It’s good to talk

Telling your partner everything is good for your psychological health. This is the finding of a study presented on the 12 September 2008, at the European Health Psychology Society and British Psychological Society’s Division of Health Psychology Conference 2008.

Dr Andrea Horn and her colleagues from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, asked 80 young couples to report how much or how little they disclosed to their partner. They compared this to each partner’s psychological wellbeing, and the quality of their relationship.

Dr Andrea Horn said: 'We found that those people who told us they disclosed a lot to their partner had better mental health and relationship satisfaction. However this effect was only seen by the person who was doing the disclosing - and not the partner on the receiving end.

'It’s likely that telling your partner all about your day enables you to better regulate your own emotions, which results in these positive psychological health effects. It may also promote feelings of intimacy, which increases your relationship satisfaction.

'However it was interesting that we didn’t find the same effects for the other person in the couple. It seems telling your partner everything about your day doesn’t benefit them in the same way.'

Dr Andrea Horn concludes; "You may want to start sharing more with your partner - if not for their benefit, but for your own'.

More than 700 psychologists from the UK, Europe and further are gathering at the University of Bath from 9 to 12 September 2008 for the joint European Health Psychology Society and British Psychological Society’s Division of Health Psychology Conference 2008.

The conference was themed ‘Behaviour, Health and Healthcare: From Physiology to Policy’, and looked at how psychology can be applied at individual and group level to promote health, and even prevent illness, at a national level.

Ends
Notes to editor:
The study was conducted as part of the swiss-wide conjoint project ‘NCCR Affective Science’.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joanna Colburn, Public Relations officer, British Psychological Society. Tel: 0116 2529904, email Joanna.colburn@bps.org.uk

Ref: PR1474