- Email: [email protected]
Words that predict outstanding performance
Journal of Research in Personality 43 (2009) 528–531
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Research in Personality journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jrp
Brief Report
Words that predict outstanding performance Jo Ann A. Abe * Psychology Department, Southern Connecticut State University, 501 Crescent Street, New Haven CT 06515, United States
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Available online 19 January 2009 Keywords: Experiential learning Reflection Positive emotions Text-analysis
a b s t r a c t This study applied word count strategies developed by expressive writing researchers to examine whether the words students use to describe and reflect on their field practicum experiences would predict practicum supervisors’ ratings of their performance. The weekly journals of 66 students who completed a practicum at a mental health or school setting were analyzed using a computerized textanalysis program. As expected, positive emotion words and ‘‘insight” words were positively correlated with almost all dimensions of evaluation, with the exception of organizational ability, and ‘‘we” words were associated with dimensions that focused on interpersonal relations. These findings further support the view that positive emotion words and ‘‘insight” words are powerful markers of cognitive broadening and behavioral flexibility and that ‘‘we” words index feelings of affiliation and belonging. As one might expect, there was an increase in ‘‘we” words and a decrease in ‘‘anxiety” words over the course of the internship. Ó 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Over the past two decades, there has been a tremendous growth in service-based experiential learning courses at universities across the country. A growing body of research shows that these courses are associated with a host of positive personal and interpersonal outcomes including moral development, leadership skills, and appreciation of diversity (Eyler & Giles, 1999; for review see Eyler, Giles, Stenson, & Gray, 2001). These studies reveal, however, that successful experiential learning is moderated by program characteristics. In general, students at high quality placements and in courses in which service and academic work are closely integrated through reflective activities such as group discussions and journal keeping show more positive outcomes than students who are in courses with little integration. In fact, a large scale study on service-learning identifies reflection as ‘‘one of the core process variables” (Eyler & Giles, 1999, p. xii) involved in successful experiential learning. The question that arises is why reflection is such a critical component of successful experiential learning. According to the literature on the internship experience, students typically go through several developmental phases during the course of their internship, as they face the challenge of assimilating new information, acquiring new skills, and developing new relationships (Sweitzer & King, 2008). Each of the phases is characterized by a unique set of issues and concerns and often elicits strong emotions, which may serve as catalysts for personal and cognitive * Fax: +1 203 392 6805. E-mail address: [email protected]. 0092-6566/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2009.01.010
growth (Abe, 2005; Abe & Izard, 1999). However, as Sweitzer and King (2008) state ‘‘experience, both intellectual and emotional” is merely the ‘‘raw material” of the internship. Successful experiential learning occurs through a cycle of experience, reflection, and action, whereby reflecting on experience enhances understanding, and enhanced understanding of experience, leads to more effective action. In support of the foregoing view, an impressive body of research on expressive writing demonstrates that writing about emotional experiences is associated with a host of positive psychological and behavioral outcomes (for a recent review see Chung & Pennebaker, 2007). These studies, however, reveal that merely describing an emotional experience or venting emotions about an experience is not associated with salutary outcomes. The individual must affectively and cognitively process the experience and make an effort to assimilate and integrate the experience by creating a coherent narrative. The recent research on expressive writing has utilized computerized word count programs to identify categories of words that mediate the positive outcomes associated with expressive writing. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the word count strategies developed by expressive writing researchers can shed light on the processes involved in successful experiential learning. The major goal of the study was to examine whether the words students use to describe and reflect on their practicum experiences in their weekly journals predict practicum supervisors’ ratings of their performance at the end of the semester. A subsidiary goal of this study was to examine changes in students’ language use as they go through the different developmental stages of the internship.
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Jo Ann A. Abe / Journal of Research in Personality 43 (2009) 528–531
Based on past research, this study predicts that three categories of words would be associated with supervisors’ ratings of students’ performance. The first category is positive emotion words. A growing body of research has found that positive emotions are not simply markers of satisfaction and well-being, but also serve to broaden a person’s thought–action repertoire, prompting the individual to pursue a wider range of activities and goals (Fredrickson, 2001). Positive emotions have also been found to undo or buffer the deleterious effects of negative emotions and thus contribute to resilience (Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004). More recent research has also shown that positive emotions enhance feelings of selfother overlap and is thus likely to foster feelings of empathy and positive relations with others (Waugh & Fredrickson, 2006). The second category of words that is expected to predict supervisors’ ratings is ‘‘insight” words, which includes words such as ‘‘realize”, ‘‘understand”, and ‘‘reason.” An impressive body of research has shown that ‘‘insight” words are powerful markers of efforts to cognitively process and make sense of events. In particular, the combination of ‘‘insight” words with positive emotion words may index the extent to which the person is stepping back from an event and reappraising it in a broader context (Pennebaker & Chung, 2007). The last category of words that is expected to predict supervisors’ ratings is ‘‘we” words, which has been found to be a powerful marker of feelings of affiliation and belonging (Chung & Pennebaker, 2007). With respect to changes in students’ language use over time, this study predicts that as students adapt to and feel more comfortable at their placements, there would be an increase in their use of ‘‘we” words and a decrease in their use of ‘‘anxiety” words. 2. Method 2.1. Participants and procedure The participants in this study were 66 students (94% female) who were enrolled in an undergraduate mental health specialization program and completed a 150 h field practicum at a variety of sites including inpatient psychiatric units, outpatient community mental health centers, and school settings. All of the students were engaged in structured activities (seminar, group supervision, individual supervision, weekly journals) that provided them with ample opportunity to process their practicum experiences throughout the semester. In their weekly journals, students were encouraged to not only describe their practicum experiences, but to also elaborate on their thoughts and feelings associated with their experiences. Only participants who had complete journals entries were included in this study. Due to the limited enrollment in the field practicum course, the data for this study were collected over the course of several years.
At the end of the semester, the students’ site supervisors were asked to complete a rating scale designed to assess students’ performance in several key areas as well as assign a global rating of their overall impression of students’ performance. The students’ weekly journals were submitted to the faculty supervisor, but not to the site supervisors, so the site supervisors’ ratings of the students’ performance were made without any knowledge of the content of students’ journals. 2.2. Text-analysis program The students’ journals were cleaned and analyzed using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count program (LIWC, Pennebaker, Chung, Ireland, Gonzales, & Booth, 2007), which is a widely used and well-validated text-analysis program. This program searches for target words or word stems, categorizes them into linguistic dimensions, and then converts the raw counts to percentages of total words. 3. Results The correlations between students’ LIWC scores and supervisors’ ratings of students’ performance are displayed in Table 1. As the table shows, the total number of words that students used in their journals over the course of the semester was not correlated with any of the dimensions of supervisors’ ratings, indicating that merely how much students write about their practicum experiences is not predictive of their performance. In keeping with expectations, positive emotion words and ‘‘insight” words were correlated with almost all of the dimensions of performance, with the exception of organizational ability, and ‘‘we” words were positively correlated with the dimensions that focused on interpersonal relations. In contrast to positive emotion words, negative emotion words were not associated with any of the dimensions of evaluation. The results were the same when discrete negative emotion dimensions (anxiety, anger, sadness) and curvilinear relations were examined. To examine whether positive emotion words, ‘‘insight” words, and ‘‘we” words would correctly classify students according to their overall level of performance, students were divided into two groups, based on their supervisors’ overall impression scores. Given that over half of the students were rated as outstanding, the students were divided into outstanding vs. above average/average groups, and a binary logistic regression with the three categories of words as predictors was conducted. The overall model was highly significant (Chi Square = 28.79, Nagelkerke R2 = 0.48, p < 0.0005) and correctly classified 80% of the students. Each of the three predictors made a unique contribution to predicting supervisors’ overall impression of students (Bs = 5.18 to 1.68, ps < 0.003 to 0.028).
Table 1 Correlations between supervisors’ ratings and students’ language use. Dimension rated
Mean (SD)
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
4.10 4.28 4.30 4.23 4.24 4.34 4.39
Rapport with clients/students Relationship with staff members Overall professional behavior/demeanor Use of supervision and feedback Organizational ability Motivation to seek out learning experiences Overall impression of student
(0.87) (0.81) (0.86) (0.87) (0.82) (0.90) (0.86)
Word count
0.04 0.09 0.04 0.09 0.03 0.09 0.03
LIWC dimensions We
Insight
Positive emotions
0.25* 0.32** 17 0.24* 0.07 0.19 0.28*
0.11 0.24* 0.31** 0.29* 0.10 0.24* 0.27*
0.23* 0.27* 0.32** 0.26* 0.16 0.23* 0.41**
Negative emotions 0.13 0.05 0.04 0.05 0.01 0.09 0.10
Note: supervisors’ ratings: 5 = outstanding; 4 = above average; 3 = average; 2 = below average; 1 = unacceptable with the exception of word count, LIWC computes percentages of total words for all of the other dimensions. * p < 0.05, one-tailed. ** p < 0.01.
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According to Sweitzer and King (2008), students typically go through five distinct phases (anticipation, disillusionment, confrontation, competence, and culmination) during their internship. To examine changes in students’ language use over time, the students’ journals were, therefore, divided into five equal segments, and a series of repeated measures ANOVAs with phase as the within subject variable and students’ overall performance (outstanding vs. above average/average) as the between subject variable were conducted. In these sets of analyses, the discrete dimensions of negative emotion words were used instead of the global dimension of negative emotions words because students were expected to show a decrease in anxiety over the course of the semester, but maybe show an increase in anger and sadness (Sweitzer & King, 2008). The repeated measures ANOVAs yielded a significant linear effect for ‘‘we” words, ‘‘anxiety” words, and ‘‘anger” words, Fs (1, 64) = 10.18, 11.91, and 8.18 respectively, all ps < 0.005, with ‘‘we” words gradually increasing over time for both groups, and ‘‘anxiety” words showing a gradual decrease. ‘‘Anger” words showed a more complex pattern, peaking for the above average/average group during the second phase (disillusionment), and for the outstanding group towards the end of the semester. ‘‘Insight” words did not yield a significant effect of phase, but yielded a significant Phase Performance level interaction, F (1, 64) = 10.06, p < 0.002), with the students rated as outstanding using higher levels of ‘‘insight” words towards the beginning of the semester and showing a gradual decline over time, and the students rated as above average/average showing the exact opposite pattern. By the end of the semester, the two groups converged in their use of ‘‘insight” words. In contrast to the findings for ‘‘insight” words, the students rated as outstanding used higher levels of positive emotion words and ‘‘we” words during all five phases of the internship.
4. Discussion This study found that the words students use to describe and reflect on their practicum experiences are highly predictive of their supervisors’ ratings of their performance. The findings from this study are particularly impressive if one takes into account that there were several factors that were likely to have attenuated the relations between students’ language use and supervisors’ ratings. First, the majority of the students in this study were rated very positively by their supervisors, which restricted the range of the performance scores. Second, the participants in this study completed their practicum requirements at a wide range of settings and were rated by many different supervisors, who were likely to have had varying expectations of field practicum students. The fact that, in spite of these factors, this study yielded such robust associations between positive emotion words, ‘‘insight” words, and ‘‘we” words with various dimensions of performance, further underscores the predictive power of these words (Chung & Pennebaker, 2007). Most of the results from this study were highly consistent with predictions derived from past research. Positive emotion words and ‘‘insight” words were associated with positive relationships with others, motivation to seek out new learning experiences, and overall professional competence, which is consistent with the view that these words serve as markers for cognitive broadening and behavioral flexibility. ‘‘We” words were associated with dimensions that tapped into interpersonal relations, which further supports the view that these words index feelings of affiliation and belonging. In terms of changes in students’ language use, this study revealed a decrease in the use of ‘‘anxiety” words and an increase in the use of ‘‘we” words over time, which is what one would expect as students feel increasingly comfortable at their placements
and with the people with whom they work. The increase in anger words during some of the subsequent phases, probably reflects the feelings of frustration that students’ experienced, as they grappled with the issues and concerns associated with each of the phases. Several of the findings from this study were, however, somewhat surprising. In this study, the students who were rated as ‘‘outstanding” used higher levels of ‘‘insight” words at the beginning of the internship, but showed a linear decline in the use of these words over time, whereas the above average/average group showed the exact opposite pattern. By contrast, previous studies on expressive writing have generally found that increases in ‘‘insight” words are associated with the most positive outcomes (Pennebaker, 1997). One possible explanation for the discrepancy in the pattern of findings is that the present study focused on ongoing emotional experiences, whereas previous studies focused on a past emotional upheaval. At any rate, the findings involving ‘‘insight” words indicate that students who hit the ground running, so to speak, and begin to actively cognitively process their experiences at the outset of the internship rather than later have more opportunities to translate their reflections into outstanding performance. Another finding from this study that was somewhat unexpected was that both discrete and global dimensions of negative emotion words showed no associations with supervisor ratings. In general, previous studies on expressive writing have found that moderate levels of negative emotion words are associated with the most salutary outcomes (Pennebaker, 1997). One possible explanation for the discrepancy in findings is that the students in this study were also receiving individual and group supervision and used these other avenues to process their negative emotions. The literature on experiential learning has long emphasized the cycle between experience, reflection, and action. Given that the students rated as outstanding used higher levels of positive emotion words and ‘‘we” words than the students rated as above average/average during all phases of the internship, the question that arises is did the act of reflecting on and writing about their experiences, in fact, contribute to their outstanding performance? Or did the students who were rated as outstanding simply feel happier at their placements and feel closer to people with whom they worked? Several studies have found that the act of reflecting on and writing about relationships does, in fact, contribute to positive relationship outcomes (e.g., Slatcher & Pennebaker, 2006). Furthermore, preliminary data from an ongoing study reveals that, contrary to what one might expect, positive emotion words, ‘‘we” words, and ‘‘insight” words are not associated with students’ overall level of satisfaction with their practicum (Abe, 2009). Taken together, these findings indicate that the words students used in their journals did not merely reflect their psychological state, but that the act of reflecting on and expressing their positive emotions and feelings of affiliation contributed to more effective action and more positive relationships over time. Another question that arises from this study is whether similar results would have been obtained if the participants in this study had been predominantly male instead of female. A recent large scale study that systematically investigated gender differences in language use with the LIWC found that there were no differences between men and women in their use of positive emotion words and ‘‘we” words, but that women used somewhat higher levels of ‘‘insight” words than men (Newman, Groom, Handelman, & Pennebaker, 2008). Even though the extant research has revealed surprisingly few robust gender differences in language use, the external correlates for specific word categories may, nevertheless, differ between men and women. For example, cross-cultural research has long demonstrated that the same psychological referent may have different meanings across different cultural groups (e.g., Abe, 2004). To date, the research on gender differences in language
Jo Ann A. Abe / Journal of Research in Personality 43 (2009) 528–531
use has tended to neglect this issue and, therefore, it warrants further investigation. Several other suggestions may be made to extend the present study. In this study, successful experiential learning was assessed using supervisors’ ratings of students’ performance. Given that previous research on experiential learning has relied almost exclusively on self-report measures and student interviews (Eyler et al., 2001), the use of supervisors’ evaluations in this study makes an important contribution to the extant research. However, as the preliminary data from the ongoing study (Abe, 2009) suggest, different results may be obtained if students’ ratings are used. These findings underscore the need to use multiple measures and informants to assess a complex construct such as successful experiential learning. Another avenue for extending the present study is examining whether introducing contemplative practices (Shapiro, Brown, & Biegel, 2007; Zajonc, 2006) such as mindfulness training at the beginning of the semester would enhance students’ ability to affectively and cognitively process their practicum experiences. The findings pertaining to ‘‘insight” words indicate that cognitive processing that takes place earlier rather than later in the internship is more likely to translate into outstanding performance. If future research reveals that such interventions, in fact, enhance students’ ability to process their practicum experiences and contribute to successful experiential learning, it may be incumbent on faculty supervisors to incorporate opportunities to foster contemplative skills into the curriculum. In summary, this study demonstrated the fruitfulness of using word count strategies developed by expressive writing researchers to shed light on some of the processes involved in successful experiential learning. Further research on expressive writing and experiential learning promises to have important theoretical implications for both fields of study as well as practical applications for faculty supervisors. Acknowledgments This study was supported in part by a CSU Research Grant. The author would like to thank Katherine K. Abe for helpful comments on this article.
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References Abe, J. A. (2004). Self-esteem, perception of relationships, and emotional distress: A cross-cultural study. Personal Relationships, 11, 231–247. Abe, J. A. (2005). The predictive validity of the five-factor model of personality with preschool age children: A nine year follow-up study. Journal of Research in Personality, 38, 85–104. Abe, J.A. (2009). [Emotional inteligence and experiential learning]. Unpublished raw data. Abe, J. A., & Izard, C. E. (1999). The developmental functions of emotions: An analysis in terms of differential emotions theory. Cognition and Emotion, 13, 523–545. Chung, C. K., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2007). The psychological function of function words. In K. Fiedler (Ed.), Social communication: Frontiers of social psychology (pp. 343–359). New York: Psychology Press. Eyler, J. S., & Giles, D. E. (1999). Where’s the learning in service-learning? San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Eyler, J. S., Giles, D. E., Stenson, C. M., & Gray, C. J. (2001). At a glance. What we know about the effects of service-learning on college students, faculty, institutions, and communities, 1993–2000 (3rd ed.). Vanderbilt University. Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56, 218–226. Newman, M. L., Groom, C. J., Handelman, L. D., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2008). Gender differences in language use: An analysis of 14,000 text samples. Discourse Processes, 211–236. Pennebaker, J. W. (1997). Writing about emotional experiences as a therapeutic process. Psychological Science, 162–166. Pennebaker, J. W., & Chung, C. K. (2007). Expressive writing, emotional upheavals, and health. In H. Friedman & R. Silver (Eds.), Handbook of health psychology (pp. 263–284). New York: Oxford University Press. Pennebaker, J. W., Chung, C. K., Ireland, M., Gonzales, A., & Booth, R. J. (2007). The development and psychometric properties of LIWC2007. University of Texas. Shapiro, S. L., Brown, K. W., & Biegel, G. M. (2007). Teaching self-care to caregivers: Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on the mental health of therapists in training. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 7, 105–115. Slatcher, R. B., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2006). How do I love thee: Let me count the words: The social effects of expressive writing. Psychological Science, 17, 660–664. Sweitzer, H. F., & King, M. A. (2008). The successful internship: Personal, professional, and civic development. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole. Tugade, M. M., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2004). Resilient individuals use positive emotions to bounce back from negative emotional experiences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86, 320–333. Waugh, C. E., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2006). Nice to know you: Positive emotions, selfother overlap, and complex understanding in the formation of new relationships. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 1, 93–106. Zajonc, A. (2006). Cognitive–affective connections in teaching and learning: The relationship between love and knowledge. Journal of Cognitive Affective Learning, 3, 1–9.
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Research in Personality journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jrp
Brief Report
Words that predict outstanding performance Jo Ann A. Abe * Psychology Department, Southern Connecticut State University, 501 Crescent Street, New Haven CT 06515, United States
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Available online 19 January 2009 Keywords: Experiential learning Reflection Positive emotions Text-analysis
a b s t r a c t This study applied word count strategies developed by expressive writing researchers to examine whether the words students use to describe and reflect on their field practicum experiences would predict practicum supervisors’ ratings of their performance. The weekly journals of 66 students who completed a practicum at a mental health or school setting were analyzed using a computerized textanalysis program. As expected, positive emotion words and ‘‘insight” words were positively correlated with almost all dimensions of evaluation, with the exception of organizational ability, and ‘‘we” words were associated with dimensions that focused on interpersonal relations. These findings further support the view that positive emotion words and ‘‘insight” words are powerful markers of cognitive broadening and behavioral flexibility and that ‘‘we” words index feelings of affiliation and belonging. As one might expect, there was an increase in ‘‘we” words and a decrease in ‘‘anxiety” words over the course of the internship. Ó 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Over the past two decades, there has been a tremendous growth in service-based experiential learning courses at universities across the country. A growing body of research shows that these courses are associated with a host of positive personal and interpersonal outcomes including moral development, leadership skills, and appreciation of diversity (Eyler & Giles, 1999; for review see Eyler, Giles, Stenson, & Gray, 2001). These studies reveal, however, that successful experiential learning is moderated by program characteristics. In general, students at high quality placements and in courses in which service and academic work are closely integrated through reflective activities such as group discussions and journal keeping show more positive outcomes than students who are in courses with little integration. In fact, a large scale study on service-learning identifies reflection as ‘‘one of the core process variables” (Eyler & Giles, 1999, p. xii) involved in successful experiential learning. The question that arises is why reflection is such a critical component of successful experiential learning. According to the literature on the internship experience, students typically go through several developmental phases during the course of their internship, as they face the challenge of assimilating new information, acquiring new skills, and developing new relationships (Sweitzer & King, 2008). Each of the phases is characterized by a unique set of issues and concerns and often elicits strong emotions, which may serve as catalysts for personal and cognitive * Fax: +1 203 392 6805. E-mail address: [email protected]. 0092-6566/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2009.01.010
growth (Abe, 2005; Abe & Izard, 1999). However, as Sweitzer and King (2008) state ‘‘experience, both intellectual and emotional” is merely the ‘‘raw material” of the internship. Successful experiential learning occurs through a cycle of experience, reflection, and action, whereby reflecting on experience enhances understanding, and enhanced understanding of experience, leads to more effective action. In support of the foregoing view, an impressive body of research on expressive writing demonstrates that writing about emotional experiences is associated with a host of positive psychological and behavioral outcomes (for a recent review see Chung & Pennebaker, 2007). These studies, however, reveal that merely describing an emotional experience or venting emotions about an experience is not associated with salutary outcomes. The individual must affectively and cognitively process the experience and make an effort to assimilate and integrate the experience by creating a coherent narrative. The recent research on expressive writing has utilized computerized word count programs to identify categories of words that mediate the positive outcomes associated with expressive writing. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the word count strategies developed by expressive writing researchers can shed light on the processes involved in successful experiential learning. The major goal of the study was to examine whether the words students use to describe and reflect on their practicum experiences in their weekly journals predict practicum supervisors’ ratings of their performance at the end of the semester. A subsidiary goal of this study was to examine changes in students’ language use as they go through the different developmental stages of the internship.
529
Jo Ann A. Abe / Journal of Research in Personality 43 (2009) 528–531
Based on past research, this study predicts that three categories of words would be associated with supervisors’ ratings of students’ performance. The first category is positive emotion words. A growing body of research has found that positive emotions are not simply markers of satisfaction and well-being, but also serve to broaden a person’s thought–action repertoire, prompting the individual to pursue a wider range of activities and goals (Fredrickson, 2001). Positive emotions have also been found to undo or buffer the deleterious effects of negative emotions and thus contribute to resilience (Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004). More recent research has also shown that positive emotions enhance feelings of selfother overlap and is thus likely to foster feelings of empathy and positive relations with others (Waugh & Fredrickson, 2006). The second category of words that is expected to predict supervisors’ ratings is ‘‘insight” words, which includes words such as ‘‘realize”, ‘‘understand”, and ‘‘reason.” An impressive body of research has shown that ‘‘insight” words are powerful markers of efforts to cognitively process and make sense of events. In particular, the combination of ‘‘insight” words with positive emotion words may index the extent to which the person is stepping back from an event and reappraising it in a broader context (Pennebaker & Chung, 2007). The last category of words that is expected to predict supervisors’ ratings is ‘‘we” words, which has been found to be a powerful marker of feelings of affiliation and belonging (Chung & Pennebaker, 2007). With respect to changes in students’ language use over time, this study predicts that as students adapt to and feel more comfortable at their placements, there would be an increase in their use of ‘‘we” words and a decrease in their use of ‘‘anxiety” words. 2. Method 2.1. Participants and procedure The participants in this study were 66 students (94% female) who were enrolled in an undergraduate mental health specialization program and completed a 150 h field practicum at a variety of sites including inpatient psychiatric units, outpatient community mental health centers, and school settings. All of the students were engaged in structured activities (seminar, group supervision, individual supervision, weekly journals) that provided them with ample opportunity to process their practicum experiences throughout the semester. In their weekly journals, students were encouraged to not only describe their practicum experiences, but to also elaborate on their thoughts and feelings associated with their experiences. Only participants who had complete journals entries were included in this study. Due to the limited enrollment in the field practicum course, the data for this study were collected over the course of several years.
At the end of the semester, the students’ site supervisors were asked to complete a rating scale designed to assess students’ performance in several key areas as well as assign a global rating of their overall impression of students’ performance. The students’ weekly journals were submitted to the faculty supervisor, but not to the site supervisors, so the site supervisors’ ratings of the students’ performance were made without any knowledge of the content of students’ journals. 2.2. Text-analysis program The students’ journals were cleaned and analyzed using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count program (LIWC, Pennebaker, Chung, Ireland, Gonzales, & Booth, 2007), which is a widely used and well-validated text-analysis program. This program searches for target words or word stems, categorizes them into linguistic dimensions, and then converts the raw counts to percentages of total words. 3. Results The correlations between students’ LIWC scores and supervisors’ ratings of students’ performance are displayed in Table 1. As the table shows, the total number of words that students used in their journals over the course of the semester was not correlated with any of the dimensions of supervisors’ ratings, indicating that merely how much students write about their practicum experiences is not predictive of their performance. In keeping with expectations, positive emotion words and ‘‘insight” words were correlated with almost all of the dimensions of performance, with the exception of organizational ability, and ‘‘we” words were positively correlated with the dimensions that focused on interpersonal relations. In contrast to positive emotion words, negative emotion words were not associated with any of the dimensions of evaluation. The results were the same when discrete negative emotion dimensions (anxiety, anger, sadness) and curvilinear relations were examined. To examine whether positive emotion words, ‘‘insight” words, and ‘‘we” words would correctly classify students according to their overall level of performance, students were divided into two groups, based on their supervisors’ overall impression scores. Given that over half of the students were rated as outstanding, the students were divided into outstanding vs. above average/average groups, and a binary logistic regression with the three categories of words as predictors was conducted. The overall model was highly significant (Chi Square = 28.79, Nagelkerke R2 = 0.48, p < 0.0005) and correctly classified 80% of the students. Each of the three predictors made a unique contribution to predicting supervisors’ overall impression of students (Bs = 5.18 to 1.68, ps < 0.003 to 0.028).
Table 1 Correlations between supervisors’ ratings and students’ language use. Dimension rated
Mean (SD)
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
4.10 4.28 4.30 4.23 4.24 4.34 4.39
Rapport with clients/students Relationship with staff members Overall professional behavior/demeanor Use of supervision and feedback Organizational ability Motivation to seek out learning experiences Overall impression of student
(0.87) (0.81) (0.86) (0.87) (0.82) (0.90) (0.86)
Word count
0.04 0.09 0.04 0.09 0.03 0.09 0.03
LIWC dimensions We
Insight
Positive emotions
0.25* 0.32** 17 0.24* 0.07 0.19 0.28*
0.11 0.24* 0.31** 0.29* 0.10 0.24* 0.27*
0.23* 0.27* 0.32** 0.26* 0.16 0.23* 0.41**
Negative emotions 0.13 0.05 0.04 0.05 0.01 0.09 0.10
Note: supervisors’ ratings: 5 = outstanding; 4 = above average; 3 = average; 2 = below average; 1 = unacceptable with the exception of word count, LIWC computes percentages of total words for all of the other dimensions. * p < 0.05, one-tailed. ** p < 0.01.
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According to Sweitzer and King (2008), students typically go through five distinct phases (anticipation, disillusionment, confrontation, competence, and culmination) during their internship. To examine changes in students’ language use over time, the students’ journals were, therefore, divided into five equal segments, and a series of repeated measures ANOVAs with phase as the within subject variable and students’ overall performance (outstanding vs. above average/average) as the between subject variable were conducted. In these sets of analyses, the discrete dimensions of negative emotion words were used instead of the global dimension of negative emotions words because students were expected to show a decrease in anxiety over the course of the semester, but maybe show an increase in anger and sadness (Sweitzer & King, 2008). The repeated measures ANOVAs yielded a significant linear effect for ‘‘we” words, ‘‘anxiety” words, and ‘‘anger” words, Fs (1, 64) = 10.18, 11.91, and 8.18 respectively, all ps < 0.005, with ‘‘we” words gradually increasing over time for both groups, and ‘‘anxiety” words showing a gradual decrease. ‘‘Anger” words showed a more complex pattern, peaking for the above average/average group during the second phase (disillusionment), and for the outstanding group towards the end of the semester. ‘‘Insight” words did not yield a significant effect of phase, but yielded a significant Phase Performance level interaction, F (1, 64) = 10.06, p < 0.002), with the students rated as outstanding using higher levels of ‘‘insight” words towards the beginning of the semester and showing a gradual decline over time, and the students rated as above average/average showing the exact opposite pattern. By the end of the semester, the two groups converged in their use of ‘‘insight” words. In contrast to the findings for ‘‘insight” words, the students rated as outstanding used higher levels of positive emotion words and ‘‘we” words during all five phases of the internship.
4. Discussion This study found that the words students use to describe and reflect on their practicum experiences are highly predictive of their supervisors’ ratings of their performance. The findings from this study are particularly impressive if one takes into account that there were several factors that were likely to have attenuated the relations between students’ language use and supervisors’ ratings. First, the majority of the students in this study were rated very positively by their supervisors, which restricted the range of the performance scores. Second, the participants in this study completed their practicum requirements at a wide range of settings and were rated by many different supervisors, who were likely to have had varying expectations of field practicum students. The fact that, in spite of these factors, this study yielded such robust associations between positive emotion words, ‘‘insight” words, and ‘‘we” words with various dimensions of performance, further underscores the predictive power of these words (Chung & Pennebaker, 2007). Most of the results from this study were highly consistent with predictions derived from past research. Positive emotion words and ‘‘insight” words were associated with positive relationships with others, motivation to seek out new learning experiences, and overall professional competence, which is consistent with the view that these words serve as markers for cognitive broadening and behavioral flexibility. ‘‘We” words were associated with dimensions that tapped into interpersonal relations, which further supports the view that these words index feelings of affiliation and belonging. In terms of changes in students’ language use, this study revealed a decrease in the use of ‘‘anxiety” words and an increase in the use of ‘‘we” words over time, which is what one would expect as students feel increasingly comfortable at their placements
and with the people with whom they work. The increase in anger words during some of the subsequent phases, probably reflects the feelings of frustration that students’ experienced, as they grappled with the issues and concerns associated with each of the phases. Several of the findings from this study were, however, somewhat surprising. In this study, the students who were rated as ‘‘outstanding” used higher levels of ‘‘insight” words at the beginning of the internship, but showed a linear decline in the use of these words over time, whereas the above average/average group showed the exact opposite pattern. By contrast, previous studies on expressive writing have generally found that increases in ‘‘insight” words are associated with the most positive outcomes (Pennebaker, 1997). One possible explanation for the discrepancy in the pattern of findings is that the present study focused on ongoing emotional experiences, whereas previous studies focused on a past emotional upheaval. At any rate, the findings involving ‘‘insight” words indicate that students who hit the ground running, so to speak, and begin to actively cognitively process their experiences at the outset of the internship rather than later have more opportunities to translate their reflections into outstanding performance. Another finding from this study that was somewhat unexpected was that both discrete and global dimensions of negative emotion words showed no associations with supervisor ratings. In general, previous studies on expressive writing have found that moderate levels of negative emotion words are associated with the most salutary outcomes (Pennebaker, 1997). One possible explanation for the discrepancy in findings is that the students in this study were also receiving individual and group supervision and used these other avenues to process their negative emotions. The literature on experiential learning has long emphasized the cycle between experience, reflection, and action. Given that the students rated as outstanding used higher levels of positive emotion words and ‘‘we” words than the students rated as above average/average during all phases of the internship, the question that arises is did the act of reflecting on and writing about their experiences, in fact, contribute to their outstanding performance? Or did the students who were rated as outstanding simply feel happier at their placements and feel closer to people with whom they worked? Several studies have found that the act of reflecting on and writing about relationships does, in fact, contribute to positive relationship outcomes (e.g., Slatcher & Pennebaker, 2006). Furthermore, preliminary data from an ongoing study reveals that, contrary to what one might expect, positive emotion words, ‘‘we” words, and ‘‘insight” words are not associated with students’ overall level of satisfaction with their practicum (Abe, 2009). Taken together, these findings indicate that the words students used in their journals did not merely reflect their psychological state, but that the act of reflecting on and expressing their positive emotions and feelings of affiliation contributed to more effective action and more positive relationships over time. Another question that arises from this study is whether similar results would have been obtained if the participants in this study had been predominantly male instead of female. A recent large scale study that systematically investigated gender differences in language use with the LIWC found that there were no differences between men and women in their use of positive emotion words and ‘‘we” words, but that women used somewhat higher levels of ‘‘insight” words than men (Newman, Groom, Handelman, & Pennebaker, 2008). Even though the extant research has revealed surprisingly few robust gender differences in language use, the external correlates for specific word categories may, nevertheless, differ between men and women. For example, cross-cultural research has long demonstrated that the same psychological referent may have different meanings across different cultural groups (e.g., Abe, 2004). To date, the research on gender differences in language
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use has tended to neglect this issue and, therefore, it warrants further investigation. Several other suggestions may be made to extend the present study. In this study, successful experiential learning was assessed using supervisors’ ratings of students’ performance. Given that previous research on experiential learning has relied almost exclusively on self-report measures and student interviews (Eyler et al., 2001), the use of supervisors’ evaluations in this study makes an important contribution to the extant research. However, as the preliminary data from the ongoing study (Abe, 2009) suggest, different results may be obtained if students’ ratings are used. These findings underscore the need to use multiple measures and informants to assess a complex construct such as successful experiential learning. Another avenue for extending the present study is examining whether introducing contemplative practices (Shapiro, Brown, & Biegel, 2007; Zajonc, 2006) such as mindfulness training at the beginning of the semester would enhance students’ ability to affectively and cognitively process their practicum experiences. The findings pertaining to ‘‘insight” words indicate that cognitive processing that takes place earlier rather than later in the internship is more likely to translate into outstanding performance. If future research reveals that such interventions, in fact, enhance students’ ability to process their practicum experiences and contribute to successful experiential learning, it may be incumbent on faculty supervisors to incorporate opportunities to foster contemplative skills into the curriculum. In summary, this study demonstrated the fruitfulness of using word count strategies developed by expressive writing researchers to shed light on some of the processes involved in successful experiential learning. Further research on expressive writing and experiential learning promises to have important theoretical implications for both fields of study as well as practical applications for faculty supervisors. Acknowledgments This study was supported in part by a CSU Research Grant. The author would like to thank Katherine K. Abe for helpful comments on this article.
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