REMEMBERING OR WRITING? IMPLICATIONS OF SELF-DISTANCING IN THE REFLECTION OF NEGATIVE EVENTS

Abstract

Although many studies indicate that self-distancing facilitates adaptive self-reflection, it is necessary to examine the variables in the adaptive self-reflection process further to determine whether it will produce the same profile when the self-reflection is done through writing. As such, this study aims to examine a) whether the induction to remember from an actor's perspective and from an observer‘s perspective has the same implications as the induction to write using the first-person pronouns and using own-name in facilitating adaptive self-reflection, and b) whether adaptive self-reflection through writing has the same profile as adaptive self-reflection through remembering (thinking). Two quasi-experimental studies (N=428) conducted in this research found that
self-distancing was the only variable that differed significantly when we induced the actor's perspective and the observer's perspective (study 1), but the variables of self-distancing, emotional reactivity, and reconstruing differed significantly when self-reflection was conducted through writing manipulation using the first person pronouns and using own-name. It was also found that adaptive self reflection through writing (study 2) had a stronger correlation in the negative direction between self-distancing and emotional reactivity, recounting, avoidance, and in the positive direction with the variables of reconstruing, memory age, and perceived resolution, which meant that writing about negative experiences better facilitates adaptive self-reflection than just remembering. We also analyzed the intervening variables to see the direct or indirect relationship between key variables.