The Effectivenss of Expressive Writing as a Reductor of Psyhchological Distress

Abstract

This experimental study aims to test the effectiveness of expressive writing to reduce psychological distress. The hypothesis stated that the expressive writing is effective in reducing the level of psychological distress. The design of this quasi-experiment was between-subject design. Furthermore, within-subject design was used for the control and the experimental group respectively. The research subjects were 37 students (7 male students and 30 female students). The experimental group was tasked to do expressive writing. Data analysis using independent sample t-test showed no significant difference between experimental and control group regarding the psychological distress decrease (p=0.607). Thus, the hypothesis was not supported. The results of further analysis by Wilcoxon test of the experimental group stated that expressive writing is effective for reducing psychological distress (p_control=0.106>0.05; p_exp=0.006<0.05).