The Effect of Positive Writing on Emotional Intelligence and Life Satisfaction  Joanna F. Wing, Nicola S. Schutte, and Brian Byrne University of New England This study explored the effect of writing about positive emotional experi- ences on emotional intelligence and life satisfaction. One hundred and seventy-five adults wrote about one of the following three topics: positive experiences with a cue for emotion regulation reflection, positive experi- ences without this cue, or a control writing topic. Multivariate analysis showed a significant time (pretest, posttest, and follow-up) by group effect. Writing about positive emotional experiences with an emotion regulation cue led to significant increases in emotional intelligence and life satisfac- tion at posttest and the increase in life satisfaction was maintained at 2-week follow-up. Further, participants who were cued to reflect on emo- tional regulation while writing about positive experiences rated their emo- tional intelligence significantly higher than the participants in the control writing group both at posttest and at follow-up. There were no significant differences in emotional intelligence or life satisfaction between those who were cued to reflect on emotional regulation while writing about positive experiences and those who wrote about positive experiences with- out such a cue. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 62: 1291– 1302, 2006. Keywords: positive writing; emotional regulation; emotional intelligence; life satisfaction Writing About Positive Events The expressive writing paradigm has largely focused on the beneficial effects of written disclosure of traumatic events (e.g., Pennebaker & Beall, 1986; Smyth, 1998). Recently researchers have explored the effects of writing about topics that depart from the tradi- tional focus on traumatic emotional experiences. Writing about nontraumatic events is different from writing about traumatic events in some respects, but similar in others. Writing about traumatic events may bring about habituation and desensitization through exposure to the event (Lepore, Greenberg, Bruno, & Smyth, 2002) and encourage nor- malization that comes with disclosure of previously non-verbalized information (Penne- baker, 2002); effects not likely shared with writing about nontraumatic events. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Nicola S. Schutte, School of Psychology, Uni- versity of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia; e-mail: nschutte@une.edu.au JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Vol. 62(10), 1291–1302 (2006) © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/jclp.20292