka shows the terrifying power of words in The Judgement, a short story feverishly written in a single night. The intrication of love and hate may thus, under cover of duty and virtue, borrow the language of altruism: “It''s for your own good”… The parental relation may become deadly, words wound and sometimes kill. Far from always being selfless and kindly sometimes love is destructive by dint of trying to be possessive. It can result in permanent scars which may be masked by social success covering up the soul''s grief by a falsely reassuring veil. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We compared the influence of reading and writing habits on the asymmetry of space perception and the directional tendencies of French and Tunisian righthanders, aged 5, 7, and 9 years. By comparing two groups of children who use the opposite direction for writing (from left to right for French, from right to left for Arabic), before and after being taught to read in school, we evaluated the impact of writing direction on these asymmetries. A bisection task, a circle-drawing task, and a dot-filling task were used to assess spatial asymmetries and directional tendencies. On the bisection task, a group difference emerged at 9 years, with the French children bisecting the line to the left of the true centre, and the Tunisian children showing no bias. On the circle-drawing task, there was a group difference from 7 years on, as the French children, but not the Tunisian children, used increasing counterclockwise movements. Finally, on the dot-filling task performed with the right hand, the French children filled in significantly more dots when going from left to right from 7 years on, whereas Tunisian children filled in more dots when going from right to left. These results show the impact of basic tendencies in younger children (ipsilateral bias in line bisection, clockwise direction in circle drawing, outward tendency for horizontal displacement in dot filling), as well as the impact of writing direction on spatial asymmetries after learning to read. The results are also discussed in reference to the differences between the two languages, the closeness of the French direction of writing to spontaneous neural-based tendencies, and the influence of learning French at age 8 for the Tunisian children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five years'' work with a writing workshop for pre-adolescents who have significant writing difficulties has made it possible to highlight a certain link between violence and writing. From two lines work —meanings and narrative— the authors seek to show how writing, and more especially literary work viewed as an effective metaphor, offers an outlet for the drive to violence and a means of treating the pleasure derived from it. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The goal of this experiment was to investigate the role of visual feedback during written composition. Effects of suppression of visual feedback were analyzed both on processing demands and on on-line coordination of low-level execution processes and of high-level conceptual and linguistic processes. Writers composed a text and copied it either with or without visual feedback. Processing demands of the writing processes were evaluated with reaction times to secondary auditory probes, which were analyzed according to whether participants were handwriting (in a composing and a copying task) or engaged in high-level processes (when pausing in a composing task). Suppression of visual feedback increased reaction time interference (secondary reaction time minus baseline reaction time) during handwriting in the copying task and not during pauses in the composing task. This suggests that suppression of visual feedback only affected processing demands of execution processes and not those of high-level conceptual and linguistic processes. This is confirmed by analysis of the quality of the texts produced by participants, which were little, if at all, affected by the suppression of visual feedback. Results also indicate that the increase in processing demands of execution related to suppression of visual feedback affected on-line coordination of the writing processes. Indeed, when visual feedback was suppressed, reaction time interferences associated with handwriting were not reliably different in the copying task or the composing task but were significantly different when visual feedback was not suppressed: They were lower in the copying task than in the composition task. When visual feedback was suppressed, writers activated step-by-step execution processes and high-level writing processes, whereas they concurrently activated these writing processes when composing with visual feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research is to show that the mechanical demands of writing continue to affect the characteristics of produced texts in adults under certain situations of cognitive overload. The study reported here is intended to demonstrate that the quality of the text produced by educated adults falls when production is performed in the written rather than in the spoken mode, but only when the elements on the basis of which the texts are to be produced are difficult to relate to one another. In this view, we compared performance in a text production span task in either the oral or the written mode. This task consisted of presenting sets of words, semantically linked or not, from which adults had to produce texts including the words in the set. The results showed that neither the production mode nor the extent of the relationship between the items influenced the number of words recalled. By contrast, the number of ideas elaborated and the coherence of the produced texts are lower when the supplied items are difficult to link and when production is in the written mode. These results are interpreted in the framework of capacity theories in production. They suggest that the cost of managing written production is not always negligible in well-educated adults. When they have to produce texts on the basis of provided elements that are only weakly associated with one another in the written mode, the residual capacity necessary either to maintain and organise the information in working memory, or to adopt a strategic approach to the composition of the texts, is insufficient because the cost of this elaboration must be added to that of the management of the written production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on her career as a critic and biographer, paying particular attention to the psychic underpinnings of writing. Contemplating her identifications and disidentifications with her subjects and her mother, the author considers the workings of mediation, failure, insecurity, repair, separation, regression, and rebirth through the act and art of writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates effective temporal organisations of writing processes in novice writers, using protocol analysis and focusing on task representation and formulating processes. Ninth grade students (n = 36) wrote an argumentative text under thinking-aloud conditions. Writers did not only differ with respect to the number of task representation and formulating activities, but also with respect to the moment on which these activities were performed. Task representation activities are positively related to text quality, but only during the initial phases of the writing process. Formulating activities are negatively correlated with text quality in the beginning, but positively in the end of the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When people write about their deepest thoughts and feelings about an emotionally significant event, numerous benefits in many domains (e.g., health, achievement, and well-being) result. As one step in understanding how writing achieves these effects, we have developed a computer program that provides a "fingerprint" of the words people use in writing or in natural settings. Analyses of text samples indicate that particular patterns of word use predict health and also reflect personality styles. We have also discovered that language use in the laboratory writing paradigm is associated with changes in social interactions and language use in the real world. The implications for using computer-based text analysis programs in the development of psychological theory are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the effects of systematic written reflections on personal progress in 12-step facilitation therapy. Controlled analyses of subsequent narrative content of the diaries; Impact of the intervention on feelings of personal progress; Theoretical significance to constructivist psychology.

The article discusses anxieties associated with poem writing. It explores the significance of statements by poets about the art of poetry, addresses the account on the meaning of the act of writing a poem, and comments on how phrases that reveal how a poem works and how a poet goes about making it work.

Observing recovery of cognitive functions may provide converging evidence about the organization of systems that mediate cognitive functions. We analyzed recovery of lexical abilities in a patient, HH, with an acute onset of anomic aphasia following a cerebral infarction confined to the left temporo-occipital junction (area 37). His initial assessment, described in detail elsewhere (Raymer et al. 1997a), indicated a cross-modal anomia arising at a stage in lexical processing at which semantic information accesses phonological and orthographic lexical mechanisms for speech and writing. We also documented reading and spelling impairments that we attributed to developmental deficits. We now report our patient's follow-up testing at 6 and 15 months post-stroke. Recovery testing demonstrated significant improvements in task performance across recovery phases: word retrieval in naming and spelling tasks recovered in the earlier recovery phase and reading improved at the later testing. Word frequency effects varied across observations. Over time, error patterns evolved from off-target and semantically related responses towards correct responses. The parallel recovery patterns in oral and written naming support our proposal that a common impairment was responsible for the cross-modal anomia. In contrast, recovery of reading and spelling skills contradicts our hypothesis that these problems were developmental in origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the serious artist as originating from moments of broken play. It distinguishes between two types of seriousness: disciplinary seriousness (taking on oneself the responsibilities of an adult expert who abides by the rules of the game) and poetic seriousness (revealed from the point of view of the child whose play has been exposed). Two autobiographical moments are recounted, exemplifying the latter type of seriousness, and different related issues are discussed and connected to the new writing in social science such as the movement back of memory; the possibility of being seriously light; the poetic as a measure against any frozen form; and poetic writing as performance, experiment, and break-dance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines whether writing projects lessen undergraduates' grief following a loved one's suicide. Writing activities discussing profound and trivial topics; Rationale for the writing paradigm; Writing outcomes; Application of the writing paradigm on clinical cases; Role of social support in bereavement process; Effectiveness of the writing exercise.

To find out which brain regions are responsible for the mental construction and recognition of a kanji character initiated by visually presented kanji radicals, rather than by information retained in the memory, a lefthenradical and the corresponding righttsukuriradical were simultaneously presented randomly to either the left or right visual field of seven subjects. Thirty lefthenradicals and the corresponding righttsukuriradicals were prepared as stimuli; this combination formed over 500 real or pseudo kanji characters. Instead of their usual left and right positions, the lefthenradical was always presented above the righttsukuriradical. As quickly and correctly as possible, the subjects released a key when two kanji radicals constituted a single real kanji character and released another key otherwise. We recorded neuromagnetic responses as well as accuracy and reaction time. Left visual field superiority was observed as regards accuracy. This is in good agreement with previous neuropsychological results. Equivalent current dipoles were localized mainly in the left and/or right occipitotemporal regions (ventral visual pathways), the bilateral occipitoparietal regions (dorsal visual pathways) including the supramarginal region, and the areas surrounding the left superior temporal cortex. We suggest that these regions are related to reading and the mental construction of a kanji character from its radicals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research by Pennebaker and his colleagues supports the healing power of writing about traumatic events. This study explored the importance of writing about the perceived benefits of traumatic events as a factor in this process. The study included 118 participants who were randomly assigned to write about one of four topics in a 2 (writing about perceived benefits vs. not writing about perceived benefits) x 2 (writing about trauma vs. not writing about trauma)factorial design. Participants also completed questionnaire measures of subjective well-being and released health center information for the year. Participants who wrote only about trauma or perceived benefits showed significantly fewer health center visits for illness 3 months after writing. In addition, 5 months after writing, the trauma-only and perceived-benefits-only groups maintained a difference from the control group. These results suggest that writing about perceived benefits from traumatic events may provide a less upsetting but effective way to benefit from writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]