Reader Response Draft 1

Reader Response Draft 1

In Writing Your Way To Happiness, Parker-Pope (2015) presents a series of research studies to prove that expressive writing helps to alleviate conflict between married couple and reduce dropout rates among college students. Several research studies were conducted with different social groups such as students, workers and married couples. The outcome of these research studies show that respondents life improved after they engaged in expressive writing. However, if we were to examine the root cause of the issues that these respondents experienced, the author’s claim might not hold true. Most of the time, conflict within the family arises from external problems such as financial and fidelity issues. Similarly, dropout rates among college students emerge when they face financial difficulties as well as pressure from their peers to conform to unhealthy activities. These problems will hamper the positive effects of expressive writing in addressing their personal problems.

One of the prime sources of family conflict and dropout rates is financial issue. Parker-Pope (2015) demonstrates to us that through expressive writing, married couples were able to pacify the conflict within the family. This is true if we are addressing mild conflict. As we can see, most issues that occur within the family are financial issue. According to a research study on the causes of marriage breakdown by Burns (1984), the author had listed financial difficulty as a major cause of divorce. She elaborates that material possessions ties and breaks a family. The only way to address this issue is via financial assistance to the family or an improvement in their financial status. Expressive writing does not address the root cause of the conflict, although it brings about emotional contentment to the victims. Similarly, dropout rates among college students that stem from financial issues must not be overlooked. When these students face financial difficulties, it hampers their motivation and drive to do well in school. Instead, it diverts their attention to the working world, so that they could support their own needs. Expressive writing would then crumble as it fails to address the very fundamental cause of this problem, which is the finance.

External influences from a third party also hampers the effects of expressive writing from taking place. One of the major causes that lead to conflict between married couples is the presence of a third person. This is known as fidelity. When the issue of fidelity occurs, trust among members of the family collapse. This problem will prolonge, so long as the third-person exist within the family tree. Expressive writing would be ineffective in mediating the conflict as it does not fix the third-party problem, but only provides emotional comfort to the victims.