Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Alan Cummins
March 2009
Department of Psychology
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... 3
Abstract ................................................................................................................................ 4
Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 5
Method ............................................................................................................................... 25
Participants..................................................................................................................... 25
Design ............................................................................................................................. 26
Procedure ....................................................................................................................... 28
Results ................................................................................................................................ 33
Descriptives .................................................................................................................... 33
Discussion........................................................................................................................... 45
References .......................................................................................................................... 55
Appendix A......................................................................................................................... 77
3
Acknowledgements
I would like to take this opportunity to thank my supervisor for his help, guidance and
insight. I would also like to thank the participants in the experiment, who gave many hours of
their time to help with my research. To my family, who have endured my unending
studentship, and to those who have listened and advised I am deeply indebted.
4
Abstract
The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of the expressive writing protocol
(Pennebaker & Beall, 1986) in the form of blogs of the general well-being (Fazio, 1977) of
the participants and to examine the correlation with the personality traits of neuroticism,
psychoticism and extroversion as measured by the EPQ-R (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975) along
with social anxiety, as measured by the FNE scale (Watson & Friend, 1969). Participants (N
= 32) were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups of control, diary and blog
and took part in a repeated measure experiment to examine the difference in GWB scores pre
and post taking part in an expressive writing task. This experiment was conducted online with
a set of electronic survey and use of an online blogging service. The independent variables of
Sex, Age, Emotional Disclosure Style Group (Personal or Work), Internet usage
demographics, Intervention Type (Control, Blog, Diary) were compared and correlated with
the dependent variable of GWB. It was found that there is no significant difference in GWB
scores between those who took part in the intervention and those who did not. Neuroticism
was shown to have a strong correlation with GWB and FNE. It was concluded that for the
general population blogging has neither a positive nor negative effect on GWB.
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Introduction
The internet has become an important tool in work and social arenas with blogging and
social networking growing hugely in the past number of years. Thirty six percent of time
online is spent talking and sharing with some 40 million users regularly contributing (Netpop,
2008). Forrester (2008) identifies a ladder of social technology use containing creators,
critics, collectors, joiners and spectators, all of whom interact in social media with some 38%
of 18-24 year olds in the US creating content and this trend continues into the late thirties
with some 29% of the 25-34 demographic creating content online. Blogging is defined as
“the creation of journal entries that are shared in an online format, that are
This research replicates this generation of content by creators, in the form of blogs, in an
experiment that ties together health, expressive writing, internet-related and personality
research to identify if a form of self-directed therapy is already being used on a daily basis by
those who engage in blogging. Schmidt (2007) defines blogs as individual usage episodes
that are framed by three structural dimensions of rules, relations and code which produce
social interaction. Blogs are groups of people who share certain routines and blogs act as
tools for information, identity and relationship management. Blanchard (2004) queries if a
blog is a virtual community and found a moderate sense of community at best exists. Blogs
can be seen as confessional where writers seek repentance, validation and virtual absolution
forming new social bonds and fulfilling social needs. Blogging is convenient, affordable,
self-expression, and the sustenance of a mode of social existence. Motives for the creation of
a blog can come from a dialogical process and social act of positioning with the following of
a pathway across time and space forming the identity of a person (Hevern, 2004). Personality,
in the form of the EPQ-R questionnaire, Eysenck and Eysenck (1975), and social anxiety, in
the form of Fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE), developed by Watson and Friend (1969) will
be correlated with general well-being (GWB) measures detailed by Fazio (1977). These three
factors will be measured while participants take part in an expressive writing protocol,
mirroring the work carried out by Pennebaker and Beall (1986). This form of expressive
writing is carried out in the form of a blog and pen and paper diary. The areas of general
health and its relation to technology, expressive writing, forums and internet-based research,
usage of blogs, the correlates of personality and its relation to technology, social anxiety and
its correlation with internet-usage and general well-being are outlined below to guide the
current research.
wide range of situations. There has been little research, however with regard to the specific
use of blogging and its use as a self-directed form of intervention for the general user. The
benefits, uses and issues related to expressive writing are discussed below. Pennebaker
(2004), Pennebaker and Chung (2007) discuss the various levels at which the expressive
writing paradigm works in terms of cognitive, emotional, social and biological factors that act
via a cascade of effects to improve health. Horowitz (2008) sees it as a low-risk modality
which has been shown to work successfully in various settings. As Lepore (1997) notes,
expressive writing doesn’t affect the frequency of intrusive thoughts but moderates the
between situational meaning and more global meanings, Park and Blumberg (2002) and can
al (1997) aiding physical and psychological health (Baikie & Wilhelm, 2005). Sloan and
Marx (2004) report that work is required to determine who written disclosure works for best
but research carried out by Batten, Follette et al (2002) on sexual abuse victims, Possemato
(2007) on kidney patients, Baikie (2008) on students high in Alexithymia and Nicholls (1998)
on optimistic students indicates that expressive writing has a wide range of potential
beneficiaries. Investigation has also been carried out that shows that certain population
samples such as Poets, Kaufman and Sexton (2006) and elderly, Weatherbee (2006) have
reduced benefit from such tasks. Physical health can be aided by expressive writing as noted
by Petrie, Booth and Pennebaker (1998), Symth (1998), and Sheese, Brown and Graziano,
functioning. Expressive writing can help patients to control pain, Graham, Lobal, Glass and
Lokshina (2008) decrease asthma symptoms, Warner, Lumley et al (2006), increase working
memory, Kleins and Boals (2001) and generally reduce health care utilisation. Frisina (2004)
carried out a meta-anaylsis of writing disclosure research and determined that health benefits
are more effective on physical than psychological health outcomes. However much research
has been carried out with regard to trauma patients such as Barton and Jackson (2008) with
regard to carers of psychotic patients, Synder, Gordon and Baucom (2004) in terms of
relationship trauma, Lange, van de Ven et al (2000), Deters and Range (2003) in terms of
post-traumatic stress disorder, giving clear indication that there are many psychological
benefits of the expressive writing protocol. The protocol has benefits in dealing with job loss,
Soper and Von Berger (2001), stress, Zabowski, Ramati et al (2004), chronic avoidance,
Swanbon, Boyce and Greenberg (2008), examinations, Lumley and Provenzano (2003) and
general upsetting events such as those detailed in Mosher and Danoff-burg (2006), Langens
and Schuler, (2007). Speaking of negative life events and greater brooding and rumination
Lyubomirsky, Sousa, Dickerhoof (2006) and Sloan, Marx, Epstein and Dobbs (2008). Graf
(2004), Graf, Gaudiano and Geller (2008) show that there is reduction in anxiety, depressive
with treatments and a decrease in stress symptoms. Finally expressive writing compares
favourably and surpasses other techniques such as relaxation training as discussed in Kraft,
Lumley, D’Souza and Dooley (2008). As alluded to in Kallay, Vaida, Borla and Opre (2008),
D’Souza, Lumley, Kraft and Dooley (2008) the expressive writing paradigm can be
combined with rational emotional behavioural therapy to benefit patients. Having reviewed
the main research in expressive writing it is clear that it is of benefit and is an applicable
The research review here takes the form of outlining the ways in which the internet and
forums in general have had a positive and negative affect on the physical and psychological
well-being of its users. This research is relevant to the current research as it raises issues with
regard to how technology should be used and how it differs from traditional face-to-face
communication, teaching and research as laid out in Smith (2001). According to Richards and
Tangney (2008) having access to health information in such a manner leads to disinhibition
from anonymity, a gateway path to further support and the ability to reach an audience who
ordinarily do not use face-to-face services. The goals if the internet has been posited in media
system dependency literature as understanding, orientation and play but Melton and Richards
(2007) have better identified them as information, communication, entertainment and news.
The web can and does play a part in promoting adoption of empirically supported treatments
and is specifically useful for practitioners who have inadequate time and resources for more
traditional forms of dissemination and training (Riley, Schumann et al, 2007). The use of
health social networks such as SEMO and Healtheva are becoming more popular with
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healthcare workers, but as Johnmar (2008) discusses social networking is preferred over
blogging as it is less time consuming. Leung (2008) points to commonly sought health
information that clusters online health improvement, medical treatment, family health and
health issues that are difficult to talk about face-to-face. There is a level of trust required in
availing of internet health advice and it must be backed up with visits to a health care
provider. Factors such as the level of internet usage, health status and demographics of the
patient also must be considered as researched by Hong (2008). The internet can be used as a
communication tool and the use of such in aiding mental health is not only the sole remit of
Rubins (2008) identified that even in those who perceived face-to-face communication as
rewarding that they use computer mediated communication for self-fulfilment and by
disclosing personal feelings online they felt closer to others. Fox Interactive Media (2007)
puts the term ‘never ending friending’ on the world of social blogging. It is a world where
frictionless attraction makes forging meaningful relationships easier and more rewarding and
across emotional attributes and value statements social network users report life is better than
without it. Ellison, Steinfeld and Lampe (2007) note a strong association between use of
Facebook and bridging social capital, psychological well-being with greater benefits for users
experiencing low self-esteem and low life satisfaction. Due to the dynamic and ever-shifting
nature of the internet there is an unprecedented ability to optimise and shift into the optimal
social groupings on an individual need (Rogers, 2007). Campbell, Cumming, Hughes (2006)
report that the internet is forum for expanding social networks, enhancing chance of
relationship found between time spent online and depression, anxiety or social fearfulness but
that the socially fearful may be using internet as form of low-risk social approach and an
opportunity to rehearse social behavior and communication skills which may help in offline
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face-to-face social environments. According to research put forward by Valkenburg and Peter
(2008) those who more often experimented with their identity on internet more often
communicated with people of different ages and cultural backgrounds. This had a positive
effect on social competence but did not affect their self-concept. Certain research such as that
by Suler (1996) discusses the computer as parent figure and gives credence to the concept of
transference with machine, an online other. Lear (2000) talks of the physical use of fingers
being closely related to discharge of impulses. It is clear according to Norcross, Hedges and
and that virtual therapy is set to flourish. Schoenberg, Ruwe, Dawson et al (2008) agrees and
cost.
Taking the research with regard to the internet and forums in general the benefits must
be related to specific groups of users who may or may not benefit. Research has been carried
out across a wide section of the population such as agoraphobic patients in a study by
Andersson, Carlbring and Grimlund (2008), stigmatizing diseases such as AIDS, alcoholism,
breast and prostate cancer by Davison, Pennebaker and Dickerson (2000), pathological
gamblers by Carlbring and Smit (2008), smoking cessation, cardiac, nutritional services by
(2005), family problem counseling by Wade, Carey and Wolfe (2006) and health education
internet treatment show the versatility and potential benefit of using internet based
intervention and Suler (2000), provides model exploring the communication features of
individual clients. Online therapy must be aware that some personality types can adversely be
more predisposed to use of the internet such as work carried out by Valkenburg and Peter
(2007) which supported the Rich-get-richer hypothesis where people low in dating anxiety
were more active online daters than people high in dating anxiety. Both Hung-Yi (2008) and
Buffardi and Campbell (2008) reported that high sensation seekers and narcissistic types were
more likely to engage in interpersonal deception and flagrant self-promotion. Kessler, Brown
and Klerman (1977) and Good and Wood (1995) identified that men tend to avoid seeking
help for depression. Nadler and Porat (1978) suggested that depressed men may prefer to get
help for problems through sources that preserve anonymity and more generally Chang, Yeh
and Krumboltz (2001) noted that men had a positive reaction to online support. Those that
have difficulty sharing emotions have positive reaction to online interaction according to
Rochlen, Land and Wong (2004). As Oravec (2000), states counselors should ensure that
clients are intellectually, emotionally and physically capable of using technology and care is
still has huge benefits. Looking at initial studies Kraut, Kiesler et al (2002) found that
loneliness and depression is correlated to internet use but there is a shift towards more
computer skill but with negatives of increases in stress, decline in lowered commitment to
locality and extraverts typically gaining more than introverts. The research deals
predominantly with users who have pre-existing conditions, or are dealing with specific
traumatic experience that has recently been caused. The current thesis will add to this body of
work by investigating how the benefits of such can be applied to the general population.
The many benefits of internet based communication and support require careful
planning and Chang and Yeh (2003), list some of the logistics of setting up an online group
such as determining the right and appropriate group members, the group format, the role of
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facilitator, and type of group whether open or closed. Murphy (2003) suggests that
developers of new products for technology aiding clinical work should accommodate to
rather than change the current structure of office-based psychology practice while
Castlenuovo, Gaggioli, Mantovani and Riva (2003) promote the integration of traditional and
new technology with emphasis placed on technical capacity, diagnostic accuracy, impact and
therapeutic impact assessment. Certainly as Carey, Wade and Wolfe (2008) report having
prior knowledge of technology increases the benefits of intervention via the internet and this
Blogging has roots in forums and internet communication but differs and as such
research in the area of blogging must be considered. Blogging is in the control of a single
user. A blog may solicit response from other users but it is ultimately a solitarily conceived
discourse. The use of blogging and more generally the internet as a form of therapy is not a
panacea and there are many inherent dangers. LaRose, Lin, Eastin (2003) in their analysis
demonstrated that depression and media habits formed to alleviate depressed moods but
undermined self-regulation and led to increased internet usage. Young (1999) put forward
occupational problems. Pathological internet use is determined via what applications are in
use, emotional triggers, maladaptive cognitions, and current or past life events. Warden,
Philips and Ogloff (2004) and Lee and Perry (2004) suggest that anonymity, disinhibition,
and underlying psychopathology are most likely elements involved in excessive use and that
preoccupation, and loss of control increases as self-regulation becomes more deficient with
high internet users. This negative addiction effects can be regulated and treated via ‘practice
the opposite’ techniques, external stoppers, goal setting, abstinence, reminder cards, personal
inventory, support groups, and family therapy. Bai and Fan (2007) postulate that group online
counseling can have an effect on internet-dependent college students. There are inherent
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dangers in using the internet and forums generally as a method of communication and Suler
(1998) outlines many deviance characteristics that can occur such as impostors, evangelisers,
depressives, bullying and so forth. Kraut, Patterson et al (1998) report that greater use of
internet was associated with declines in participants’ communication with family, declines in
size of social circle, increases in depression and loneliness. Ambriosio (2006) illustrated the
negatives of internet use for children with decline in social support, isolation, obesity, being
taught to lie, and facing relentless marketing. The use of the many varying communication
avenues available on the internet can be addictive and Van der Eijinden, Meerkerk et al
(2008) reported that instant messaging and chat rooms are positively related to compulsive
internet use 6 months later and instant messaging is positively related to depression. However
as Taylor (2000) states online therapy is here, convenient, cost-effective, has diverse clientele
ranging from resistant adolescents, isolated elderly to individuals who wish to hide their
addictions from others. This must be tempered with the query if it is avoiding real-world
problems by immersion in fantasy with a lack of physical contact preventing therapists from
assessing client decompensation and associated dangers. Online interactions provide social
support for isolated adolescents but they may also normalize and encourage self-injury
difficult without the benefit of paralinguistic cues such as gesture, emphasis, and intonation.
It can be difficult to convey emotion and people tend to believe they can communicate better
but this is born out of egocentrism, the inherent difficulty of detaching oneself from one’s
own perspective as reported by Kruger, Epley, Parker and Ng (2005). Wolak, Finkelhor and
Mitchell (2008) report that the population may use internet communication with little risk to
unwanted sexual solicitations although most at risk are rule-breaking behavior, depression
and social problems. Subrahmanyam and Greenfield report of sexual predation, racism, hate
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mail, bullying, and reinforcing of peer communication over parent communication as some of
may be used or misused. Blogging is open to miscommunication and Byron (2008) provides
a model of what factors make miscommunication in email most likely such as gender,
relationship length, relative status of sender, age, negativity affectivity of receiver, social
context factor, message factors such as verbal cues and emoticons, neutrality effect and
negativity effect, all of which can cause issues in the realm of blogging also. Kiesler, Siegel
and McGuire (1984) have shown difference in participation, decisions, and interaction among
communication inefficiencies. As Carrington (2009), states text is an artifact that encodes and
displays tensions, resistances, positioning and affinities of its producer and there is a need to
understand the role of textual practices in mediating changing conditions and to build this
knowledge into our literacy curricula and bring it to debates of ‘core’ literacy skills and
attitudes with specific regard to textual practices in blogging. In paying attention to the text
therapists can be watchful and aware of miscommunication. Derks, Fischer and Bos, (2008)
reports however that there is no indication that computer mediated communication is a less
any difference is found it is that computer mediated communication show more frequent and
correctly understand the level and direction of emotion, attitudes, and attention expression.
These quasi-nonverbal cues where measured by Lo (2008). Rochlen, Beretvas and Zack
(2004) report more favorable evaluations of face-to-face counseling than of online counseling
but work by Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, shows that interaction with strangers can relieve
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social anxiety, aid support, information gathering and cementing of current relationships.
Rules to blogging are required to retain cohesion in a community blog and are laid out by
Silva, Goel and Mousavidin (2008). Such cohesion can be brought about by explicit ground
net etiquette and tacit warrants for discerning pertinent posts. Frackiewicz, Taylor and House
(2008) note that throughout the lifespan there is a huge importance of relevant social support
and communication networks are one way of enhancing positive development of identity and
well-being.
Blogging has been compared in previous research to other types of intervention. This
research will only compare an on and off-line set of interventions in terms of diary and blog,
but it is worth noting that blogging has been compared to other traditional fact-to-face
therapy. Comparing blog intervention with other face-to-face interventions for the treatment
of panic disorder and agoraphobia Kiropoulos, Klein et al (2008) found that the online
intervention required significantly less therapist time but face-to-face enjoyed communication
more, complied with treatment and had increased understanding of material. Carlbring and
Andersson (2006), note that, as therapists are in short supply, internet delivered self-help
programs are of use in cognitive behavioral therapy, especially as the disorder means many
won’t seek therapy due to fear of leaving homes and travelling. Blogging has been of benefit
in terms of fertility as in Malik and Coulson (2008), violence and suicide, as in Clarke and
van Amerom (2008), management of diabetes, Barrera, Glasgow, McKay, Boles and Feil
(2002), coping with cancer, Zakowski, Ramati et al (2004) and suicide prevention (Armson,
1997).
personality traits. The following gives a brief synopsis of research with regard to anonymity
with online treatment. Blogging allows for anonymity and there are various positives and
16
negatives to having such visual anonymity. Qian and Scott (2007) found that increased visual
anonymity is not associated with greater self-disclosure while Tanis and Postmes (2008)
found that the absence of cues to personal identity resulted in more work satisfaction and
clueless dyads. Research carried out by Lee (2008) showed those with no identity cues were
more likely to factor in group identification for their conformity decisions. Christopherson
(2007) explains anonymity in internet social interactions using established social psychology
to blogging, the relationship between blogger and audience is real, as reported by Noguchi
(2005) but both shared and private disclosure result in less cognitive intrusion and avoidance.
interpersonal sensitivity and physical symptoms. Research carried out by Child (2008)
Motivation for the investigation and use of blogs is given here. Also importantly it must
be considered as what motivations lie behind an individual’s use of a blog. Blogging can be
used but as Chang and Wang (2008) found attitude and behavioral intention are directly
affected by users’ internal and external motivation, and are indirectly affected by interactivity
through the perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and flow experience and interactivity
is important for absorbing users. Ducate and Lomicka (2008), Schmitt, Dayanim and
Matthias (2008) and Papacharissi (2002) note that blog experimentation fosters ownership
environment with a window to wider culture. Baker and Moore (2008) found that intending
bloggers from mySpace scored higher on psychological distress, self-blame and venting and
17
scored lower on social integration and satisfaction with number of online and face-to-face
friends. They may view this activity as a potential mechanism for coping with distress in
situations in which they feel inadequately linked with social supports. Motivations for
reading and responding to blogs can be affective exchange, information search, entertainment
and getting on the bandwagon. Blogs influence opinion acceptance, interaction intentions and
word of mouth intentions (Huang, Chou & Lin, 2008). The reading and responding to
celebrity blogs allows emphatic interaction which aids ability to maintain preferred
representations of celebrity (Sanderson, 2008). Rosen (2007) and Li (2005) gives a detailed
list of motivations for use of a blog as informal learning of social norms, rules, how to
interact with others, narrative, personal, group history, media literacy, friendship
management and status seeking. For Molitorisz (2008) a blog can be seen as relieving
tension, gaining control and as a means of gaining a sense of resolution leading to less
rumination. Miller and Shepherd (2004) suggest that a blog is a widely shared recurrent need
at the cultivation and validation of self where that need is at the intersection of private and
public realms where questions about identity are most troubled. Motivation to continue
writing was researched by Miura and Yamashita (2007) where being satisfied with the
benefits to self, relationships with others, and skill in handling information had significant
positive effects on intention to continue blog writing and blogging self-efficacy as noted in
Liu (2008) had a positive effect on the benefits of blogging. It should be noted that Trammell,
Tarkowski, Hofmoki and Sapp (2006) found that self-expression is a primary motivation for
blog posts, more so than social interaction and in Tan (2008) there is an acknowledgement
that blogging acts as a form of self-therapy. As Hsu (2007) points out technology such as IM,
blogs, wikis, and podcasts are not only conversational technologies but educational and
expressive discourse online. There is a greater awareness of the positive role the internet can
18
play and the empowerment that can be achieved by technology (Amichai-Hamburger, 2008).
Kennedy and Alger espouse the value of blogs which offer the possibility of transforming
publishing and traditional media by forming a more personal and interactive experience
Ferrando (2003) has shown that the EPQ-R short form of the Eysenck and Eysenck
measure the personality traits of the experiment participants. The use of internet predicts
personality traits as reported by Ando and Sakamoto (2008) whereas Engelberg and Sjoberg
(2004) state that there is no linkage between internet use and personality. Gosling, Gaddis
and Vazire (2007) present research based on Facebook that shows consensus across the Big
Five personality domains, that is that it is a valid and relevant means of communicating
personality. Shyness is shown to be a predictor of internet use as seen in Chak and Leung
(2004), Yuen and Lavin (2004), but is contradicted by work by Goulet (2002) that reports
that there is no linkage between hours on the internet and shyness but that high internet
dependency is related to significant negative personality changes. Young and Rodgers (1998)
is clear that the internet can be used as a means of managing identity via dissociation,
integration and exploration of self (Suler, 2002). Guadagno, Okdie, Eno (2008) looked at
conscientiousness and if they predicted blogging. They found those high in neuroticism and
openness are likely to be bloggers giving clear indication that personality factors affect
language were found by Newman, Groom, Handelman and Pennebaker (2008) with women
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using words related to psychological and social processes while men used language with
regard to objects and impersonal discourse. However as Stefanone and Jang (2007) show age,
gender and education have no relationship to network size and blog content. Equally
Andersson, Linkoping, Carlbring and Grimlund (2008) reported that cognitive capacity was
not predictive of outcome in the internet group for treatment. This indicates that blogging and
Anonymity and the proposed correlate social anxiety will be investigated in this
research, both in terms of its affect of the use of blogging technology and the outcome of its
use. Written emotional expression can be an affective strategy to manage negative emotions
for individuals high in fear of rejection (Langens & Schuler 2005). This ties to social anxiety
with Schlenker and leary (1982), (1985), Zimbardo (1977) stating that concern for how one
Linkoping, Carlbring and Grimlund (2008) reported that anxiousness was seen to be
associated with poorer outcome for internet treatment but better outcome in face-to-face
treatment. The FNE measurement correlates moderately with measures of social anxiousness
such as SAD, interaction shyness, shyness and audience scales as reported in Jennings
(1985), Jones, Briggs and Smith (1986), Leary (1983d) and Watson and Friend (1969). FNE
has been used as an outcome measure in social anxiety treatment and as such is a valid
measure for use in the experiment (Collins, Westra, Dozois and Stewart, 2005).
The GWB measurement is one of the most useful instruments in measuring depression,
Fazio (1977) and Liu and Larose (2008) have identified that internet use, perceived online
social support and online social self-efficacy have direct positive impacts on school life
satisfaction which can be viewed as a causal mechanism that links life online to an indicator
of psychological well-being.
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Taking all the previous research outlined above and in conjunction with Fenichel,
Suler, Barak et al (2002) we can outline several myths of online clinical work which deal
with many of the criticisms of the barrier placed between therapist and client. These myths
also strongly relate to the aims of this research. Online therapy is possible and patients have
Online therapy does not only solely take the form of email exchanges but can and does make
use of text-based technologies, video conferencing, virtual reality, chat-room, forums and
blogs. Communicating via the internet offers a unique elasticity of communication and even
without literary sophistication a patient can be honest, uninhibited and more expressive,
whether than be with poem, songs, diary or blogs, in expressive writing than in face-to-face.
People in crisis tend to share their experience and feelings with anonymous partners on the
net and the internet can form an adjunct to more traditional treatments or as an introductory
intervention. Disparity in physical location or culture can be problematic but can be viewed
as a positive factor, allowing differing points of view to be heard and unique collaboration to
occur. Asynchronous communication can be used in affective manner allowing time for
Intervention can occur on a one-to-one basis, as part of a group or in both forms with
both therapist and patient benefiting from the interaction enabled by online therapy. It should
be noted though that the use of online technologies for communication and sharing should not
experience of client, tone and circumstance, abilities with regard to technology and typical
response rate of patients. The use of words, tact, diplomacy, amount of resources in terms of
time and technology, technological skill must be considered when dealing with online
client, loneliness and maintaining professional distance need careful attendance. It is new and
emerging form of treatment and research into the use of such is required. This thesis seeks to
The aim of this thesis is to investigate the effectiveness of maintaining a personal blog
to increase general well-being. Rochlen, Beretvas et al (2004) suggest that therapy delivered
via the internet is not as beneficial as face-to-face counselling and that internet use by the
socially fearful can lead to addiction rather than to therapy (Campbell, Cummings, Hughes
2006). This research will take the research outlined above and apply them to an intervention
blog experiment. This means of intervention will be compared to those writing a traditional
pen and paper diary and a control group that carries out no intervention. Aspects of
personality in terms of neurosis, extroversion and psychosis, using the EPQ-R will be
measured alongside general social anxiety, using the FNE metric. General internet usage will
also be measured. This will tie the research areas discussed earlier, namely general mental
health, expressive writing, forums, blogs and internet usage in psychological intervention,
personality and general well-being together to form several hypotheses. It will extend the
research already carried out in written emotional disclosure to the online world and will
attempt to bring evidence to bear on the benefits of such communication without the need for
strong social connection. The primary goal of the experiment is to show if, over a short
period of time, typically a week, using emotional disclosure via online blogging, there is an
associated effect on the general well-being of the participants. The mode of expression such
as in Corter, Petrie (2008) will be tied to the types of expression, such as in Swanbon, Boyce,
Greenberg (2008) to add to the current research in the area. It will newly extend the research
from written emotional disclosure to the online world and will bring evidence to bear on the
benefits of such communication for the individual without the need for strong social
connection. Chung and Pennebaker (2008) suggest that variation in spacing of expressive
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writing sessions has no aversive affect on the expressive writing protocol. A brief writing
session will be used which while being more emotionally demanding has comparable effects
on physical symptoms to longer term intervention. Emphasis will be placed on the anonymity
of the online blog in use. As Herring, Scheidt, Wright and Bonus (2005) report blogs are not
so interlinked, interactive nor orientated to external events as the internet in general is and are
conducted with the aim that it will show the benefits of the use of blogs as a form of private
self-directed therapy that can aid the mental health of internet users. It sets out to bring
evidence to bear which shows the internet is more than information and entertainment. While
as Litz (2008) suggests, studies downplay the role of human contact and that in an ideal
world there would be no barriers to care in terms of face-to-face therapy. More people will
receive the care they need via online or self-directed therapy and this experiment posits that
blogging can partially fill this gap in resources. Much work has been carried out as discussed
above to suggest that there is a negative effect on the psychological health of the population
in use of the internet and this thesis seeks to investigate this concept also.
The hypotheses under investigation can be set out in several component parts. These
1. There will be a significant difference between the GWB scores at time A as compared
neuroticism, GWB at time A, GWB at time B and FNE when compared according to
c. Age group, broken into age brackets of 5 years from 20 to 40 years of age.
related.
e. The amount of hours spent online for personal motives as broken down in 5
hour groupings.
f. The amount of hours spent online for work motives as broken down in 5 hour
groupings.
neuroticim, GWB at time A, GWB at time B and FNE and the following variables:
a. Experimental Group
b. Age
c. Sex
c. FNE scores.
5. There will be a significant correlation between GWB scores at time A and time B
a. And the percentage of the expressive writing content that is work related.
b. And the percentage of the expressive writing content that is personal related.
6. There will be a significant correlation between the FNE score and the GWB scores at
7. There will be a significant correlation between the GWB difference scores and
Method
The material and apparatus used were predominantly computer-based. All participants
were required to have access to a computer with an internet connection and web browsing
software. Communication was carried out via email and as such each participant required an
available email address for contact. The questionnaires were provided online using the
experiment required three groups, control, diary and blog, computer software was used to
randomly create unique usernames for each participant and to also randomly assign each
participant to one of the experimental groups. Those participants who formed the blogging
group were given further materials to aid in writing of their individual blogs. Each participant
in said group was provided with a unique username, email address and password which
allowed them to gain access to a pre-registered blog using the Blogger.comtm blogging tool.
Email addresses were created using the Gmailtm application. An explanatory website was also
set up and hosted to inform all blog participants of the minimal steps required to create a blog
entry with specific guidance in relation to the experiment. Those participants in the diary
group required pen and paper to carry out their diary entries. At each stage of the experiment
all groups received instructional emails detailing the various steps that were required at
Participants
the use of computers whether via work or personal usage. No specific age-group was
targeted. The control group consisted of 11 participants (n=11). The diary group consisted of
8 participants (n=8). The blog group consisted of 12 participants (n=12). There were 19 male
26
(n=19) and 12 female participants (n=12). Participant ages ranged from 23 to 36 years of age
with a mean age of 30.35 years of age (M=30.35, SD = of 3.241). All participants had
working knowledge of computers and all were members of at least one social networking site
Design
Participants were assigned to the three experimental groups using random computer-
initial questionnaire to gain baseline scale GWB scores using the short-scale version of the
measurement (Fazio, 1977), scale EPQ personality traits using the short-scale measurement,
which measure psychoticism, neuroticism and extroversion (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975),
ordinal and nominal demographic and internet usage details. This was followed by an
intervention experiment using independent groups and repeated measures using the
expressive writing protocol (Pennebaker & Beall, 1986). Upon completion of the intervention
a retrospective questionnaire was carried out to record post-intervention GWB, social anxiety
levels in terms of the FNE using the short-scale measurement (Watson, Friend, 1969, Collins,
Westra, Dozois & Stewart, 2005) and participants’ experience of the intervention. The quasi-
experimental design can be split into two main components. The initial study component will
Predictor Variables:
Personality EPQ score, FNE score, sex, age, Internet usage demographics.
Criterion Variables:
GWB score.
27
Independent Variables:
Sex, Age, Emotional Disclosure Style Group (Personal or Work), Internet usage
Dependent Variables:
GWB score.
Psychometric Measures
FNE (Watson and Friend, 1969, Leary, 1983a). The measure used was the short-scale
version with 12 items, answered on a 5 point scale, with totalled scores ranging from 12
to 60 with a higher score equating to high FNE. The Cronbach’s α coefficient is 0.9.
GWB (Fazio, 1977). The measure has 33 items, 14 with six response options, 4 with 0-10
rating bars and 15 self-evaluation behavioural items. Scale scores range from 14 to 134
(highest well-being) for the first 18 items. The Cronbach’s α coefficient is 0.86. Internal
consistency is medium with correlations ranging from 0.48 to 0.78. There are six
subscales of anxiety, depression, general health, vitality, positive well-being and self-
EPQ-R (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1975). The measure used was the short-scale version with
neuroticism (N), psychoticism (P) and the lie scale (L). It is scored on a Yes (1) / No (0)
format and possible scores can range between 0-12, with higher scores indicating higher
28
levels of the personality trait. Research using the scale has reported acceptable levels of
reliabilities from 0.78 to 87 for E, 0.79 to 0.81 for N, and 0.65 to 0.71 for P (Francis,
Procedure
The experiment was broken into several distinct phases. These were an initial invitation
to partake in the research, the setup and assignment of participants into separate experimental
instructions for the intervention based on the individual group and carrying out of the given
intervention. Finally instructions and carrying out of the post-intervention questionnaire took
place. Figure 1 illustrates the experiment broken into 6 distinct stages. These subsections of
Stage A: An initial invitational email was sent to a large group of potential participants
that gave brief details of the type of time commitment that would be involved and that the
experiment would take place via the internet. A time period for running of the experiment
was provided and closing date for participation in the study given.
Stage B: The potential participants who expressed interest in aiding in the research
were collected and randomly assigned via computer to one of three groups, namely: Control,
Blog or Diary groups. Each participant was also given a unique username to use in carrying
Stage C: Each of the groups were contacted via email and provided with unique
Each of these groups had a set of tasks to complete and as such each was given individual and
separate instructions in order to carry out the experiment. The procedure carried out for each
Control Group:
Stage D: The control group were then asked to wait approximately one week for
further instructions.
Diary Group:
Stage D: The diary group was then instructed to carry out an expressive writing task
over a week period taking at least three separate fifteen minute time periods to write a
personal diary on pen and paper. They were also informed that after a week period
Blog Group:
Stage C: The blog group were also provided with details of anonymous blogs that
were setup on their behalf at Blogger.com. A brief explanation in the usage of the
blogging site was also provided. They were given email addresses and passwords to
access the site. The email addresses and passwords were randomly assigned by
computer.
Stage D: The blog group was then instructed to carry out an expressive writing task
over a week period taking at least three separate fifteen minute time periods to write a
blog in their provided blogging space. They were also informed that after a week
Stage E: After a one week period all groups were contacted via email and asked to fill
further internet-usage questions, the GWB short Scale questionnaire and the FNE
31
Short Scale questionnaire. The blog group were also provided with instructions
Both the diary and blog groups were given identical expressive writing protocols bar
the mode of expression where the diary group were told to keep a personal diary and the blog
group was told to write in their provided online blog. The expressive writing protocol for
both was:
“After filling in this initial questionnaire I would like you to keep a (temporary offline
diary in pen and paper format), (an online blog). In keeping this diary / blog I would
like you to keep the following in mind.
For the next 6 days, I would like you to write your very deepest thoughts about your
life or an extremely important emotional issue that has affected you and your life. In
your writing, I'd like you to really let go and explore your deepest emotions and
thoughts. You might tie your topic to your relationships with others, including
parents, lovers, friends or relatives; to your past, your present your future; or to who
you have been, who you would like to be or who you are now; to important work or
personal issues in your life; goals and aims that you have succeeded in or want to
pursue; any topic that you have strong emotional connection with. There is no right
or wrong topic. You may write about the same general issues or experiences on all
days of your writing or about different topics each day. All of your writing will be
completely confidential.
I would like you to spend 15 minutes over 3 sessions writing this diary. Those
sessions can take place on any individual day you wish.
Don't worry about spelling, grammar or sentence structure. The only rule is that once
you begin writing, you continue until the time is up.”
Stage F: Upon completion of all questionnaires all groups were provided with details
of relevant organisations to contact if they were affected by any of the items discussed in the
online questionnaire. At the end of the experiment all groups were thanked for their
participation.
32
Data Analysis
The aims of this study were analysed through several statistical analysis. First
descriptive statistics were used to examine total mean scores and by the sex of the respondent
on all variables. Secondly several statistical tests were run to validate and ascertain whether
parametric or non-parametric tests should be run. A Cronbach Alpha test was run to
determine the validity and reliability of the instruments used. A Kolmogorov-Smirnov test
was used to test for normality and give indication of which further statistical tests should be
run. A parametric Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was run to compare 2 related data sets of
GWB scores across time A and time B and a non-parametric Paired t-test was also run to a
similar end. A non-parametric Mann Whitney U test was run to compare unrelated variables
in the experiment such as EPQ, type of written disclosure content and FNE. Similarly an
independent t-test for parametric distribution was run. A Kruskal-Wallis test was run to
compare across 3 or more conditions. A one way ANOVA was run to look at correlations
across several categorically independent variables. This allows analysis of the results as
divided up by several groupings such as age bracket, experimental group and so forth.
Correlation was used in the form of a parametric Pearson test and a non-parametric Spearman
Rho test to look at the association between various variables. Finally a Linear regression was
run to determine if there was a model of association between the variables under
measurement.
33
Results
Descriptives
There was a total sample size of 31 (N=31) with 19 males (n=19) and 12 females
(n=12). This population sample was split into three groups with 11 in the control group
(n=11), 8 in the diary group (n=8) and 12 in the blog group (n=12).
Several internet related demographic questions were asked. The frequency of responses
is provided. Firstly the participants were asked what type of activities they regularly carried
All participants use the internet for work and with the majority doing so for social interaction,
instant messaging and shopping. Secondly the participants were then asked; of the social
networking sites available which did they use on a regular basis (See Table 2). The table
Thirdly the participants were asked how many hours per week they use the internet for work
with a resultant average of 13.87 hours (Mean=13.87, SD=14.435). The participants were
also asked how many hours per week did they use the internet for personal activities and an
average of 11.23 hours a week was found (Mean=11.23, SD=7.8). The mean number of hours
using the internet for work is greater than for personal, suggesting the internet is
predominantly used as a tool of work rather than entertainment. There was a large variation in
the amount of time spent online for both work and personal.
Of those participants who took part in the experiment, 20 of the sample took part in the
expressive writing protocol while the remaining 11 formed the control. Of these 20 who
wrote a diary or blog, 12 wrote predominantly about personal issues, 2 wrote equally about
personal and work issues and 6 wrote predominantly about work issues. The average time
spent writing the diary or blog was 43.75 minutes (Mean=43.75, SD=16.212). Fourthly the
participants were asked about the content of their blogs. The average percentage of the
written assignment that was about work issues was 41.65 % (Mean=41.65, SD=28.046). The
average percentage of the written assignment that was about personal issues was 58.8 %
(Mean=58.8, SD=28.313).
Those who took part in the diary group were asked if they would write about the same
issues online as they had done in their pen and paper diary and 7 of the 8 said they would not
do so. The 20 participants who took part in the writing assignment were asked if they felt that
a social networking site was more revealing than their written intervention and 18 felt that the
35
intervention was much more revealing. As part of the GWB survey all 31 participants were
asked if they discussed problems with any member of their family or friends. 21 confirmed
that they did with varying levels of benefit, 3 stated they had no one to talk to, 4 stated they
didn’t want to talk and 3 stated they had no problems to talk about with others.
Table 3 gives the mean, Std. Deviation, Skewness and kurtosis of the EPQ, GWB and
FNE measues across the full sample. Looking at all variables the skewness and kurtosis close
to zero gives strong evidence that the data is normally distributed while larger skewness and
kurtosis suggests non-normal distribution. Looking at the average score for GWB across time
A and time B there is a decline in the average well being score of the participants. However
the standard deviation is quite large as a percentage of the average score at approximately
23% showing a wide range of values. There is slightly larger variance in scores at time A as
compared to time B for GWB scores also. The psychoticism score is low indicating low
psychoticism traits in the sample. The extroversion and neuroticism scores are slightly above
average. The mean FNE short scale has a maximum score of 60 and with a mean score of
38.9 indicates that the participants are only slightly more concerned with being evaluated
Table 4 reports the mean and std. deviation of scores across the main measures as split
by the sex of the participant. There is a difference of 6 marks between the GWB at time A for
males as compared to females. The score on the GWB at both time A and time B is higher for
Extroversion 7.26 8
Figure 2 shows the mean scores across the three groups and indicates that there is little
difference in scores between them. Only in GWB does the level of GWB increase from Blog
to Control to Diary but only relative to time A and time B within the individual groups.
50
40
30 CONTROL
20 DIARY
10
0 BLOG
A Cronbach Alpha test for reliability was run and a score of 0.822 was calculated and
as such indicates a reliable survey with answers that differ because respondents have different
opinions, not because the survey is confusing or has multiple interpretations. A Kolmogorov-
Smirnov test was also carried out to test normality of the distribution of the data. The test
returned a statistically significant result (Z=1.4071, 2-tailed, P < 0.05). This means the data
poorly fits the normal curve and the data is not normally distributed. Looking at the
significance on the main variables under measurement (Table 5), they return a non-significant
result suggesting that for these variables the data fits the normal curve and the data is
normally distributed. The data was found to have conflicting indicators of normality and as
such the assumptions of both parametric and non-parametric tests are unclear so it was
Differences Results
Figure 3 gives illustration of the differences in GWB score per participant. Statistical
80
70
60
50 SGWB
40 EGWB
30
20
10
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Participants
A parametric paired sample t-test was run comparing the difference between GWB at
time A with The GWB score at time B. (t(30) = 0.894, 2-tailed, p > 0.05). This shows there
is no statistically significant change in the GWB scores at time A as compared with time B,
that is the scores, per participant remain fairly stable from time A to time B after intervention
has occurred. The Pearson Correlation shows a score of 0.9352, p < 0.05, showing a large
positive correlation. This shows that the GWB score at time A and time B are consistent
A Wilcoxon signed rank test was carried out comparing the differences between
Negative Ranking of scores: 16, Positive Ranking of scores: 10, Ties in scores: 5.
Z=-1.0061, p=0.3144, 2-tailed, p > 0.05.
There is no statistically significant difference between the GWB score at time A and time B,
39
as was found with the paired sample t-test. There is a larger sum of negative ranks than
positive ranks suggesting that the GWB score for participants decreased rather than
increased. There are five ties in score suggesting the GWB score did not alter at all from time
A to time B. This does not indicate however if or in what metric the GWB of the participants
remained constant or changed across time. Comparison of the subscales of the GWB
measurement across time A and B gives a more in-depth analysis of the constancy of the
scores measured.
A paired sample t-test was run across the 6 subscales of the GWB measurement for
time A comparison to time B. The vitality (t(30) = 2.038, 2-tailed, p < 0.05) and positive
well-being (t(30) = 3.053, 2-tailed, p < 0.05) subscales are shown to have statistically
significant difference in scores between time A and time B with p < 0.05 for both. The other
subscale measures of anxiety, depression, self-control and general health did not significantly
differ from time A to time B (Table 6). A non-parametric Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was
also run against the 6 subscales of GWB across time A and time B with the only vitality
2-tailed, p < 0.05) was the only measurement to have a statistically significant difference
across sex with p < 0.05 with all other variables, extroversion, neuroticism, GWB at time A,
independent sample t-test was also run to compare variables under measurement according to
sex with all tests in agreement with the Mann Whitney U test.
measurement across the experimental groups of control, diary and blog. The results indicate
that neuroticism (ܺത(2) = 6.3144, p < 0.05), GWB at time A (ܺത(2) = 6.1919, p < 0.05) and
40
GWB at time B (ܺത(2) = 7.7489, p < 0.05) are statistically different when comparing each
individually across the three groups with p < 0.05. All other results for psychoticism,
extroversion and FNE were insignificant (Appendix A - Table 8). A one-way ANOVA was
run to compare means of variables grouped by the experimental group with all results in
A one way ANOVA was run to determine if there was a significant difference in
mean scores across the metrics under measurement in the experiment as grouped by whether
the blog / diary was predominantly about personal, both or work issues. It was found that for
all scored dependent variables, namely psychoticism, extroversion, neuroticism, GWB at time
A, B and FNE, there was no significant difference in scores when comparing the content of
An ANOVA was run to compare means of variables grouped by the amount of hours
spent using the internet for personal reasons grouped in 5 hour segments. There were no
significantly different average scores compared across these groups when looking at
psychoticism, neuroticism, extroversion, GWB at time A, GWB at time B, their six subscales,
An ANOVA was run to compare means of variables grouped by the amount of hours
spent using the internet for work reasons grouped in 5 hour segments. There were no
significantly different average scores compared across these groups when looking at
psychoticism, neuroticism, extroversion, GWB at time A, GWB at time B, their six subscales,
the difference in GWB between time A and time B and FNE. It was found that there is a
statistically significant difference in scores of general health (F(4) = 4.227, 2-tailed, p <
0.05) and vitality ( F(4) = 2.938, 2-tailed, p < 0.05) at time A between participants grouped
ages were split into groups of five year segments. There were no significantly different
average scores compared across age groups when looking at psychoticism, neuroticism,
extroversion, GWB at time A, GWB at time B, their six subscales, the difference in GWB
Correlation Results
were carried out in order to determine if there was any correlation between variables and if so
Pearson correlation tests were carried out to ascertain the strength of correlation
between the experimental group and various variables, namely psychoticism, extroversion,
neuroticism, GWB at time A, time B and FNE. It was found that there was no correlation
between the experimental group and the measures of EPQ, GWB at time A or time B and
FNE with P > 0.05 (Appendix A - Table 10). It was found that, like the Pearson correlation
results above there was no significant correlation between the experimental group and
Spearman Rho test but the Spearman Rho correlation does implies there is a significant
correlation between the experiment group and FNE (rho = 0.359, 2-tailed, p < 0.05).
The set of Pearson correlation tests carried out to ascertain the strength of correlation
between the age and various variables under test are presented below. The age groups were
set in blocks of 5 years from 20 to 40 years of age. It was found that there was no correlation
between the age group and the measures of EPQ, GWB at time A or time B and FNE with p
> 0.05 (Appendix A - Table 11). Similarly when running a non-parametric Spearman Rho test
it was found that there was no correlation between the age group and the measures of EPQ,
The set of Pearson correlation tests carried out to ascertain the strength of correlation
42
between the sex and various variables, namely psychoticism, extroversion, neuroticism,
GWB at time A, time B and FNE were run. It was found that there was no correlation
between sex and the measures of extroversion, neuroticism, GWB at time A or time B and
FNE with p > 0.05 (Appendix A - Table 12). There was a significant weak positive
correlation between sex and psychoticism (r = 0.097, 2-tailed, p < 0.05). When a Spearman
Rho test was run under the same conditions a significant negative medium correlation was
found between sex and psychoticism with P < 0.05. Similarly to the parametric correlation
results it was found that there was no correlation between the sex and the measures of
extroversion, neuroticism, GWB at time A or time B and FNE with P > 0.05.
The set of Pearson correlation tests carried out to ascertain the strength of
correlation between neuroticism and GWB at time A, time B and FNE. It was found that
there is a statistically significant strong negative correlation between neuroticism and GWB
at time A (r = -0.745, 2-tailed, p < 0.05) and time B (r = -0.7698, 2-tailed, p < 0.05), which
correlation between neuroticism and FNE (r = 0.597, 2-tailed, p < 0.05) meaning that as
neuroticism goes up so does FNE. The same findings were found when a Spearman Rho test
was run.
Pearson correlation tests were carried out to ascertain the strength of correlation
between psychoticism and GWB at time A, time B and FNE. It was found that there was no
correlation between psychoticism and GWB at time A, time B or with FNE as p > 0.05
(Appendix A - Table 13). Similar results were found when a non-parametric Spearman Rho
Pearson correlation tests carried out to ascertain the strength of correlation between
extroversion and GWB at time A, time B and FNE. It was found that there was no correlation
between extroversion and GWB at time A, time B or with FNE as p > 0.05 (Appendix A -
43
Table 14). Similar results were found when a non-parametric Spearman Rho test was run.
Pearson correlation tests were carried out to ascertain the strength of correlation
between the percentage about work issues and GWB at time A and B. It was found that there
was no correlation between the percentage of time spent online for work and GWB at time A
and time B as p > 0.05 (Appendix A - Table 15). Similar results were found when a non-
Pearson correlation tests were carried out to ascertain the strength of correlation
between the percentage about personal issues and GWB at time A and B. It was found that
there was no correlation between the percentage of time spent online for personal and GWB
at time A and time B as p > 0.05 (Appendix A - Table 16). Similar results were found when a
Pearson correlation tests were carried out to ascertain the strength of correlation
between FNE and GWB at times A and B. It was found that there is a significant negative
correlation between FNE and GWB at both time A (r = -0.432, 2-tailed, p < 0.05) and time B
(r = -0.386, 2-tailed, p < 0.05). This negative medium correlation means that as FNE
increases GWB decreases and vice versa. Similar results were found when a non-parametric
A parametric Pearson test was run to determine if there was any correlation between
EPQ and FNE scores and the difference in GWB scores from time A to time B. No
significant correlations were found (Appendix A - Table 17). Similar results were found
Multiple Regression
A hierarchical multiple regression using the enter method was run to model the value
of GWB at time B based on predictor variables of the amount of hours online for personal
motives, the amount of hours online for work, sex, extroversion, experimental group, whether
44
the participant used the internet for work, psychoticism, age, FNE, and neuroticism (F(11) =
4.402, p < 0.05). This statistically significant value means the variation explained by the
model is not due to chance. Looking at the coefficients for neuroticism it was found that β = -
0.721, p < 0.05. This gives a statistically significant predictor relationship between
A hierarchical multiple regression using the enter method was run to model the value
of GWB at time A based on predictor variables of the amount of hours online for personal
motives, the amount of hours online for work, sex, extroversion, experimental group, whether
the participant used the internet for work, psychoticism, age, FNE, and neuroticism (F(11) =
2.552, p > 0.05). This statistically insignificant value means the variation explained by the
Discussion
With regard to the hypothesis that there will be a significant difference between the
GWB scores at time A as compared with the GWB scores at time B it was found that the null
hypothesis could not be rejected, that is there was no significant difference found between
GWB scores pre and post intervention across the groups. GWB scores remained relatively
constant from time A to time B with minimal change. There was a slight insignificant
decrease in GWB at time B as compared with GWB at time A. When looking more closely at
the subscales of the GWB measurement it was found that the null hypothesis could not be
rejected. There was no significant difference between the subscale GWB scores of anxiety,
depression, self-control and general health and at time A with those respective scores at time
B. The null hypothesis could be rejected for vitality and positive well-being scores pre and
post intervention however. The subscale measurements provide only crude measurements
(Wan, 1977) and the results found here should be investigated with more specific metrics to
measure the two significant results. The GWB measurement may not have been sensitive
enough to pick up on positive or negative mean scores at time A as compared with time B.
The GWB scale has been noted to have excellent internal consistency but poor test-retest
reliability by Edwards (1978) but it was found in this experiment that across all participants
the GWB scores remained consistent across time. This would seem to agree with previous
work by Frisina (2004) and would suggest that physical rather than psychological measures
should be used.
The second hypothesis stated that there will be a significant difference in the scores of
psychoticism, extroversion, neuroticism, GWB at time A, GWB at time B and FNE when
compared across experimental group, either control, diary or blog. The null hypothesis could
not be rejected except in the case of GWB at time A, time B and neuroticism. There is a
46
significant difference between the scores of participants of the experimental groups in these
three cases. The alternate hypothesis that there is a significant difference in extroversion,
neuroticism, GWB at time A, time B and FNE when comparing across sex group of male or
female was rejected. However a significant difference was found between the sexes wit
regard to psychoticism. We failed to reject the null hypothesis with regard to the variables
measured and grouped by age. This would suggest that across the range of ages the
measurement scores were similar. This means mean personality traits do not vary across age
nor does FNE vary across age. This can be seen as a positive result as the youngest
participant had the same tendency to social anxiety as the eldest. Equally the fact that the
GWB scores at each age group did not significantly differ can be seen as positive in that the
GWB scores were relatively high meaning all participants felt in good health in the last
month and no one age group felt worse than the other. The null hypothesis was not rejected
with regard to the variables under measurement as compared across the content type of the
related. There is no significant difference across content type groups. The null hypothesis was
not rejected for the measured variables grouped by the amount of hours spent online for
personal motives and for the amount of hours spent online for work motives, both broken
down in 5 hour brackets. The alternate hypothesis that there is a significant difference
between the subscale scores of general health and vitality across the grouping according to
amount of time spent online for work was found. This differs from work such as that carried
out by Subrahmanyam and Lin (2007) where they found that with regard to internet use and
well-being neither the total amount of time online nor time on e-mail was related.
The third alternate hypothesis stated that there will be a significant correlation
and FNE and the experimental group, age and sex. The null hypothesis could not be rejected
47
for the variables across experimental group, age and sex apart from a correlation between sex
and psychoticism. This result adds strength to the already discussed analysis that there is a
significant difference in the psychoticism across males and females. There is a weak positive
correlation between the sex of participant and psychoticism. This means that for males
psychoticism weakly reduces as compared to females. This result may be of importance and a
new finding with regard to explanation that males in previous research have responded more
positively to online therapy. Sex of the participant has been indicated as an important factor
in the success of intervention in research such as Rochlen, Land and Wong (2004) and Good
and Wood (1995) but they tended to explain benefits in terms of the freeing of the repressive
The fourth hypothesis stated that there will be a significant correlation between
psychoticism, extroversion, neuroticism and GWB scores at time A, time B and FNE scores.
The null hypothesis could not be rejected with regard to psychoticism and extroversion. The
alternate hypothesis held for neuroticism with a strong negative correlation between
neuroticism and GWB. As neuroticism decreased the GWB score can be said to be
statistically more likely to increase and as it increases the GWB score can be said to be
statistically more likely to decrease. The alternate hypothesis also held for FNE and
neuroticism with a positive medium correlation between the two variables. As neuroticism
increases so does statistical likelihood of the FNE score increasing. This agrees with findings
made by Buffardi and Campbell (2008) in relation to personality types that partake in online
social communication.
The fifth alternate hypothesis stated that there will be a significant correlation
between GWB scores at time A and time B with the percentage of the expressive writing
content that is work related and personal related. The null hypothesis could not be rejected
and there was no significant correlation. This could be viewed as the content of the blog or
48
diary does not affect the outcome but rather the act of doing the task is most pertinent or that
in the case of research carried out by Lyubomirsky, Sousa and Dickerhoof (2006), that it is
the fact of whether the content expressed is positive or negative rather than the specific topic
than is of most importance. This experiment could be extended to determine whether people
who write negative or positive blogs have increased life satisfaction and general health. The
findings need further investigation with regard to work by Corey, Wade and Wolfe (2008)
that looks at prior knowledge of the internet as playing a large factor in the benefit of online
therapy.
The sixth hypothesis stated that there will be a significant correlation between the
FNE score and the GWB scores at time A and time B. The null hypothesis can be rejected as
it was found that there is a significant negative medium correlation between the variables. As
FNE increases so the GWB score is more statistically likely to decrease and vice versa.
Compared to people who score low on the FNE scale, high scorers are more concerned with
being evaluated, report being more bothered by performing poorly and are more motivated to
perform well (Leary, Barnes & Griebel 1986). FNE relates to other social anxiety
measurements also (Jennings, 1985, Jones, Briggs & Smith, 1986, Leary, 1983d and Watson
& Friend, 1969) and indicates that general social anxiety is not a positive influence on
general health.
The final alternate hypothesis stated that there will be a significant correlation
between the GWB difference scores and psychoticism, neuroticism, extroversion and FNE
scores. It was found that the null hypothesis could not be rejected. There was no correlation
between the positive or negative difference in GWB score in conjunction with the personality
writing protocol on the GWB of the sample population. Neurotics report many worries,
anxieties, and irritating emotional feelings. They may develop neurotic disorders when under
stress, which fall short of actual neurotic collapses. They may be the most beneficial users of
blogging and social networking in general. Work such as that by Young and Rodgers (1998)
and Lee, Han, Yang and Daniels (2008) that reports that excessive internet use has been
linked to depression in patients and this work could be extended to further investigate the
types of blogging user and the correlates, if any, with specific usage of the internet such as
blogging.
Several demographic and usage questions were answered by the participants. The
usage of social networking sites is linked to the age group of the sample. With an average age
of 30.35 years sites such as Facebook have a higher age profile than Bebo for example.
Research could be carried out to investigate the difference in traits with regard to personality,
communication style, mental and physical health across these major different social
networks. The amount of time spent online for work was greater than for personal reasons,
again a factor of the higher age group. This could be a contributing factor to the insignificant
difference in time spent online and GWB. Research could be carried out to look across all
developmental stages from the play years through emergent adulthood through to late
adulthood looking specifically at the use of technology and its impact on the mental health of
the population. There is an opportunity to make a comparative analysis of the mental health
of those who have spent the majority of their life without technology in a specific culture
with those of a younger generation in the same culture who have technology intertwined
The question was put forth to the participants as to whether they perceived blogging
as more or less revealing than social networking sites. People in the vast majority stated that
50
they felt blogs were far more revealing. Blogs as compared to social networking sites are not
individualistic, intimate forms of self-expression (Herring, Scheidt, Wright & Bonus, 2005).
imagination, and privacy on the internet (Suler, 2004). The participants’ response certainly
agrees with research carried out by Qian and Scott (2007) where increased visual anonymity
is not associated with greater self-disclosure. It would be interesting to measure this fear of
personality quizzes, intelligence tests and so forth on the social networking sites. Further
work supporting the concepts put forward by Rosen (2007) and Buffardi and Campbell
(2008) regarding narcissism and self-promoting content online and people’s attitude to
Widyanto and McMurran (2004) have shown the validity of the Internet Addiction
Test as put forth by Young (1996). Byun, Ruffini, et al (2008) however, they note that there
than confirmatory data analysis investigating degree of association rather than causal
relationships among variables. This is an area of research that could be tied to further analysis
of the use of blogs and social networks. This thesis found that there is a significant difference
in general health and vitality compared across the amount of hours spent online for work and
further experimentation could be designed to see whether there is a positive or negative effect
correlated with productivity, motivation and other measurements of mental and physical
The experiment makes use of an online internet survey tool called SurveyMonkey.
Buchanan, (2000) and Skitka and Sargis (2005) detail the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of
the using such an internet survey but as Schmidt (1997), Birnbaum (2001) and Kraut (2004)
state we must be careful that selection bias has not occurred. Due to the online and distance-
based nature of email communication there was no easy way to determine if respondents
understood clearly the instructions and guidelines provided (Kraut, 2004). Furthermore
participants may have carried out the experiment under less than ideal conditions such as
Skitka and Sargis (2005) outline such as participating in collusion with others, under
distracting conditions or without spending the suggested 15 minute period on carrying out the
expressive writing protocol. As the experiment took place solely over the internet and
instructions were given out via email as Corter and Petrie (2008) note the confessional setting
writing as participants attribute the intimacy of their disclosures to the setting in which they
write. This research would suggest that for further research instructions should be made in
person to give more weight and emphasis on the use of expressive writing. The instructions
provided could be more narrowly defined and Sloan, Marx and Epstein (2005) found that
written disclosure with instructions to write about the same traumatic event over time, a
different traumatic event or non-traumatic event had most benefit not from what the
disclosure was about but rather that the writing was about a single event.
The instructions about blogging required the participants to purely use text in their
blogs. Blogging allows for the use of many different types of media and an experiment could
be designed following the model laid out here to look at the effectiveness of different media
types in expression, communication and therapy. The experiment made no analysis of the
content in the diaries and blogs other than obtaining a general percentage of content type in
terms of two narrow areas of work and / or personal content. Further research can be carried
52
out with regard to the content of the blogs and online forums in use today, Taylor (2007)
looked at the value of narrative and computational linguistics, content and style and
video coding, human text coding and automated text coding provided consistent estimates of
the level of emotional expression in breast cancer support groups and found that human text-
compared with video coding. Rude, Gortner and Pennebaker (2004) made text analysis of
content written by a depressed sample and found more negatively valence words and the
word ‘I’ more often. Work such as this could be extended into and applied directly to the
Future work extending this thesis could take the form of investigating the benefits of
audience or to the general population as a whole. This could be compared with having a
presence on social networking sites such as LinkedIn which have a strong emphasis on
benefits of blogging as a dialogue versus blogging as a form of insular reflection. The use and
effectiveness of communicating with disaffected youth via the internet or the use of the
interactive elements of the web in terms of drawing, colors, sounds, video as a means of play
therapy could be investigated also. Moreover the different forms of social communication
that occur online could be investigated and the correlates of personality and mental health
examined. This would take the form of forums, which are based on equality of users, blogs
which are akin to a keynote speech with a single blogger at the helm and social networks
Mora, Nevid and Chaplin (2008) report that psychologists were sent out a survey to
endorse email, individual chat, group chat and video conferencing. Those psychologists
psychoanalytical-orientated practitioners. Care must be taken to not frustrate and inhibit the
work of therapists but Johnmar (2008) has suggested that physicians have growing frustration
with internet empowered patients, with a wealth of information but a lack of expertise to
interpret and apply it correctly. The research undertaken related to the general population and
did not pre-screen participants prior to intervention, other than access and basic knowledge of
the internet. As Oravec (2000) points out counselors should ensure that clients are
intellectually, emotionally and physically capable of using technology. It was also noted that
related symptomatology according to Ybarra and Eaton, (2005) but more work is required in
child disorders. The research carried out here could be directed towards a younger population
to ascertain how age factors into the use of blogging as an effective intervention.
Taking the results as analysed above and applying them to the hypotheses put forward
in this research it was found that in the majority no significant relationship could be found
between the intervention undertaken and the GWB measurement pre and post experiment.
However there is merit in this result as it adds to the extensive research already carried out in
expressive writing and online therapy and puts forth that for a stable population with average
extroversion, neuroticism scores, low psychoticism scores and average FNE scores blogging
does not positively or importantly negatively affect the GWB of that sample population. The
aim of the research was to relate EPQ, FNE and the expressive writing protocol and to
determine if there is any effect on the GWB scores of the sample population. This has been
54
achieved. The internet is seen as a source of health information, social support, subjective
health and a critical tool for health promotion and prevention as investigated by Crutzen,
Nooijer, et al (2008) and Wangberg, Andreassen et al (2008). This research has sought to
investigate if blogging can work as part of the online set of tools for health prevention.
55
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Appendix A
Table 5 – Normality using Kolmogorov-Smirnov
Variable Result
Psychoticism Z=0.794, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
Extroversion Z=0.906, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
Neuroticism Z=0.723, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
GWB at time A Z=0.441, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
GWB at time B Z=0.610, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
FNE Z=0.737, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
Table 6 - Paired Sample t-test for Subscales of GWB measurement for time A vs. time B.
Variable Result
Anxiety t(30)=0.500, 2-tailed, p > 0.05.
Depression t(30)=-0.407, 2-tailed, p > 0.05.
Self-Control t(30)=-1.524, 2-tailed, p > 0.05.
General Health t(30)=-0.078, 2-tailed, p > 0.05.
Table 7 - Mann Whitney to compare variables under measurement according to differences in sex.
Variable Result
Extroversion Z=-0.244, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
Neuroticism Z=-1.447, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
GWB at time A Z=--0.750, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
GWB at time B Z=--0.649, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
FNE Z=--0.101, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
Table 8 - Kruskal-Wallis to compare vars across the experimental groups of control, diary and blog.
Variable Result
Psychoticism ܺത(2) =3.0339, p > 0.05
Extroversion ܺത(2) = 0.6813, p > 0.05
FNE ܺത(2) = 4.091,p > 0.05
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Table 9 - ANOVA- mean scores differences grouped by personal, both or work issues.
Variable Result
Psychoticism F(2) = 1.896, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
Extroversion F(2) = 0.857, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
Neurosticism F(2) = 0.306, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
GWB at time A F(2) = 0.228, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
GWB at time B F(2) = 0.624, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
FNE F(2) = 0.879, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
Table 10 - Pearson correlation - strength of correlation between the experimental group and variables
Variable Result
Psychoticism r = -0.297, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
Extroversion r = 0.024, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
Neurosticism r = 0.328, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
GWB at time A r = -0.241, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
GWB at time B r = -0.243, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
FNE r = 0.055, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
Table 11 - Pearson correlation strength of correlation between the age and variables
Variable Result
Psychoticism r = -0.048, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
Extroversion r = 0.138, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
Neurosticism r = -0.047, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
GWB at time A r = 0.040, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
GWB at time B r = 0.036, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
FNE r = -0.012, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
Table 12 - Pearson correlation strength of correlation between the sex and variables
Variable Result
Extroversion r =0.094, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
Neurosticism r =0.270, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
GWB at time A r =-0.177, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
GWB at time B r =-0.127, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
FNE r =0.030, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
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Table 13 - Pearson correlation tests strength of correlation between psychoticism and variables
Variable Result
GWB at time A r =0.197, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
GWB at time B r =0.199, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
FNE r =-0.328, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
Variable Result
GWB at time A r =0.237, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
GWB at time B r =0.169, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
FNE r =-0.317, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
Table 15 - Pearson correlation strength of correlation between the percentage about work issues
Variable Result
GWB at time A r =-0.181, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
GWB at time B r =-0.285, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
Table 16 - Pearson correlation strength of correlation between the percentage about personal issues
Variable Result
GWB at time A r =0.145, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
GWB at time B r =0.267, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
Table 17 - Pearson correlation between EPQ and FNE and the difference in GWB time A to time B
Variable Result
Psychoticism r =-0.420, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
Extroversion r = 0.146, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
Neuroticism r = 0.207, 2-tailed, p > 0.05
FNE r = -0.049, 2-tailed, p > 0.05