ERIC Number: ED170642
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1978-Sep-1
Pages: 17
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Journal Keeping, Self-Evaluation, and Self-Actualization.
Baron, Michael
Recognizing the widespread use of journal keeping, divergent views of the process, and the dearth of formal attempts to study this process, this study determined the cumulative (post-28 days) and immediate (daily) effects of unstructured (journal) and structured (bipolar checklist) self-evaluative writing upon self-evaluation and self-actualization of male and female college students. Subjects were 78 (39 men, 39 women) college student volunteers, assigned to one of five groups. Pretests and posttests to measure cumulative effects formed a semantic differential to assess self-evaluation and the Personal Orientation Inventory to assess self-actualization. The daily semantic differentials of groups Jo-DSD and DSD were compared to detect the immediate effects of journal keeping upon self-evaluation. Major findings were that: (1) journal keeping did not yield statistically significant immediate or cumulative effects upon self-evaluation or self-actualization; (2) journal keepers rated themselves more in direction of freedom from conflict; (3) journal keeping effects are more likely to be immediate and transitory and cumulative; (4) structured bipolar checklist keeping may have a greater impact than unstructured journal keeping; (5) on a daily basis, men tended to evaluate themselves more positively than women; and (6) self-evaluations at pre- and posttesting were higher than during the intervening 28 days. (Author)
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association (Toronto, Ontario, Canada, August, 1978)