Abstract
Research on the effects of expressive writing about emotional experiences and traumatic events has a long history in the affective and social sciences. However, very little is known about the incidence and impact of affective states when the writing activities are not explicitly emotional or are less emotionally charged. By integrating goal-appraisal and network theories of affect within cognitive process models of writing, we hypothesize that writing triggers a host of affective states, some of which are tied to the topic of the essays (topic affective states), while others are more closely related to the cognitive processes involved in writing (process affective states). We tested this hypothesis with two experiments involving fine-grained tracking of affect while participants wrote short essays on topics that varied in emotional intensity including topics used in standardized tests, to socially charged issues, and personal emotional experiences. The results indicated that (a) affect collectively accounted for a majority of the observations compared to neutral, (b) boredom, engagement/flow, anxiety, frustration, and happiness were most frequent affective states, (c) there was evidence for a proposed, but not mutually exclusive, distinction between process and topic affective states, (d) certain topic affective states were predictive of the quality of the essays, irrespective of the valence of these states, and (e) individual differences in scholastic aptitude, writing apprehension, and exposure to print correlated with affect frequency in expected directions. Implications of our findings for research focused on monitoring affect during everyday writing activities are discussed.
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Notes
The present paper focuses on a diverse set of affective phenomena, some of which are basic emotions (e.g., anger, disgust), while other states, such as confusion and boredom, are considered to be affective states instead of bona fide emotions (Keltner and Shiota 2003; Rozin and Cohen 2003). As such, we use the term “affective states” instead of “emotions” from this point on.
We conceptualize engagement/flow as a state of immersion with a task such that concentration is intense, attention is focused, involvement is complete, and there is mild positive affect. Hence, it is a different form of task involvement than merely attending to a stimulus, but it need not involve some of the task-related aspects which Csikszentmihalyi (1990) associates with flow, such as clear goals, balanced challenge, or direct and immediate feedback. It also does not involve some of the aspects of Csikszentmihalyi’s conceptualization that refer to extreme intensity to the extent that there is time distortion or loss of self-consciousness.
There was no relationship between the position of an affective state in the list and proportional occurrence of the affective state (r = 0.034, p = .909).
Issues of statistical power pertaining to failing to reject the null hypothesis are addressed in the “General discussion”.
One-tailed tests are used for the instances where we make specific predictions regarding the direction of an effect.
Position of an affective state in the list and proportional occurrence of the affective state were not correlated (r = −0.071, p = .827).
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Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Art Graesser for useful discussions and to Rebekah Combs, Rosaire Daigle, Nia Dowell, Ally Dobbins, Melissa Gross, Blair Lehman, and Amber Strain for help with data collection. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) (ITR 0325428, HCC 0834847, and DRL 1235958). Any opinions, findings and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.
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Appendices
Appendix: Socially charged issues (abortion)
George Tiller, an American physician who conducted late-term abortions, was shot and killed on May 31, 2009. Scott Roeder, an anti-abortion activist, was arrested for the murder of George Tiller. According to the Los Angeles Times, Roeder pled “not guilty” and defended that he shot the doctor in order to save the unborn. If you were a member of the jury for this case, would you vote the defendant was “guilty” or “not guilty”? Use reasons and/or examples from your experience, observation, and/or reading to explain your viewpoint.
Academic topic (teaching social skills)
Educators often debate what teaching method will result in greater understanding of subject matter by high school students. Some educators think that class discussion results in greater understanding because it encourages students to thoroughly examine ideas from many perspectives. Other educators advocate for assigning individual projects that require students to identify and solve problems independently because applying what they know to a problem will contribute to deeper understanding. In your opinion, what teaching method will result in greater understanding of subject matter by high school students? Use reasons and/or examples from your experience, observation, and/or reading to explain your viewpoint.
Personal emotional experience (happy)
Write an essay describing a recent personal experience that made you happy.
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D’Mello, S., Mills, C. Emotions while writing about emotional and non-emotional topics. Motiv Emot 38, 140–156 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-013-9358-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-013-9358-1