{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.016891891891891893, 'fraction_numerical': 0.002027027027027027, 'mean_word_length': 5.582222222222223, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Experiential self-focus writing as a facilitator of processing an interpersonal hurt.

OBJECTIVES
This study examined the effects of experiential self-focus writing on changes in psychological outcomes (i.e., unforgiveness and negative affect) after an interpersonal hurt and the buffering effects of experiential self-focus writing on the association between anger rumination and these psychological outcomes.


DESIGN
A sample of 182 college students who had experienced interpersonal hurt were randomly assigned to either the experiential self-focus writing condition, in which participants wrote about their feelings and experiences related to the hurt, or to a control writing condition in which they wrote about a recent neutral event.


RESULTS
Latent growth curve analyses indicated that changes in unforgiveness over time did not differ between the experiential self-focus writing and the control writing conditions. However, relative to the control writing condition, negative affect decreased faster during writing and increased more slowly at follow-ups in the experiential self-focus writing condition.


CONCLUSIONS
The results supported the hypothesis that negative affect resulting from an interpersonal hurt would significantly decrease over time among participants in the experiential self-focus writing group compared with the control group. Implications of experiential self-focus writing for interpersonal hurt and directions for future studies are discussed.