Beyond Expressive Writing: Evolving Models of Developmental Creative Writing

Pennebaker's expressive writing paradigm has helped to introduce the benefits of writing to health care. However, research in expressive writing has been largely dominated by an experimental and quantitative approach that does not take into account critical methodologies and approaches in health psychology, the increasingly complex ways in which creative writing is now being used in health care settings or recent research in the broader field of creative writing and personal development, health and well-being (developmental creative writing). This article contrasts expressive writing theories and methodologies with those evolving in the relatively new field of developmental creative writing. It investigates a number of theoretical and methodological problems with the expressive writing model and argues for a more critical approach to future research.