The Effect of Disclosure, via Blogging, On the General Well-Being, Personality and Social Anxiety
of Internet Users. - Alan Cummins Supervisor: Dr. C. McLaughlin
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).
The independent variables of Sex, Age, Emotional Disclosure Style Group
(Personal / 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 signif diff 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.
Introduction - Hypothesis
Pennebaker & Chung (2004) have shown expressive writing paradigm to
work in terms of cognitive, emotional, social and biological factors acting
in cascade improve health. Horowitz (2008) shows it as a low risk modality
shown to work in various settings. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the
effectiveness of maintaining a personal blog to increase general well-being.
The alternate hypothesis state that there will be:
1. A signif diff between the GWB scores at time A as compared with the
GWB scores at time B.
2. A signif diff in the scores of EPQ, GWB at time A, B and FNE when
compared according to experimental, sex, age, content type, hours
online groupings.
3. A signif correlation between scores of EPQ, GWB at time A, B and FNE
and the experimental, age and sex group.
4. A signif correlation between EPQ and GWB scores at time A, B, FNE
scores.
5. A signif correlation between GWB scores at time A , B and the % of the
content that is work related or personal related.
6. A signif correlation between the FNE score and the GWB scores at time
A, B.
7. A signif correlation between the GWB diff scores and EPQ and FNE
scores.
Method – Design
Participants were assigned to the 3 groups with random assignment.
Experiment made use of a quasi-experimental design with independent
groups and repeated measures .
Predictor Var: EPQ, FNE score, sex, age, Net usage demographics.
Criterion Var: GWB score.
The experimental component measure the strength of relationship :
Independent Var: Sex, Age, Emotional Disclosure Style Group (Personal /
Work), Internet usage demographics, Intervention Type (Control, Blog, Diary)
Dependent Var: GWB score.
Method - Procedure
Results
Descriptives: 31 total participants (N=31)., control: 11 (n=11)., diary: 8
(n=8). blog : 12 (n=12). 19 male (n=19) and 12 female (n=12). Ages ranged
from 23 to 36 yrs, mean age of 30.35 yrs (M=30.35, SD = of 3.241). Used Net
- Work: 13.87 hrs - Personal: 11.23 hrs
Difference: GWB at time A compared to time B:
Wilcoxon: Against GWB score: Z=-1.006, 2-tailed, P > 0.05.
Paired Sample t-test : Against subscale:
Vitality: t(30)=2.038 2-tailed, P < 0.05.
Positive Well-Being: t(30) =3.053, 2-tailed, P < 0.01.
Correlation: Spearman Rho:
Neuroticism, GWB at time A: r = -0.745, 2-tailed, P < 0.05.
Neurotsim, GWB at time B: r = -0.769, 2-tailed, P < 0.05.
Neuroticism and FNE: r = 0.597, 2-tailed, P < 0.05.
FNE and GWB at time A: r = -0.489, 2-tailed, P < 0.05.
FNE and GWB at time B: r= -0.431, 2-tailed, P < 0.05.
Sex and Psychotisim: r = -0.385, 2-tailed, P < 0.05.
Discussion
1. It was found that the null hypothesis could not be rejected. The null
hypothesis could be rejected for vitality and positive well-being scores
pre and post intervention. 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.
2. The null hypothesis could not be rejected except in the case of GWB at
time A, time B and neuroticism.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. 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. There is no
significant difference across content type groups or across the amount
of hours spent online for personal motives / work
3. The null hypothesis could not be rejected for the variables across
experimental group, age and sex apart from a correlation between sex
and psychoticism.
4. The alternate hypothesis held for neuroticism with a strong negative
correlation between neuroticism and GWB., for FNE and neuroticism
with a positive medium correlation.
5. The null hypothesis could not be rejected and there was no significant
correlation.
6. The null hypothesis can be rejected as it was found that there is a
significant negative medium correlation between the variables.
7. It was found that the null hypothesis could not be rejected.
Future Work: Internet Addiction Correlates, form of expression beyond
text such as pictorial, audio, Text analysis of blog content, blogging in
isolation vs. in-group,. Social network vs. blogging s. forums.
Conclusion: Found that in the majority no signif relationship could be
found between the intervention undertaken and the GWB measurement pre
and post experiment. Puts forth that for a stable population with average E,
N, low P scores and avg FNE scores blogging does not positively or
importantly negatively affect the GWB of that sample population.
References
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