Directed diary keeping is an important method of gathering data for various therapeutic and research purposes. Little information, however, has been collected on spontaneously kept diaries. A questionnaire relating to personal diary keeping and five personality inventories were administered to 101 undergraduates. Analysis suggested that women keep diaries more often and at an earlier age than men. Also, information regarding diary content and reasons for starting and stopping a diary are discussed. Surprisingly, scores on personality inventories were not significantly different for respondents who had kept a diary than scores for those who had not.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BeckA. T.EpsteinN.HarrisonR. P.EmeryG. (1983) Development of the Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale: a measure of personality factors in psychopathology. (Unpublished manuscript, Univer. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia)
2.
BeckA. T.SteinD. (1961) Development of self-concept test. (Unpublished manuscript, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Center for Cognitive Therapy, Philadelphia)
3.
CattellR. B.EberH. W.TatsuokaM. M. (1970) Handbook for the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF). Champaign, IL: IPAT.
4.
DowdE. T.MilneC. R.WiseS. L. (1984) The therapeutic reactant scale: development and reliability. Paper presented at the American Psychological Association Convention, Toronto.
5.
HienzeC. (1987) Gaining insight through “journalizing.”Academic Therapy, 22, 489–495.
6.
NeumannJ. K. (1985) Diary writing as a means to increased self-evaluation. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 2, 221–223.
7.
PersingerM. A. (1984) People who report religious experiences may also display enhanced temporal-lobe signs. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 58, 963–975.
8.
RotterJ. B. (1966) Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 80, No. 1 (Whole No. 609).
9.
ThompsonC. P. (1982) Diary-keeping as a sex role behavior. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 20, 11–13.
