The role of expressive writing in ego identity formation.

Abstract

Two studies were conducted to assess the relationship between expressive writing and ego identity development in college students. In both studies, poetry writers were more likely than students not writing poetry to be in the identity achievement status. Poetry writers were less frequently found in the foreclosure status (Study 1) and identity diffusion status (Study 2). No differences in identity development were found between students keeping personal journals and those who had not kept journals. Two studies were conducted to assess the relationship between expressive writing and ego identity development. It is likely that expressive writing on the part of adolescents and youths is begun in response to the psychological turmoil of an ongoing identity crisis. Such writing can serve both to clarify what is taking place and to aid in the exploration of possible resolutions. Bios (1962) theorized that expressive writing can serve as a means of preventing premature heterosexual acting out by permitting experimentation with instinctual forces on a fantasy level. Extending this point, expressive writing may serve as a means by which the person can test out a wide variety of possible identity elements at the level of imagination prior to, or instead of, acting them out on a behavioral level. Such a cognitive testing procedure is very likely to help the person eliminate unpromising alternatives earlier than might otherwise have been the case. Correspondingly, the person may be somewhat more advanced when behaviorally trying the more promising possibilities. If expressive writing serves the function of aiding in the establishing of a meaningful identity, then individuals engaged in such writing should be more frequently found in the identity statuses characterized by past or present identity crises, that is, the identity achievement and moratorium statuses, respectively. Students not engaged in expressive writing would be expected to be