Abstract
The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of the expressive writing protocol (Pennebaker & BeaU, 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.
