A look at my study of personal development in structured writing groups. An interdisciplinary work in progress at the university of York. I welcome comments from those who facilitate writing groups for health, wellbeing and education. http://writeingroups.blogspot.com/

1. Personal Development in Structured
Writing Groups
an interdisciplinary study by Channa
Cune
English and related literature &
Health Sciences (UoY)
write.ingroup@gmail.com

4. culture
holistic view
individual
group
community
language

5. location of the study
in Berkman’s model of social networks impacting health
(2000)
Social-
structural
conditions
MACRO
Social Networks
MEZZO
Psychosocial
mechanisms
MICRO
Pathways
UPSTREAM DOWNSTREAM
condition the extent
shape and nature of >
which provides
opportunities for >
which impact health
through >
Berkman, Lisa, et al., “From Social Integration to Health: Durkheim in the New Millenium.” Social Science and Medicine 51 (2000): 843-57

6. What I hope to find
• signs of ‘personal development’ in written and
spoken expressions of participants.
evidence for p.d. is increased flexibility + stable or
increased Sense of Coherence.
Why ?
• Flexibility + SoC improve coping with life
and (mental) health.
• Writing groups are a cost-effective activity
with community benefits beyond the personal.

7. Longitudinal data
start of group 12 weekly sessions group evaluation
on last session
6 month
follow up
1. Biog.questionnaire
2. SoC questionnaire
3. My World and I today
4. Sample of writing
1. structured writing
exercises
2. written feedback
3. sharing +discussion
4. oral feedback
1. written evaluations
2. SoC questionnaire
3. My World and I today
4. Recorded group
discussion
5. Booklet of writings
1. Interview by
outsider
2. SoC quest
3. My World and I
Mix of self report (e.g. the questionnaires) and behavioural data (the writings and drawings)
Mix of qualitative and quantitative options for analysis

8. Sense of Coherence is:
• based on Salutogenic Model (Antonovsky, 1979)
A measure of the relationship between health, stress and coping
Construed of:
Manageability
Comprehensibility
Meaningfulness
• Questionnaire (short form) yields a single SoC score between 13-91
In this study scores range between 41 - 86
Participants complete this Q. 3 times: start – end – 6 months, thus showing a
trajectory of three scores for a period of nine month total.

9. quantitative examples of interim
results
Sense of Coherence Scale (Antonovsky 1987) shows a significant increase
from pre-test to 6 months follow-up.
Surprising, as earlier research points to the relative stability of SoC in adults over 30.
The relative use of multiple pronouns and other textual markers of a more flexible view
of the world expected to have gradually increased.
Computer analysis of all texts awaits doing… (using LIWC, by Pennebaker, 2007)
Themes of different perspectives, sensory specificity, option-thinking expected to have
gradually increased in the writing.
Thematic content analysis awaits doing…(using my head and my definitions)

10. Personal Development is
not defined in the literature in an agreed form
my definition
• Perceivable change towards sustained flexibility in
behaviour, cognition, emotion, coping skills,
(inter)personal communication, occurring in a person.
I use theoretical concepts that I can observe in the materials
produced in the writing groups of the study.
Personal development can only be assessed in relation to
a learner’s baseline, the repertoire of behaviours in place
before joining the group.

11. Themes I observe over time:
expressions of
• communication with self
• communication with other
• emotions, empathy, connectedness
• movement through the group’s life span
• causality: ascribing change to group-
experiences

12. Generative Learning Levels
examples
• Learning 0 – no learning
writing did not help me cope, because I really stayed in the
same place – a wish to write that has not been fulfilled.
• Learning 1 - change in specificity of response within a set
of alternatives
I read all (pieces) to the group and made some changes
here and there, things that could be improved.
• Learning 2 - change in the process of learning, eg. a corrective
change in the set of alternatives from which choice is made.
I learned to recognise humour and wit, sarcasm and joy,
trusting my guts, to go with the flow. I unlearned being defensive
all the time. I commenced to laugh, even about myself.
BATESON G. 1964. Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology(ed.)
The logical categories of learning and communication, 279-308. University of Chicago Press

13. Generative Learning Levels
examples (2)
• Learning 3 - change in the process of Learning 2, e.g.
a corrective change in the system of sets
of alternatives from which choice is made....
Through the writing I have become more creative in other
areas too; it has loosened something. I am more conscious
of who I am as a person. I read more consciously.
Learning at levels 1 & 2 occurs often in writing groups
(based on previous study, 2010)
Level 3 learning may be a sign of personal development.

14. Symbolic Interactionism
a glimpse at the methodology
All we perceive are symbols to be understood
according to culture, language, context, personal history.
Interaction and communication are exchanges
of symbols with more or less agreed meanings.
The meaning we perceive is what counts in life, is what
determines our thoughts, feelings and actions.
The ability to realise that my meanings may differ from
another’s opens up new choices for interaction
with self and other more flexibility.