Why Does Coping Require Disclosure? The Emotional Broadcaster Theory

1. Why Does Coping Require Disclosure?The Emotional Broadcaster Theory

2. Daily Talking Following the Loma Prieta Earthquake and the Persian Gulf War Pennebaker & Harber, 1993

3. Intra-Personal Reasons to Disclose Schachter Anxiety and Affiliation Studies a. Clarify causes of distress b. Validate one's own reactions Sympathetic Listening as Social Support a. Making sense of Trauma b. Perspective c. Insight d. Belongingness, acceptance Failure to Disclose can be a Health Risk a. Prolonged suppression → chronic stress. b. Disclosure reduces illness.

4. The Emotional Broadcaster Theory Proximal need to discloseIntra-psychic benefits Distal result of disclosure Information transfer

5. Paradox of Need to Disclose INJURY REMEDY Cut finger Blood coagulates Infection Immune response Too hot, too cold Sweating, Shivering Foreign object Coughing, tearing, sneezing Upset psyche Talk to someone

6. Well-Told Disclosures are the Most Therapeutic • Disclosures that create “movies” in listeners minds predict success in therapy (Bucci, 1997) • Disclosures with best narrative structure advance illness recovery (Harber & Pennebaker, 1992) • Disclosures Benefit Listeners • Testimony therapy (Agger & Jensen 1990) • Gossip is informative (Baumeister et al., 2004)

7. The Compulsion to Disclose Disclosure Follows Major Events Rates of Talking in San Francisco Following the Loma Prieta Earthquake

8. People Disclose With Minimal Prompting

9. People Disclose Even After Promising Not To (if disclosure need is unmet) Harber & Pennebaker, in prep

10. Disclosures Can Occur Unconsciously Ekman & Friesen, 1969

11. Disclosures Can Occur Unconsciously Ekman & Friesen, 1969

12. People disclose against self-interest (Pennebaker, 1990) The desire to disclose is cross-cultural (Rimé,1995) The desire to disclose is ancient

13. Personal News is Widely Broadcasted • Disclose copiously after major events • Disclose with minimal prompting • Disclose when asked not to do so • Disclose unconsciously • Disclose against self-interest • Disclosure is cross-cultural • Disclosure is ancient

14. Emotions Propel Disclosures “The Social Telegraph”

15. The Morgue Study Harber, K.D & Cohen, D., Jou. Language and Soc. Psych, 2005 Participants: 33 undergrads (55% female) Event: Field trip to UM hospital morgue Self-reported reactions: 3 days after morgue visit Story tracking exercise

16. Hannah (F ) 624-8324told 1 Maja (F ) 873-2345 told 0 Lew (M) 927-8743told 1 Primary Sharing Marlow (M) told 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 Ilana (F) told 2 Secondary Sharing Deb (F) told 0 Max (M) told 1 Tertiary Sharing Gabe (M) told 0 Andrea (F) told 1

17. Story Sharing Following Morgue Field Trip Tertiary Sharing (Sharing by students’ Friends’ Friends) (n = 27) Secondary Sharing (Sharing by students’ Friends) (n = 32) Primary Sharing (Sharing by students) (n = 33) Number/rate of sharing 32.00 (97%) 27.00 (82%) 16.00 (48%) Mean contacts per sharer 6.21 (4.06) 1.46 (1.21) 1.26 ( 1.20) Total no. contacts this level 205 299 377 Total hearing about event: ≈ 881

18. Students’ Emotional Reactions and Story Sharing Tertiary Sharing (Sharing by students’ Friends’ Friends) (n = 26) Secondary Sharing (Sharing by students’ Friends) (n = 32) Primary Sharing (Sharing by students) (n = 33) Students’ reactions .73** .24 .46* Students’ disclosures .56** .61** Note: Students’ disclosures represent proxy index of emotional reaction.

19. My Meeting with a Robot: Diego San Study http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/8/3852098/first-video-of-ucsd-robot-baby

20. Violation of Expectations and Story Travel Misfortune Vignettes Study (Harber, in prep) Sample n = 403, 67% female, age = 19.63

21. No No Hal breaks a small desk lamp he bought on sale at K-Mart. Yes No Your friend feels very strongly about someone, and plans to propose they move in together. Unexpectedly, this person tells your friend "I think we should cool things off”. Yes Yes Diane finds her window broken and a note tied to a rock. The note says, "Hey Didi, remember me?" She hasn't been called Didi since high school, 5 yrs. ago and 200 miles away. “Stories of Misfortune” Teller Upset Story Unusual No Yes Racing to her spa, Jane almost hits a small boy, who is left shaking. A cop stops her, but by flirting Jane gets only a warning. She says she often gets away with stuff like this.

22. Anticipated Sharing of Misfortune Stories, Due to Teller Distress and Story Unusualness

23. Emotional Broadcaster and History of Violence Harber, K.D., & Podolski, P. (in prep) Disclosures should follow events that violate expectations. Violent events violate expectations of a just, well-ordered world. EXCEPT, perhaps, for people who have experienced much violence, aka who have a "history of violence" (HOV) Predict that HOV will determine whether exposure to violence: 1. Emotionally affects people 2. Motivates them to disclose events to others 3. Affects expectation that their stories will be repeated

24. Study Design Sample: n = 72, age = 20.71 (3.46), women = 52.70% Participants completed survey packet including: 1. History of Violence 2. Reactions to Events 3. Individual Difference Measures a. Differentiation of Emotions b. Need for Certainty (tolerance for ambiguity) c. Hope d. Optimism e. Social Support Opinions f. General Background Questions

25. Reaction to Events Need to Tell Others? People you Tell Would Tell Others? How much would this affect you? You see/hear: 1. Guns fired 2. Drug deals 3. Someone getting beat up 4. Someone getting stabbed 5. Someone getting shot 6. Gangs in your neighborhood 7. Some pull a gun on another 8. People talk about having weapons 9. People with guns/knives near your home 10. People threaten to beat up/hurt someone --- 17. Your car/home windows have been smashed

26. Results: Affect and HOV Affected Tell Others HOV Others Would Tell Affected .76** .69** -.53** Tell others .90** -.47** Others tell -.29* * = p < .05 ** = P < .01

27. Results: Individual Difference and HOV Affected Tell Others HOV Others Would Tell Diff. of Emotions -.02 .26* .22+ -.03 Need for Certainty .39** .39** .36** -.24* Hope .07 .14 .22+ .20 Optimism .01 .20+ .14 -.08 Directive Supporter .07 .20+ .33** .10 Nondirective Supporter .20 .32** .29* -.11 + = p <.10 * = p < .05 ** = P < .01

28. Discrepancy Theories of Emotion and Trauma Emotions arise from schema violations Emotions alert us when schemas (beliefs) and experience (facts) conflict Emotions stay active until schemas and experience difference is resolved Traumas arise when fundamental beliefs are violated by experience World is well-ordered World is just Self is good, competent, worthy 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.

29. Writing and Traumatic Recovery Writing about negative events may boost morale. How so? Active coping Purposeful activity Improved self-image Psychologically and socially safe

30. Does Writing Actually Heal Traumatic Memory? Rimé: No, it doesn't. Ss write/don't write about trauma. X days later return, asked to think about trauma, then rate how upsetting it is to recall trauma. No differences between expt. groups. This being so, what good is writing? 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.

31. Diego San Klien & Boals Disclosure and Victim blaming