their traumatic secrets. Similarly, only the disclosing students showed a de-
crease in the number of illnesses. In other words, although writing about theirproblems created some mild, short-term discomfort, it appears that the act of
disclosing, even in the relatively mild form used in this study, improved the
health of the already healthy college students.
The health benefits of disclosing traumatic experiences have been found
in numerous subsequent investigations using this same basic procedure and
with many different kinds of participants (Frattaroli, 2006; Frisina, Borod, &ASSESSING YOUR OWN PERSONALITY
Disclosure and Concealment
Indicate the extent to which you agree with each of the following state-
ments. Use a 5-point scale to indicate your response, with 1 ¼Strongly
disagree and 5 ¼Strongly agree.
1. When I feel upset, I usually confide in my friends.
2. I prefer not to talk about my problems.
3. When something unpleasant happens to me, I often look for
someone to talk to.
4. I typically don ’t discuss things that upset me.
5. When I feel depressed or sad, I tend to keep those feelings to
myself.
6. I try to find people to talk with about my problems.
7. When I am in a bad mood, I talk about it with my friends.
8. If I have a bad day, the last thing I want to do is talk about it.
9. I rarely look for people to talk with when I am having a
problem.
10. When I ’m distressed, I don’ t tell anyone.
11. I usually seek out someone to talk to when I am in a bad
mood.
12. I am willing to tell others my distressing thoughts.
To score, reverse the answer values for items 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, and 10 (that is,
1¼5, 2¼4, etc.). Then add all 12 answer values together. High scores
indicate a tendency to disclose distressing experiences to others, whereaslow scores indicate a tendency to conceal information about distressingevents. You can compare your score with norms from an undergraduate
student sample (Kahn & Hessling, 2001). Men in this sample had a mean
score of 36.33 (standard deviation ¼8.98), and women had a mean score
of 42.21 (standard deviation ¼9.16).
Scale: The Distress Disclosure Index
Source: From “Measuring the tendency to conceal versus disclose psychological distress, ”by
J. H. Kahn and R. M. Hessling, Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology , 2001, 20, 41– 65.
Copyright © 2001 Guilford Publications, Inc. Reprinted by permission.314 CHAPTER 12 The Humanistic Approach