Psychology students were randomly assigned to a condition in which they had to write for 20 min on 3 days or for 3 min on 1 day a factual description of disclosed traumas, undisclosed traumas, or recent social events. In the case of undisclosed traumatic events, intensive writing about these events showed a beneficial effect on affect and on the affective impact of remembering the event and appraisal. Participants who wrote briefly about an undisclosed traumatic event showed a more negative appraisal. Participants who wrote intensively about a traumatic event and had a dispositional deficit in self-disclosure, measured by a Toronto Alexithymia Scale subscale, showed a positive effect on self-reported measures of affect. Difficulty in describing feelings, an alexythimia dimension, correlated with psychological health problems, emotional inhibition, and a less introspective content of written essays about the emotional events.

No abstract

This paper examines the wider impacts, or externalities, of microfinance in Bolivia, an environment in which the loss of confidence in the formal banking system and the proactive role of the Superintendencia de Bancos in converting NGOs into deposit-taking institutions have been positive factors. Our focus is on the group-lending technology of ProMujer, which practises a 'credit plus' technology in which training, health and advisory services for women only are linked with lending (and savings services through FIE). There is some preliminary evidence that such groups have achieved the externality of stimulating collective public action outside of the immediate microfinance context (for example by lobbying for better public services or changes in policy); such growth seems to happen most readily where the group has collective experience of adversity, and|or where intragroup equality is high. They also have exemplary repayment rates, which-unlike those of most other microfinance institutions-did not fall off during the recent recession. This creates a second externality for the economy as a whole-a contribution to macro-economic stability. We hypothesise that the chain of causation goes from ProMujer's 'credit plus' ancillary services, to client loyalty to the institution, to high repayment rates, to ability to expand lending and investment. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

No abstract

his chapter presents our team's research into alexithymia, emotional T coping, and health. First of all, we will briefly review the literature on the positive effect of confrontation on physical and mental health. We will then set out the basic elements of the alexithymia concept and scale (inability to identify and express emotions). The data on factorial, concurrent, and content validity of the Spanish version of Taylor et al. 's (1988) alexithymia scale will be presented. Next, we will also present data that confirm the association between alexithymia and inhibitory or avoiding styles of coping with emotions, as well as data on the predictive validity of alexithymia and inhibitory coping styles with regard to affective distress and health problems. Finally, we will show quasi-experimental data pertaining to the positive effect of participation in groups oriented toward improving affective coping, social sharing, and direct confrontation of stress, in the particular case of women with breast cancer. In this way weThe writing of this chapter and some of the research reported herein was supported by Grant UPV 109.230-F1177/W from the Basque C h n t r y University. We wish to thank the participants in the Taos Conference on Emotion, Disclosure and Health for their comments and suggestions.'I'he authors would especially like to thank J. Pennebaker, G. Schwartz, W. Rucci, G. Bellelli, and the anonymous reviewer for their constructive comments on this chapter.