Writing to think. Narrating events to increase one’s own emotional understanding (and competence).

The study here reported - part of a larger research project (financed by Fondazione CARIPARO) assessing emotional intelligence and training it (with a procedure subdivided in several online sessions; e.g., Zammuner, 2010) - is on ‘diary writing’. It was hypothesised that expressive writing would induce people to think with greater attention and in greater depth about various aspects of emotions (their causes, expression, consequences, etc.), thus making them more aware of (causes, expressions, etc. of) their and others' emotions, thus increasing their emotional literacy and therefore their emotional competence/intelligence. The results obtained from a detailed analysis of people’s ( N = 113) writing about emotionally valenced events show that participants recalled somewhat ‘undigested’ events (mostly negative ones) that still required their attention. They performed ‘expressive writing’, albeit briefly, by focusing and writing on various aspects of the event experience, including how they appraised the event and their own reaction to it, what feelings they had and what feelings they expected involved-others to have, whether they regulated their emotional responding to the situation, and whether they would consider, and for what reasons, alternative ways of responding. This study, in conclusion, indicates that when writing about an event, with the help of a few prompt questions, (most) people indeed elaborate its meaning and significance for the self, as well as for involved others.