Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

Publication Date

4-27-1978

Abstract

Recognizing the widespread use of journal keeping, divergent views of the process, and the dearth of formal attempts to study the process, it was the purpose of this study to introduce a means of objectively studying the journal keeping process and to investigate some of the purported effects of this process. More specifically, this study sought to determine the cumulative and immediate effects of unstructured and structured self-evaluative writing upon self-evaluation and self-actualization of male and female college students. Unstructured self-evaluative writing consisted of involvement for four weeks in daily journal keeping. Structured self-evaluation consisted of involvement for four weeks in filling out self-evaluative bipolar checklists daily, or Daily Semantic Differential keeping. Self-evaluation was measured by the total score of a 15-item semantic differential assessing "the way you feel or see yourself right now." Self-actualization was measured by the two basic scales of the Personal Orientation Inventory, i.e., Inner Directed Support and Time Competence. Cumulative effects were assessed in terms of gains (inferred from adjusted posttest scores) and absolute changes yielded from pre- to posttesting. The immediate effects (only of journal keeping upon only self-evaluation) were assessed by comparing the Daily Semantic Differential scores of one group which filled out only these bipolar checklists against another group which filled out the checklists after their daily entries. The immediate effects of journal keeping were assessed also in terms of day-to-day variability in self-evaluation scores on each of the 15 items of the checklist. The subjects were 78 students (39 males, 39 females) enrolled in introductory psychology at the University of New Mexico. A pretest­posttest control group design was utilized where students were randomly assigned to one of the following four conditions: (1) Journal keeping alone group, (2) Daily Semantic Differential keeping alone group, (3) Journal with Daily Semantic Differential keeping group, and (4) Control group. Journal keepers were to devote at least 10 minutes a day to writing about their thoughts and feelings at the moment they were writing as well as to consider their thoughts and feelings on their days' events. They were assured that the experimenter would not read the content of their journals but that he would simply count the number of days no entries were made by having the students flip through their journal pages in the experimenter's presence. Students were not required to give their journal co the experimenter. After 28 days, daily unstructured self-evaluative writing (i.e., journal keeping) was not shown to yield statistically significant cumulative effects upon self-evaluation or self-actualization. During the 28-day period, daily journal keeping was not shown to yield statistically significant immediate effects upon self-evaluation. The findings run contrary to the assertions frequently made in the literature. The data did, however, tentatively suggest that what gains journal keeping may yield are more likely to be immediate and transitory rather than cumulative. Daily structured self-evaluation (i.e., filling out self-evaluative bipolar checklists), however, did yield significant cumulative effects upon changes in self-evaluation and, for women, changes in self-actualization. Among checklist keepers, women, as well, had greater gains in self-actualization than men. The structured format of the bipolar checklist required the students to focus on their feelings and self-perception, contributing to these significant effects. Journal keepers, however, may have avoided focusing upon their internal states opting instead to simply log external events. Women were more negative and more variable in their day-to-day self-evaluations than men. This may have been due to women's greater sensitivity to their more vulnerable states and to variations in their moods as well as to their greater willingness to admit to such states and variations. Self-evaluations were higher during pre- and posttesting than during the intervening 28 days. This may have been due to students' desires to "look good in front of" their peers (i.e., fellow students participating in the experiment) and authority (as represented by the experimenter and the university lecture hall within which the tests were administered). It was suggested, as well, that solitude may enhance honesty and a willingness to concede one's more negative self-evaluations. Of those who volunteered to submit their journals or offer comments about their participation in the experiment, most indicated that their involvement in self-evaluative writing (unstructured or structured) was a positive experience. Both journal keepers and Daily Semantic Differential keepers cited increased self-awareness as an advantage to the process. Some involved in journal keeping saw journals as a means to express their feelings, particularly upsetting ones.

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Counseling

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Individual, Family, and Community Education

First Committee Member (Chair)

Lewis Aloysius Dahmen

Second Committee Member

Unknown

Third Committee Member

Wayne Rowan Maes

Fourth Committee Member

Richard M. Levin

Fifth Committee Member

Samuel Roll

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