This study examined how writing about anger experiences affected anger and health. Based on Pennebaker & Beall (1986), participants in the three experimental groups wrote about their anger experiences in one of the following three ways, writing both their emotions and the facts about the experiences, writing focusing on their emotions, and focusing on the facts. Control group, participants wrote trivial topics unrelated to anger experiences. Eighty-five undergraduates wrote about either personally anger experiences or trivial topics on three consecutive days. Before and after the writing, participants responded to questionnaires asking about their angers as well as negative and positive moods. At one and two weeks after, and a month after the writing, they responded to a questionnaire about health, angers, and moods. The results indicated that writing both emotions and facts about experiences amplified anger and hostility in the short term, but that it reduced anger and improved health in the long term.
