Survey/Psych Paper Results

deneranys

Thank you to everyone who participated in my JW adolescent survey for my Developmental Psychology term paper! Several were interested in how it turned out, so here are some of the findings from the survey. From those that responded, fewer JW adolescents (about half as much) took illegal drugs and had sex than the average teen. There were no differences with cigarettes and alcohol. What is interesting, though, is that after the age of 18, the numbers swelled up, and compensated for the sparse early years. Basically, the same percentage of people in my survey DID drugs as compared to others, but it was postponed to a later point in life. I postulated in my paper that risk taking (such as doing drugs) is more important to development of identity that previously thought. Another big point of my paper involved what is called Foreclosure. This is when a person accepts the standards they are given by their parents or society about who they are supposed to be without exploring their options. Many of my survey questions were about the pressure to foreclose and the rate of foreclosure as an adolescent. Foreclosing on your identity causes a lot of problems in later life, and the tentative findings of my survey indicated that Witness youths accepted the preformed identity significantly more often that other youths. The average age for those filling out my survey was mid-thirties--and yet one out of every three surveyed checked that they still did not know who they were. The JW religion claims that foreclosing, and accepting witnesshood as a youngster is a good thing and will help you make good decisions in your life. All the research I did on identity and the results from my survey said "liar liar, pants on fire." (I didn't say that in my paper, of course. I was pretty darn objective, actually. I was so objective, in fact, that my paper sounded very much like a boring peer-reviewed journal article, which is why I'm not just posting the paper I wrote. I thought you guys deserved a little more of my personal opinion.) I concluded my paper by saying we could learn a lot about identity formation by studying the unusual subgroups and their differences to the average person. I got a 98% on the paper, so I'm happy! As another note, I found some interesting things about the Witness literature while I was writing my paper. I needed to verify the information I gave about the beliefs of Witnesses, so I plugged in the Watchtower CD-Rom that I kept for just these instances, and did a lot of reading in the Young People Ask book. This is the first time I have ever read this publication with an objective, scientific eye. MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!! The statistics were misleading, the "conclusions" were erroneous, and some of the stuff that the society was telling youths was completely not Biblical. (As an example: masturbation. The Bible doesn't say anything thing about masturbating. AT ALL. Nothing. Nada. But the book states that it is "clear" that God hates this practice.)

jwfacts

I filled it out and forgot to post it to you. Would you still like additional responses?
Also I would love to read the study that you submitted with all its glorious boring speach. I have always felt what you mentioned about Foreclosure but was not aware there was a term for it.
I would also love to see any notes you made about the YPA book and any misleading information you think is included.
Thanks

serendipity

Thanks for sharing your results, deneranys.

daystar

Quite interesting. I too would like to see the paper in its entirity if you wouldn't mind.

JW_Researcher

I'd be interested in reading your paper as well.

Thank you.

lisaBObeesa

The JW religion claims that foreclosing, and accepting witnesshood as a youngster is a good thing and will help you make good decisions in your life. All the research I did on identity and the results from my survey said "liar liar, pants on fire."

-deneranys, thanks for the recap...and I would love to read your 'boring' paper. I think developmental psychology fascinating stuff.

Foreclosed people make perfect, contollable cult members:

Forclosed individuals tend to be dogmatic, inflexible,, and intolerant. Some use their commitments in a difensive way, regarding any difference of opinion as a threat. Most are afraid of rejection by the people on whone they depend for affection and self-esteem (Frank, Pirsch, & Wright, 1990: Kroger, 1995) ---Infants, Children, and Adolescents, Laura E. Berk

Af few years ago when I read the chapter of my text book that contained the info above, it really hit me full force how much being raised a JW hurts a person. I also was able to let go of so much guilt about some of the 'bad' stuff I did as a teen because I now understood that I NEEDED to do these things! It was natural and normal and healthy, and it wasn't right that my parents tried to keep me locked away from everything and everyone. I was supposed to rebel, I was supposed to try things out, and I was supposed to figure out who I was (not them!).

Now I work with many adolescents who are forclosed or at risk of ending up forclosed. They have black and white thinking. They do what they are told to do by people they consider to be in authority over them. They are needy. They live in constant fear of the loss of approval from people in their group. Some of them wish they could get out and be themselves, but they 'just can't.' Some of them are already so set in their ready-made forced identity that I don't think they could ever change and I wonder who they would have become if they had been raised differently. Sound familiar? Sound like JW kids? I think so. But they are young gang members from East Palo Alto. Very similar thinking.

-Lisabobeesa

misspeaches

I'm so glad that you came back with your findings as I was curious to know the overall results. And congratulations on the excellent results too!

bikerchic

deneranys wonderful information and congrats on getting a 98% you should be darn proud!

The JW religion claims that foreclosing, and accepting witnesshood as a youngster is a good thing and will help you make good decisions in your life. All the research I did on identity and the results from my survey said "liar liar, pants on fire."

Foreclosing! Wow that is the word I was just looking for it explains a lot of what I've seen in JW's especially exiting ones who have left the religion but not their upbringing. Very interesting!

and did a lot of reading in the Young People Ask book. This is the first time I have ever read this publication with an objective, scientific eye. MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!! The statistics were misleading, the "conclusions" were erroneous, and some of the stuff that the society was telling youths was completely not Biblical. (As an example: masturbation. The Bible doesn't say anything thing about masturbating. AT ALL. Nothing. Nada. But the book states that it is "clear" that God hates this practice.)

Isn't it great when our blinders are off and we can really be objective! Oh how I remember my X turning to that book to read to one of our errant teenagers expecting to get some profound guidance and at the time all I could think of wow what a total guilt trip he's placing on them, sigh. I began to hate that book more of "be more, do more and you'll still never be perfect" crapola.

I would really love to see the complete paper PM me or really just post it here I think others could benefit from reading it too.

lisaBObeesa

-deneranys, thanks for the recap...and I would love to read your 'boring' paper. I think developmental psychology fascinating stuff.
Foreclosed people make perfect, contollable cult members:
Forclosed individuals tend to be dogmatic, inflexible,, and intolerant. Some use their commitments in a difensive way, regarding any difference of opinion as a threat. Most are afraid of rejection by the people on whone they depend for affection and self-esteem (Frank, Pirsch, & Wright, 1990: Kroger, 1995) ---Infants, Children, and Adolescents, Laura E. Berk
Af few years ago when I read the chapter of my text book that contained the info above, it really hit me full force how much being raised a JW hurts a person. I also was able to let go of so much guilt about some of the 'bad' stuff I did as a teen because I now understood that I NEEDED to do these things! It was natural and normal and healthy, and it wasn't right that my parents tried to keep me locked away from everything and everyone. I was supposed to rebel, I was supposed to try things out, and I was supposed to figure out who I was (not them!).

I must have read the same text book, that is exactly what I was looking for today, what a gem to find it here!

Funny I didn't suffer from guilt when I did dumb things as a teen and I remember telling my parents when I got caught, "heck I could have done much worse." LOL As a parent my standard saying to my teenage kids when they got caught was "OK it's a mistake, learn from it and don't repeat it" then they got some kind of appropriate punishment to fit the crime. I felt it was the learning from what they did which would help them evolve and grow and I know life is sometimes messy but most things can be cleaned up. In cleaning up you teach them how to deal with the mess in a responsible way. Well I hope I made sense? LOL

Sound familiar? Sound like JW kids? I think so. But they are young gang members from East Palo Alto. Very similar thinking.

Wow Lisa sounds like you have an interesting yet very challenging job, good for you I bet you really make a difference in the lives of some of these kids.

MerryMagdalene

Fascinating. And I now want to learn more about "foreclosure." What little bit I read here is helping me make sense of some stuff.

Thanks for sharing.

~Merry

lisaBObeesa

Wow Lisa sounds like you have an interesting yet very challenging job, good for you I bet you really make a difference in the lives of some of these kids.

I don't know about that. I think I learn more from them then they do from me. I sure do love some of them.

Survey/Psych Paper Results

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