Effects of Journaling Round Two

On the previous blog period I had posted a blog on the effects of journaling.  Thinking more about my prior blog made me want to elaborate on this topic and delve deeper into positive and negative effects of this hobby.

People journaling to have a safe place to write down their thoughts, or ideas in a small book or notepad for themselves.  imgres

 

 

 

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My question from my previous blog still stands; can journaling be a easy way to positively impact ones life?

Journaling provides a great number of benefits to many individuals.  This includes:

  • reduced stress
  • heals past experiences
  • strengthens self worth
  • positive emotional effects
  • higher academic achievement

A study was conducted by Jean Harchelroad at the Pennsylvania State University, to test the effects of journal writing in a mathematics class.  Their were two groups, a control group who did math practice problems at the end of class and the treatment group who journaled at the end of class about new concepts they learned in class that day.  It was discovered that the control group did better on understanding math concepts over the group that journaled.  This study was a double-blind placebo trial in that neither the participants or the the conductor of the study knew what the results would entail. Due to this being a randomized trial, the idea of third variables is not possible, so not outside factors could have effected this study. Another study was conducted on two groups of college students who were told to journal weekly where “one class received targeted information on cognitive-behavioral therapy and one class did not.”  Cognitive-behavioral therapy, CBT, is “goal-oriented psychotherapy treatment” that uses a direct approach for conclusive findings.  Journaling about their personal lives, is the variable being tested in this experiment. Both groups then took self-efficiency tests and it was concluded that the scores for the group that journaled greatly increased.  Both the methods for each study are experimental in that the students are taking an action for a resultant to come out of the situation.

Ones mental heath has also been deemed to benefit from the act of journaling.  A New Zealand researcher conducted his own study and found out that after individuals went through a traumatic experience in their life and then decided to write down their feelings about the occurrence, actually helped those individuals emotional heal faster.  It is unknown though from this study the time frame it would in fact take to actually see the positive results.

 

 

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In my other blog about journaling I wrote about how students “self-reported” data about journaling after they went through a traumatic experience.  At that time I was unable to come up with a solid conclusion due to the fact that it was a self reported experiment rather than one with a hypothesis and included variables. I dug a little deeper and found out a book called : The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions, was written all about how journaling helped people after trama.  The books talks about many studies that were conducted about this topic and how it led people to live a happier fuller life after a tear shedding experience.  Experimental and observational studies were conducted which I believe have reliable background information.

After looking a second time into the ideas and benefits behind journaling, I can say that is no true conclusion if journaling if 100% effective or not.  The research out there has definitely used and experimented using solid methods and coming up with concrete information, but there is still information out there that contradicts the other. This information would have to include more in depth studies about journaling, possibly taking two groups testing their mental state prior and post journaling and have one control group who does not journal and another that does the journaling.  At this point, I think that journaling can have a beneficial effect on people whether its on academic performance, or mental health.  One should try keeping a journal and see if it makes a positive impact on there life over a period of time.

 

2 thoughts on “Effects of Journaling Round Two

  1. Claire E Going

    Hi Elyssa,

    From personal experience, I believe that journaling is really good for one’s mental health and helps me greatly academically. I feel like I am able to get things out of my head when I write it down, which clears my mind and makes room to focus on other, more important things, like school. Also, practicing writing, especially journaling, is beneficial because the more you practice the better of a writer you’ll be, and the better you’ll be able to communicate to others which is crucial. From this blog I found that you are able to solve problems more efficiently and resolve disagreements with others through knowing yourself better. Similar to what you found, I also found that journaling helps to reduce stress. Journalism is something I take part in every day and can be very beneficial to college students!

  2. Victoria Anne Rooney

    Cool topic. I always like to come up with my own methods or habits to stay mentally on-task or organized in an academic fashion. I have a friend who intensely journals (written diary and all) and I believe that it helps her reminisce on past memories of her life but also physically express her emotions through the art of writing. I think there can be different forms of journaling. For example, I do not keep a diary of any sort however, I do like to write down each of my homework assignments and “Things To Do” for each day on an open note pad just so i can conveniently glance at it several times a day but I like to write it down just so the tasks are solidified in my mind thus forcing me to prioritize them. Not sure if that is exactly the form of “journaling” you are referring to but I certainly think it could relate. Anyway, I liked this topic and also liked how you continued it from a previous blog post from blog period 1.

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