Mapping Out Proposal

Thesis:  If I journal every morning to start my day, my mental health will be affected positively.

Suhr, M. Risch, A. Wilz, G. (2017) Maintaining mental health through positive writing: Effects of a resource diary on depression and emotion regulation. US: John Wiley & Sons.

In this article, researchers attempt to see the effectiveness of resource-oriented positive writing.  This resource diary is used by patients recently discharged from psychiatric inpatient treatment. To measure their changes in their mental health, patients fill out multiple questionnaires on depression, emotion regulation, and resource activation. The study found that patients who used a resource diary had lower depression scores and reported increased use of emotional regulation.  

This article would be a great resource for my paper.  It discusses how daily writing and keeping a positive journal impacts mental health.  I believe that the success of this study will further my self-research, as well as give me ideas on how to record my study.  This article hits all the points of what I wanted to research, having this academic article to back up my claims will come in handy. 

Horneffer, K. (2015)  Alexithymia and relaxation: Considerations in optimising the emotional effectiveness of journaling about stressful experiences.  United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis

This article discusses journaling about a stressful event that has occurred.  Results showed that

this method of journaling can have an increase in emotional stress. It talks about how in this case journaling was not only ineffective but destructive.  This article asks how to optimize the effectiveness of journaling. 

This article will be helpful for my paper because it discusses an opposing argument.  I believe that it will be necessary to offer research that is not always positive for my research.   I would like to use this article as a way to justify my argument about positive writing. This article focuses on journaling during stressful events, rather than daily positive writing.

NELSON, J. (2011)  Express Yourself. Scholastic Parent and Child.

This article discusses the significance of journaling.  How writing your private thoughts affects you. It discusses how it can be effective by having mental and physical effects.  It can strengthen immune systems, lower blood pressure, and steady heart rate. It also has links to better concentration, decreased anxiety, and greater success with goals.

This article discusses exactly what my paper is about.  This will be a great article to back up my research as well as establish credibility.  I can also discuss more than just the mental health effects, but also the physical health effects.  This will be useful because it can make my research a bit more open. 

Yang, Z.  Tang, X. Duan, W.  Zhang, Y. (2015) Expressive writing promotes self‐reported physical, social and psychological health among Chinese undergraduates.  United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

This article studied Chinese undergraduate students and had them practice expressive writing to see the effects from a scholarly perspective.  This experiment studied psychological, social, and physical health. After the experiment, the student that practiced expressive writing saw all three improve.  Psychological health increased the most and female students saw the most improvement. 

This article is very important because it shows that expressive writing can be impactful on a global scale and can work in an education setting.  I can use this article as a way to further my argument and also discuss the effects expressive writing has on social health. I can also discuss how expressive writing can be applied to help students excel educationally. 

Bailey, K. (2018, July 31).  5 Powerful Health Benefits of Journaling. Intermountain Healthcare. https://intermountainhealthcare.org/blogs/topics/live-well/2018/07/5-powerful-health-benefits-of-journaling/

This web article discusses the importance of journaling and how it is more important than just keeping your memories.  They discuss 5 strong health benefits journaling has been proven to help with. Journaling can help reduce stress, improve immune function, keep memory sharp, boost mood, and strengthen emotional function.   It also says that is okay if you do not do it every day or worry about having perfect grammar. It is simply for you.  

I think that this article is extremely effective in bringing this concept back to Earth.  I feel like this has put journaling in a more realistic and understandable way than the previous articles have done.  I want to use this as a way to reiterate that journaling is about you. You can do it so that you feel good and to have an outlet.  

Some questions I would consider asking are:

Do you keep a journal/diary?

Do you notice yourself feeling relieved after writing in your journal/diary?

What kind of things do you write about in your journal/diary?