Ways of finding meaning in negative experience and hesitation in self-disclosure

Narrative approach suggests that finding or creating meaning in one's own negative experience is important, and one of psychotherapeutic goals may be making it possible for the person to tell his/her in experience to others in a more positive way than otherwise. On the other hand, recent studies of self-disclosure have suggested that disclosure of negative experience could be harmful to well-being or interpersonal relationship of the person. This study investigated the relationship between ways of finding meaning in negative experiences and hesitation in self-disclosure. A questionnaire about negative life experience was administered to 210 undergraduates. Results indicated that there were four different ways of finding meaning in negative experiences, and four factors of the hesitation could be classified into those having interpersonal and intra-personal negative implications. Believing that a negative experience had negative effects on life led to stronger hesitation in self-disclosure. Interpreting a negative experience positively led to less intra-personal hesitation. And holding no hope or optimistic perspective about a negative experience led to stronger interpersonal hesitation in self-disclosure.