Developing College Student Motivation to Lead with Expressive Writi

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether expressive writing regarding the topic of life goals can enhance college students’ motivation to lead and important attributes for good leadership (i.e., adaptive attribution for failure and low selfcriticism). Participants (N = 90) were randomly assigned to an experimental condition (expressive writing on positive emotion topic; n = 48) or a control condition (writing on an emotionally neutral topic; n = 42). After completing expressive writing exercises, students in the experimental condition scored higher on measures of intrinsic motivation to lead (i.e., affectiveidentity motivation) and adaptive attribution of failure and scored lower on a measure of selfcriticism compared to those in a control condition

Developing College Student Motivation to Lead with Expressive Writing YoonJung Cho1) (Sungshin University) Abstract The purpose of the present study was to examine whether expressive writing regarding the topic of life goals can enhance college students’ motivation to lead and important attributes for good leadership (i.e., adaptive attribution for failure and low self-criticism) Participants (N = 90) were randomly assigned to an experimental condition (expressive writing on positive emotion topic; n = 48) or a control condition (writing on an emotionally neutral topic; n = 42) After completing expressive writing exercises, students in the experimental condition scored higher on measures of intrinsic motivation to lead (i.e., affective-identity motivation) and adaptive attribution of failure and scored lower on a measure of self-criticism compared to those in a control condition Keywords: motivation to lead, leadership, expressive writing, college student, life goals 1) Corresponding Author: choyj@sungshin.ac.kr - 169 - 교육연구논총 http://dx.doi.org/10.18612/cnujes.2015.36.3.169 CNU Journal of Educational Studies 2015 Vol 36, No pp.169～191 Developing College Student Motivation to Lead with Expressive Writing 조윤정(성신여자대학교 부교수)1) 요약 본 연구에서는 대학생들이 생애 목표라는 주제를 가지고 자기표현식 작문 활동에 참여함 으로써 리더십 동기와 좋은 리더십 자질(예를 들어, 실패 귀인, 자기 비판)에 필요한 특성을 함양할 수 있는지를 살펴보았다 본 연구에 참여한 90명 학생들은 실험 집단(생애목표라는 주제에 대해 긍정 감정을 표출할 수 있는 자기표현식 작문 활동에 참여)과 통제 집단(감정 중립적인 주제에 대한 작문 활동 참여)으로 무선 할당되었다 자기표현식 작문 활동에 참여 한 학생들은 통제 집단에 할당된 학생들 보다 높은 수준의 내재적 리더십 동기, 실패에 대한 적응적 귀인, 낮은 수준의 자기 비판을 보여 주었다 주제어: 리더십 동기, 리더십, 자기표현식 작문, 생애 목표 Ⅰ Introduction Success of society, organizations, and community depends on good leadership (Sternberg, 2007) and there is growing recognition of the importance of developing leadership ability and promoting desirable patterns of leadership motivation of future leaders (e.g., Bennis, 2007; Miles, 2005; Ritchie & Hammond, 2005) Educating future leaders requires motivating today’s college students to make a meaningful contribution to community and work with others to address challenging problems As such, more attention is warranted to develop educational programs and interventions and examine 1) 교신 저자: choyj@sungshin.ac.kr - 170 - their effectiveness on enhancing leadership motivation Previous studies have shown that there is a wide range of factors associated with individuals’ motivation to assume leadership roles (Amit, Lisak, Popper, & Gal, 2007; Chan, 1999; Chan & Drasgow, 2001) Individuals tend to endorse different types of motivation to lead depending on various reasons and purposes they have for leading others Some are motivated to lead out of intrinsic enjoyment of leading others, while others are motivated to lead because of social duty or extrinsic benefits Given that these different types of motivation to lead are likely to be associated with quality and outcomes of leadership, it is very important not only to increase the general level of motivation to lead, but also to promote more adaptive types of motivation to lead Most studies on motivation to lead utilized survey research method to identify factors related to motivation to lead while little studies investigated how to enhance leadership motivation through educational intervention The present study will focus on expressive writing intervention as a way to foster adaptive types of motivation to lead Recent examples of studies investigating the use of expressive writing in educational settings show evidence of: significant improvements in negative affect, grades, and attendance (Horn, Pössel, & Hautzinger, 2011); reduced math test-related anxiety and improved test scores among college students (Park, Ramirez & Beilock, 2014); and, significantly higher test scores (MCAT and LSAT, but not GRE or PCAT) and significantly lower pre-exam depressive symptoms for students taking graduate school entrance exams (Frattaroli, Thomas, & Lyubomirsky, 2011) Particularly relevant for the present study are theoretical reasons for hypothesizing that expressive writing can help students write narratives about their future careers that engages them in self-directed dialogical learning and creation of career identities (Meijers & Lengelle, 2012; Lengelle & Meijers, 2014) Follow-up empirical studies provide evidence that expressive writing can be successfully used as a means of promoting the formation of narrative career identities that offers college students a sense of meaning and direction (Lengelle, Meijers, Poell, & Post, 2013) These studies indicate that expressive writing can be effective in promoting a wide range of affective, motivational, and cognitive outcomes In the current study we examined the potential benefits of an expressive writing intervention focusing on broader life goals increase college students’ motivation for leadership and attributes thought to be important for good leadership—adaptive attribution for failure and low self-criticism - 171 - Expressive writing, life goals, and Motivation to lead Recently, Fitzgerald and Schutte (2010) found that an expressive writing intervention increased self-efficacy for transformational leadership among managers In many domains, higher levels of self-efficacy are related to higher levels of motivation Thus, expressive writing also holds promise as a low-cost intervention for increasing motivation for leadership To assess whether it is possible to increase student motivation to lead using an expressive writing intervention, we used future life goals (Markus & Nurius, 1986) as the writing topic for an expressive writing intervention For many people, a vision of the best possible version of themselves entails seeing themselves making significant, positive contributions to the lives of others—an important characteristic of people who are perceived as good or outstanding leaders The life goals topic is a well-known construct from the social psychological literature—also traditionally referred to as the “best possible self” condition or BPS (e.g., Markus & Nurius, 1986) The rationale for choosing the topic of life goals is that motivation is goal driven (Elliot, 2005) so life goals may play a crucial role in promoting motivation to lead Given prior research showing that the best possible self (BPS) positively influences motivation and behavior, envisioning one’s “best possible self” by following the directions for imagining or writing about future life goals was expected to improve motivation to lead The best possible self (BPS) is thought to be a motivating life goal inasmuch as it characterizes a future representation of the desired self (Cross & Markus, 1991; Markus & Nurius, 1986) Envisioning one’s “best possible self” has been shown to increase intrinsic motivation and optimism, which tend to predict psychological and physical well-being (Meevissen, Peters, & Alberts, 2011; Peters, Flink, Boersma, & Linton, 2010) In the present study, participants wrote about their life goals in a series of expressive writing exercises Expressive writing traditionally has focused on past stress or trauma and numerous studies have provided evidence of the psychological and health benefits associated with expressive writing about traumatic life experiences (e.g., Cameron & Nicholls, 1998; Lepore, Greenberg, Bruno, & Smyth, 2002; Pennebaker, 1999; Sloan & Marx, 2004; Smyth, 1998) Two meta-analyses (Frattaroli, 2006; Frisina, Borod, & Lepore, 2004) also concluded that expressive writing is associated with psychological and health benefits Benefits associated with expressive writing include improved immune system functioning (Pennebaker, Kiecolt-Glaser, & - 172 - Glaser, 1988), reduced absences from work (Francis & Pennebaker, 1992), and improved grade point average among college students (Lumley & Provenzano, 2003) Instead of focusing on a negative past experience (i.e., post trauma) as an expressive writing topic, King (2001) adopted future life goals as an expressive writing topic in her study and found that participants who engaged in expressive writing about life goals found the task to be significantly less upsetting than those who wrote about past trauma Writing about achieving one’s life goals can promote physical and psychological benefits associated with expressive writing about trauma without the “emotional costs” (King, 2001, p 804) Research has shown that engaging in expressive writing activities about positive images of oneself for 20 minutes per day for three days is associated with psychological well-being and health (Harrist, Carlozzi, McGovern, & Harrist, 2007; King, 2001) Three primary theoretical models have been offered to explain the psychological mechanism accounting for benefits associated with expressive writing, but definitive evidence for any one model is lacking (Frattaroli, 2006) An early theoretical explanation of the benefits associated with expressive writing derived from an inhibition model of psychological functioning in which the inhibition of thoughts and feelings was seen a source of harmful stress Emotional disclosure of inhibited thoughts and feelings was thought to lead to catharsis, relieve stress, and thereby improve psychological and physical health outcomes (Frattaroli, 2006) When subsequent research showed that the inhibition model could not account for all of the benefits associated with expressive writing (e.g., writing about imaginary trauma; Greenberg, Wortman, & Stone, 1996), Pennebaker (1993) concluded that a cognitive-processing model might be a better explanation for the psychological mechanism underlying expressive writing He based this notion on qualitative responses from participants who indicated that they perceived insight rather than catharsis as the more important factor in their writing experience Results from studies showing that participants who used more insight and causation words in their writing seemed to confirm this explanation A self-regulation model was offered to explain findings that seemed unaccounted for by the inhibition model or the cognitive-processing model For example, one study that explicitly focused on a self-regulation exercise (i.e., identifying problems and coming up with solutions) (Cameron & Nicholls, 1998) demonstrated that a self-regulation writing exercise was associated with the same health benefits as - 173 - typical expressive writing To-date there is not a consensus in the research literature about what underlying mechanism accounts for the benefits associated with expressive writing (Frattaroli, 2006) The present study was not designed to test the mechanism(s) underlying expressive writing Instead, we aimed to offer empirical evidence regarding whether expressive writing on future life goals is beneficial in promoting desirable types of leadership motivation Motivation to lead Motivation to lead (MTL) is defined as individuals’ motivation to engage in leadership development and assume the role of leadership The present study focused on the malleable aspects of MTL because it can be learned and changed via experiences and interventions Moreover, we focused on multidimensional nature of MTL to examine qualitatively distinct types of MTL as well as quantitative aspect of MTL Therefore, we adopted the multidimensional Motivation to Lead (MTL) model developed by Chan and Drasgow (2001) to identify different types of motivation to lead The MTL model helps explain various reasons or purposes individuals have for assuming leadership roles The MTL model includes three dimensions related to motivation to lead: affective-identity MTL, social-normative MTL, and calculative MTL (Amit, Lisak, Popper, & Gal, 2007; Chan & Drasgow, 2001): Affective-identity MTL refers to leadership motivation derived from intrinsic enjoyment of the experience of leading Affective-identity MTL is related to good leadership skills, extroverted personality, leadership experience, and high leadership self-efficacy Social-normative MTL refers to leadership motivation derived from the desire to be a leader for social esteem or to fulfill social norms or obligations Individuals high in social-normative motivation are motivated by duty and social responsibility They tend to be accepting of social hierarchies and less concerned with social equality than their peers Calculative MTL refers to leadership motivation derived from self-interest to attain the benefits associated with being a leader Individuals who score high in calculative motivation are motivated to lead by expectations of obtaining privileges, rewards, or power Leadership experience and leadership self-efficacy - 174 - are relatively unimportant to those with calculative motives for leadership Prior studies have shown that three types of Motivation to Lead (MTL) are conceptually distinct and independent in terms of concepts and functions (Chan, 1999; Chan & Drasgow, 2001) The MTL model (Chan & Drasgow, 2001) posits that motivation to lead affects leaders’ (and emerging leaders’) decisions to accept leadership roles and responsibilities, to participate in leadership training and education, and leaders’ intensity of effort and persistence Given that individuals tend to endorse various types of motivation to lead, it is also important to promote desirable forms of leadership motivation Students who have a positive outlook on accomplishing future life goals through emotional writing exercises may be more likely to develop intrinsic motivation to lead (i.e., affective-identity motivation) as opposed to being motivated out of social norms or duty (i.e., social-normative motivation) or self-interest motives (i.e., calculative motivation) The purpose of this study was to assess whether an expressive writing intervention can increase specific types of college students’ motivation to lead and assess the impact of the intervention on important characteristics of good leadership such as adaptive attribution for failure and self-criticism Important Attributes for Good Leadership: Attribution for failure and self-criticism Leadership scholars and researchers are concerned about the ways in which leaders attribute meaning to their own actions and the actions of followers and the implications of these attributions for leadership outcomes For example, a recent study investigated the role of narcissism in leadership and found that a sense of entitlement predicted unethical decision-making and self-promotion at the expense of others (Tamborski, Brown, & Chowning, 2012) The self-serving bias is the tendency to make internal attributions for success and external attributions for failure (i.e., blame failures on external sources) The research literature indicates that leaders are susceptible to the self-serving bias and when leaders blame followers for failures and take credit for success this causes problems in the leader-follower relationship (Martinko, Harvey, & Douglas, 2007) Adaptive attribution for failure may mitigate some of these leadership problems because it reflects a belief that one is able to - 175 - control challenging situations and a tendency to accept responsibility for mistakes While it is important for leaders to accept responsibility for mistakes, a concern is that high levels of self-criticism may undermine motivation to lead Research indicates that high self-criticism (i.e., self-anger resulting from perceived under-performance or frustration at not getting desired results) tends to undermine self-concept (Carver, Voie, Kuhl, & Ganellen, 1988) Thus, we believe that good leaders are expected to have relatively high levels of affective-identity MTL, relatively high levels of adaptive attribution for failure, and moderate or low levels of self-criticism and recent research showed that university students in a life goals expressive writing condition displayed less self-criticism compared to participants in a control condition (Troop, Chilcot, Hutchings, & Varnaite, 2013) Purpose and hypotheses The purpose of this research study was to investigate the effect of an expressive writing intervention on leadership motivation, adaptive attribution for failure, and self-criticism The present study will contribute to the literature by focusing on positive writing topics such as future life goals as a way to examine the psychological benefits of expressive writing intervention, while numerous previous studies that provided evidence of the psychological and health benefits associated with expressive used negative writing topics such as past traumatic life experiences as the writing topic (e.g., Lepore, Greenberg, Bruno, & Smyth, 2002; Pennebaker, 1999; Sloan & Marx, 2004) In addition, given that few studies have focused on leadership motivation as a beneficial psychological outcome of expressive writing intervention, this study will offer a valuable evidence about whether college students’ motivation to lead can be changed in an adaptive fashion by expressive writing intervention Hypothesis (within group: pre- and post- intervention measures comparison) After completing the expressive writing interventions with a focus on future life goals, participants will score higher on a measure of affective-identity motivation to lead than they did prior to the expressive writing intervention In contrast, their social-normative and calculative motivation to lead will remain unaffected Hypothesis (between group: control vs experimental group comparison) Compared to the participants in the control condition, those in the expressive - 176 - writing intervention condition will have higher levels of affective-identity motivation to lead and lower levels of social-normative and calculative motivation to lead (when pre-intervention measure scores are controlled for) Hypothesis (within group: pre- and post- intervention measures comparison) After completing the expressive writing intervention, participants will score higher on a measure of controllable attribution and lower on a measure of self-criticism than they did prior to expressive writing Hypothesis (between group: control vs experimental group comparison) Participants in the expressive writing intervention condition will score higher on a measure of controllable attribution for failure and lower on a measure of self-criticism than those in the control condition (when pre-intervention measure scores are controlled for) II Method Participants Participants in this study (N = 90) were students enrolled in a large, Midwestern state university Gender of the participants was self-reported as 24 men and 64 women (2 not reported), ranging in age from 18 to 52 years (M = 22.30, SD = 4.49) Participant classification included freshmen (n = 3), sophomores (n = 21), juniors (n = 38), and seniors (n = 26) Ethnicity was reported as Caucasian (n =60), Native American (n =4), African-American (n = 3), Asian/Pacific Islander (n = 2), and Other (n = 2) Current cumulative grade point average (GPA) ranged from 2.00 to 4.00 (M = 3.16, SD = 0.48) Measures The psychological assessments utilized in this research were administered twice as pre- and post measures Participants completed the instruments before they engaged in writing exercises and were asked to complete the same instruments after finishing - 177 - three consecutive writing sessions Reliability and correlation coefficients are displayed in Table Motivation to lead The Motivation to Lead (MTL) Scale was used as a measure of motivation to lead in the present study A validation study and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of the MTL Scale involving 624 university and post-degree specialization Italian students found evidence supporting its use as a research instrument in social, personality and organizational psychology (Bobbio & Rattazzi, 2006) The MTL model was also tested with a sample of 402 subjects from the Israel Defense Forces and confirmed the existence of the three motivational factors identified by Chan (Amit, Lisak, Popper, & Gal, 2007) The Motivation to Lead Scale (Chan & Drasgow, 2001) measures affective-identity MTL (e.g., “I am the type of person who likes to be in charge of others.”), social-normative MTL (e.g., “I feel that I have a duty to lead others if I am asked.”), and calculative MTL (e.g., “I am only interested to lead a group if there are clear advantages for me.”) Each subscale contained items with a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1=Strongly Disagree to 7=Strongly Agree Separate scores for each subscale were utilized in subsequent analyses Results from our data indicated good internal consistency of the three subscales (all Cronbach’s alphas ranging from 78 to 90) Adaptive attribution for failure Adaptive attribution for failure refers to the belief that an individual can control challenging and unsuccessful situations It was assessed with the items adapted from the Causal Dimension Scale II (McAuley, Duncan, & Russell, 1992) to evaluate the degree to which participants attribute failure to something personally controllable Sample item includes “My unsuccessful performance is caused by something that I can regulate.” A 9-point Likert scale with higher numbers indicating controllable attribution for failure was used as a response format Internal consistencies for the sample were 83 for pre-test and 78 for post-test Self-criticism Self-criticism was assessed with the items drawn from the Attitude toward Self-Revised (ATS-R) (Carver et al., 1988) with a specific focus on the extent to which participants were critical of themselves Self-criticism scale included three items tapping into self-anger resulting from perceived under-performance or frustration at not getting desired results The sample item included “I get angry with myself if my efforts don't lead to the results I wanted.” - 178 - The measure used a 7-point Likert scale with being ‘Strongly Disagree” and being “Strongly Agree” The Cronbach’s alpha for the current sample was 80 for pre-test and 82 for post-test Procedure An expressive writing intervention requires an environment in which participants can focus, gather thoughts, and write with minimal distractions An online intervention may be particularly susceptible to environmental stimuli in dorm rooms, apartments, or other places while taking the survey In order to minimize environmental distractions that could have interrupted the procedure and compromised study integrity, participants were asked to meet research team members at a computer lab on three consecutive days at a scheduled time In the expressive writing paradigm, most studies have participants write for 15 to 20 minutes for three to five sessions (Baikie & Wilhelm, 2005) Pennebaker (2000) recommends writing for at least 15 minutes and for at least three sessions Although participants may benefit from writing more often or for longer periods time, one appealing aspect of expressive writing is that it is a relatively brief form of intervention However, short writing sessions of less than 15 minutes and fewer than three sessions may not be helpful because there is not adequate time for participants to engage in the cognitive processing necessary to develop the insight and understanding about their writing topic associated with benefits (Frattaroli, 2006) Research team members presented informed consent information, assigned participants to writing groups, and helped participants access the study website Participants were randomly assigned to an experimental condition (n = 48) or a control condition (n = 41) Participants were asked to participate in a writing exercise on each of consecutive days They were asked to write assigned writing topics for 20 minutes each time Participants in the experimental condition were instructed to write about their future life goals The participants assigned to the future life goals condition were instructed, “Think about your life in the future Imagine that everything has gone as well as it possibly could You have worked hard and succeeded at accomplishing all of your life goals Think of this as the realization of all your life dreams Do not worry about spelling, punctuation and grammar; please express yourself as freely as possible Tell about your deepest thoughts and feelings and important people in your - 179 - future life We would like you to write for 20 minutes Now, write about what you have imagined” (adapted from King, 2001, p 801) Psychological measures and writing exercises were completed in a computer lab on campus Participants were asked to complete the instruments before they engage in writing exercises and were asked again to complete the same instruments after they finish writing interventions Studies included in a recent meta-analysis of expressive writing research used randomized experimental design with a neutral control group (Frattaroli, 2006) Neutral control groups are those in which participants write about topics considered to be emotionally neutral such as their schedule during the previous 24-hours or a description of their clothing, allowing participants to have the same amount of contact with the study as participants in the experimental condition In the present study, participants in the control condition were assigned a non-emotional topic with the instructions: “Now we would like you to some writing Think about where you live Write about your residence in as much detail as you can Do not worry about punctuation or grammar, just really let go and write as much can about your physical environment at home If time permits, complete this writing assignment by describing your clothing As with the first part of the assignment, don’t worry about the mechanics of writing; just describe your clothing as completely as you can.” Participation in the study involved a total of approximately hours for completing the psychological measures and three expressive writing exercises Correlation Coefficients among Key Constructs and Demographic Variables Affective MTL −** 60** -.30**** 12 01 -.11 11 Social-Normative MTL 51** −** -.34 09 -.07* -.02 08 Calculative MTL 48 48 − 00 27 06 01 Self-Criticism 11 -.04 -.06 − -.13 -.02 12 Attribution for failure -.07 01 -.01 -.26** − -.05 -.10 Age -.03 -.13 00 -.11 -.09 − 14 Gender -.03 02 -.19 12 -.10 14 − Alpha 84/.90 79/.85 82/.78 80/.82 83/.78 − − Note Correlations among Pre-Intervention Measures are displayed below the main diagonal of the matrix, while correlations among Post-Intervention Measures are displayed above the main diagonal - 180 - III Results Preliminary Analyses We conducted a manipulation check to ensure that participants who were randomly assigned to the experimental group or the control group were actually engaged in writing on different topics (future life goals versus where I live) as instructed Two trained research assistants reviewed the writing from both the experimental and control groups and reached agreement that the writing from the two groups was notably different in terms of writing focus and emotional involvement In addition, participants were asked to rate the degree to which they were emotionally involved while writing As expected, the control group showed a significantly lower level of emotional involvement than the experimental group did (Mcontrol=4.45, Mexperiment=5.52; t = 3.23, p < 01) As preliminary analyses, we conducted multivariate analyses of variance to ensure that the experimental and control groups are not substantially different in terms of demographic characteristics including gender and age as well as pre-intervention measures (i.e., three types of MTL, attribution for failure, and self-criticism) There were no significant differences by gender and age between the two groups However, two groups showed a significant difference in pre-intervention measures of affective MTL and self-criticism (see Table 4), while they showed no differences in pre-intervention measures of the other constructs Although random assignment of participants to experimental and control conditions was utilized, we controlled for the possible initial differences between the two groups by adding the pre-intervention measure scores as a covariate in the analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) to ensure that potential differences on the post-intervention measure occurred as a result of the expressive writing intervention - 181 - Mean Score Changes between the Pre-Intervention and Post-Intervention (Life Goal Group, n=48) Life Goal Group Outcome variables Pre-Intervention Post-Intervention t df p Effect size M (SD) M (SD) Affective MTL 4.35 (1.06) 4.92 (1.09) 3.12 47 004 Social-Normative MTL 4.88 (0.87) 4.88 (0.90) -0.03 47 98 Calculative MTL 2.94 (0.77) 2.87 (0.84) 0.62 47 36 Self-Criticism 5.10 (1.16) 4.56 (1.26) 3.77 47 00 Attribution for failure 3.49 (1.76) 4.17 (1.69) -3.02 47 004 Note MTL=Motivation to Lead; ANCOVA results (pre-intervention measure scores controlled for) Main Analyses To test Hypothesis 1, paired t-tests were used to examine whether there were statistically significant mean score changes on construct measures from the pre-intervention to post-intervention sessions Students in the future life goal (experimental) condition scored higher on post-intervention measures of affective-identity MTL (Mpre=4.35, Mpost=4.92; t = 3.12, p < 01) than they did on pre-intervention measures, although no significant mean changes were found on measures of social-normative and calculative MTL between the pre-intervention and post-intervention See Table for a summary of these results Students in the control group showed no significant mean score changes on any measures between the pre-intervention and the post-interventions (see Table 3) Mean Score Changes between the Pre-Intervention and Post-Intervention (Control Group, n=42) Control Group Outcome variables Pre-Intervention Post-Intervention M (SD) M (SD) Affective MTL 4.59 (1.02) 4.47 (1.28) Social-Normative MTL 4.91 (0.97) 4.77 (1.03) Calculative MTL 2.92 (1.04) 3.04 (1.00) Self-Criticism 4.55 (1.40) 4.76 (1.29) Attribution for failure 3.36 (1.53) 3.28 (1.30) Note MTL=Motivation to Lead - 182 - t 1.11 1.31 -0.91 -0.83 0.38 df 41 41 41 41 41 p Effect size 25 20 37 41 71 14 12 16 06 To test Hypothesis 2, analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) were performed to investigate significant differences between the experimental and control group on a measure of motivation to lead as a result of the expressive writing intervention Pre-intervention measure scores were controlled for to ensure that the potential intervention effects are not due to initial differences that existed between the experimental and control group before interventions were implemented We found that after completing online expressive writing exercises, students in the future life goal condition scored higher on measures of affective-identity MTL (Mlifegoal=4.92, Mcontrol=4.47; F= 5.25, p < 05) compared to those in the control condition (see Table 5) However, no significant differences emerged between the two groups on the measures of social-normative and calculative MTL To test Hypothesis 3, paired t-tests were used to examine whether there were statistically significant mean score changes from the pre-intervention to post-intervention sessions Students in the future life goal (experimental) condition scored higher on post-intervention measures of adaptive attribution of failure (Mpre=3.49, Mpost=4.17; t = -3.02, p < 01), and scored lower on a measure of self-criticism (Mpre=5.10, Mpost=4.56; t = 3.77, p < 01) than they did on pre-intervention measures (see Table 2) However, Students in the control group did not show any significant changes on these measures between the pre-intervention and the post-intervention (see Table 3) Differences between the Life Goal (Experimental) and Control Groups on Pre-Intervention Scores (df=1) Life Goal Group Control Group Outcome variables (n=48) (n=42) M (SD) M (SD) Affective MTL 4.35 (1.06) 4.59 (1.02) Social-Normative MTL 4.88 (0.87) 4.91 (0.97) Calculative MTL 2.94 (0.77) 2.92 (1.04) Self-Criticism 5.10 (1.16) 4.55 (1.40) Attribution for failure 3.49 (1.76) 3.36 (1.53) Note MTL=Motivation to Lead F 4.96 0.23 0.01 4.24 0.41 p Effect size 03 62 91 04 43 03 02 08 To test Hypothesis 4, analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) were performed to investigate significant differences between the experimental and control group on the post-measure of attribution for failure and self-criticism Controlling for the - 183 - pre-intervention measure scores, we found that students in the future life goal condition (experimental), compared to students in the control condition, scored higher on measures of adaptive attribution of failure (Mlifegoal=4.17, Mcontrol=3.28; F= 5.25, p < 001), and scored lower on a measure of self-criticism (Mlifegoal=4.56, Mcontrol=4.76; F= 5.64, p < 05) (see Table 5) Taken together, the results indicated that the expressive writing intervention was effective for promoting affective motivation to lead, positive self-concept (low self-criticism) and adaptive attribution for failure Differences between the Life Goal (Experimental) and Control Groups on Post-Intervention Scores (df=1) Life Goal Group Control Group Outcome variables (n=48) (n=42) M (SD) M (SD) Affective MTL 4.92 (1.09) 4.47 (1.28) Social-Normative MTL 4.88 (0.90) 4.77 (1.03) Calculative MTL 2.87 (0.84) 3.04 (1.00) Self-Criticism 4.56 (1.26) 4.76 (1.29) Attribution for failure 4.17 (1.69) 3.28 (1.30) Note MTL=Motivation to Lead F 5.25 0.95 1.24 5.64 9.64 p Effect size 02 33 23 02 00 2 IV Discussion We need motivated leaders who make positive and enduring changes in organizations, government, and communities Given that college students are emerging future leaders, educators need to exert a conscious effort to motivate students to take up the challenge of becoming leaders who take responsibility for their own actions and work with others to create a better world Results from the present study contribute to this effort in important ways This study offers empirical evidence that the expressive writing intervention was effective for fostering an adaptive type of motivation to lead, as indicated by the increased affective-identity motivation after the completion of writing exercises on future life goals Given the importance of having leaders who are highly intrinsically motivated (i.e., affective-identity MTL) rather than those who accept the leadership - 184 - role merely out of social obligation (i.e., social-normative MTL) or self-interest (i.e., calculative MTL), it is noteworthy that expressive writing on future life goals can serve as a beneficial education method to increase the available pool of potential future leaders The expressive writing intervention was not associated with increased motivation to lead based on calculated self-interest, which is significant because those who are motivated to lead out of external reasons may be more susceptible to ethical lapses, corruption, and striving for goals that not serve the common good than those who are intrinsically motivated to lead Expressive writing on future life goals was also effective in promoting positive attributes for good leadership Participants in the future life goal condition showed a significant improvement in adaptive attribution for failure from pre-intervention to post-intervention, and revealed more adaptive attribution to failure (post-intervention score) than those in the control condition Adaptive attribution for failure requires having a realistic view of what one is personally capable of controlling and people who make adaptive attribution for failure tend to be willing to work hard to improve results next time This is a meaningful finding as it speaks to the concern mentioned in the introduction that scholar leaders need to take responsibility for their own actions In addition, participants in the future life goal condition displayed lower self-criticism from pre-intervention to post-intervention and lower self-criticism than those in the control condition after the intervention This finding is significant because potential leaders need to develop resiliency in the face of inevitable conflict and criticism Harsh self-criticism can lead to neurotic rumination about mistakes or flaws that can be unproductive or even counter-productive (Neff, 2003) Given that leaders will inevitably make mistakes, avoiding overly harsh self-criticism despite failures or shortcomings is important for adaptive psychological functioning and resilience (Neff & McGehee, 2010) Taken together, expressive writing intervention increased adaptive attribution for failure and decreased self-criticism These results imply that participants in the experimental condition increased their sense of control over challenging and unsuccessful situations without feeling harshly critical of mistakes— making it more likely that they would admit mistakes and work hard to avoid similar mistakes in the future Additional research is needed to shore up this interpretation of the results of this study and to test generalizability in other settings and populations For example, it might be fruitful to conduct a more fine-grained analysis of the - 185 - self-serving bias by comparing self-esteem to self-compassion among leaders as Neff (2003) argues that high levels of self-compassion may facilitate awareness of mistakes whereas high levels of self-esteem tend not to be associated with awareness of one’s mistakes Future research on the topic of motivation to lead should investigate additional ways of enhancing motivation for leadership because exploring various factors that influence motivation may provide insight about how to refine leadership programs for enhancing motivation to lead In summary, this study provides evidence of a positive association between expressive writing about life goals and affective-identity motivation to lead, low self-criticism, and adaptive attribution for failure This cluster of findings may be desirable for developing ethical leaders because ethical leaders should be more intrinsically than extrinsically motivated, maintain a resilient self-concept in the face of inevitable criticism, and demonstrate a willingness to acknowledge failures and take responsibility for improving in domains under personal control It is noteworthy that college students’ motivation to lead and attributes related to quality leadership can be learned and changed through educational intervention Recent research has demonstrated that relatively brief social-psychological interventions in educational settings that impact thoughts, feelings, and beliefs of students can have lasting positive effects (Yeager & Walton, 2011) The findings in the present study are significant because they show one such brief, low-cost means of increasing motivation among college students to develop as good leaders Although several psychological mechanisms have been proposed to account for positive outcomes associated with expressive writing, research to-date has not definitively identified one underlying mechanism; and, the present study is no exception Future experimental studies should continue to address this gap in the literature by testing what entails the effect of expressive writing on positive psychological outcomes Writing topics, outcome variables considered, writing context, age and gender could be carefully examined in relation to the sources of effectiveness of expressive writing intervention This study offers new evidence that positive writing topics such as future life goals help generate positive outcomes as well as negative writing topics such as past stress experience, as evidenced by previous studies Although the data from the current study not permit examination of the long-term effect of the expressive writing intervention, longitudinal data tracking motivation changes over time would - 186 - provide useful evidence about the intervention effects in future studies Given that it is important to have leaders who are not just effective, but who are also ethical, further research related to leadership motivation is warranted to investigate how different types of motivation to lead result in ethical and effective leadership The data from the current study also not allow us to draw any conclusions about changes in behavior associated with leadership Future studies might consider collecting data on behavioral changes in addition to changes in attitudes such as motivation, attribution for failure, and self-criticism The findings in the present study were consistent with previous research (Fitzgerald & Schutte, 2010) that found expressive writing was associated with increased self-efficacy for transformational leadership Expressive writing exercises such as those indicated in the research literature and those described in the present study offer potential low-cost interventions for increasing student motivation for leadership Practical implications of the findings in the present study include considering ways in which instructors address the motivational needs of students in educational programming Leadership educators could consider integrating expressive writing exercises into their curricula to address the psychological as well as the intellectual needs of students in leadership programs For example, students might keep “leadership journals” to track their growth and development as leaders Such a leadership journal might incorporate life goals expressive writing exercises to help enhance leadership motivation among leadership students - 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Evidence for a dimensional approach to narcissism Personality and Individual Differences, 52(8), 942 Troop, N A., Chilcot, J., Hutchings, L., & Varnaite, G.(2013) Expressive writing, self-criticism, and self-reassurance Psychology and Psychotherapy, 86(4), 374-386 Yeager, D S., & Walton, G M.(2011) Social-Psychological Interventions in Education: They're Not Magic Review of Educational Research, 81(2), 267-301 논문접수 : 2015년 10월 7일 / 수정본접수 : 2015년 11월 5일 / 게재승인 : 2015년 11월 27일 - 191 - ... only to increase the general level of motivation to lead, but also to promote more adaptive types of motivation to lead Most studies on motivation to lead utilized survey research method to identify... expressive writing on future life goals is beneficial in promoting desirable types of leadership motivation Motivation to lead Motivation to lead (MTL) is defined as individuals’ motivation to. .. Table Motivation to lead The Motivation to Lead (MTL) Scale was used as a measure of motivation to lead in the present study A validation study and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of