ChapTER 13 Emotion, Stress, and Health 4691998). Suppressing feelings has a social cost, too.
In a study that followed firstyear college students
as they adjusted to being in a new environment,
most of those who expressed their worries and
fears openly with other students ended up with
better relationships and greater satisfaction with
school, compared to those who said they preferred
to keep their emotions to themselves (Srivastava
et al., 2009).The Benefits of Confession. Given the find
ings on the harmful effects of feeling negative
emotions and also the difficulty and costs of
suppressing them, what is a person supposed to
do with them? One way to reduce the wear and
tear of negative emotions comes from research
on the benefits of confession: divulging (even
if only to yourself) private thoughts and feel
ings that make you ashamed, worried, or sad
(Pennebaker, 2002, 2011). Firstyear college stu
dents who wrote about their “deepest thoughts
and feelings” in a private journal reported greater
shortterm homesickness and anxiety, compared
to students who wrote about trivial topics. But
by the end of the school year, they had had fewer
bouts of flu and fewer visits to the infirmary than
the control group did (Pennebaker, Colder, &
Sharp, 1990).What about positive emotions? Do they pro
mote health and long life? Here it is difficult
to separate cause and effect. Finding a group of
very old people who are happy does not mean
that happiness contributed to their longevity; as
people age, they often become less angry and
more content (see Chapter 3). Some of them
might have been really surly when they were
20 or 40. Nonetheless, positive emotions could
be physically beneficial because they soften or
counteract the high arousal caused by negative
emotions or chronic stressors. They may dispose
people to think more creatively about their oppor
tunities and choices and, as with optimism and
internal locus of control, motivate people to take
action to achieve their goals (Kok, Catalino, &
Frederickson, 2008). People who express positive
feelings are also more likely to attract friends and
supporters than are people who are always bitter
and brooding, and, as we will see, social support
is one of the most powerful contributors to good
health (Friedman & Martin, 2011; Ong, 2010;
Pressman & Cohen, 2005).
If you don’t feel cheerful and happy all the
time, don’t worry; everyone feels grumpy, irri
table, and unhappy on occasion. But are nega
tive emotions more typical of your life than
positive ones? If so, what actions might you take
to ensure a better ratio of positive to negative
emotions?
Watch the Video Michael Cohn: Positive
Emotions (APS Player) at MyPsychLabEmotional Inhibition
and Expression
Many people assume that the healthiest thing to
do when they feel angry, depressed, or worried
is to try to suppress those feelings. But anyone
who has tried to banish an unwelcome thought,
a bitter memory, or pangs of longing for an
exlover knows how hard it can be to do this.
When you are trying to avoid a thought, you are
in fact processing the thought more frequently;
you are rehearsing it. That is why, when you are
obsessed with someone you were once romanti
cally involved with, trying not to think of the
person actually prolongs your emotional longing
(Wegner & Gold, 1995).
Prolonged emotional inhibition re quires physi
cal effort that can be stressful to the body. People
who are able to express matters of great emo
tional importance to them show elevated levels
of diseasefighting white blood cells, whereas
people who suppress such feelings tend to have
decreased levels (Petrie, Booth, & Pennebaker,
Everyone has secrets and private moments of sad
reflection, but when you feel sad or fearful for too long,
keeping your feelings to yourself may increase your
stress.