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.)
deneranys
JoinedPosts by deneranys
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Survey/Psych Paper Results
by deneranys inthank 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.
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Cleaning the Kingdom Hall
by general inwhat part of the hall was your favorite part to clean?
was it the bathrooms, the main hall, library or lunch room perhaps...did people use cleaning the hall as an excuse to get self-righteous?
let me know.... lol.
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deneranys
When I was really little they gave me the job of counting the chairs. I thought it was fun.
My mother was "disabled" so she really didn't do much cleaning, and I didn't have to by extension. But when I got married and moved out on my own, I tried to do my share. I would always empty the garbages and refill the paper towels and TP in the bathroom.
At the assemblies I would volunteer to clean the bathrooms during the session. It was always crazy. There was always several psychoWitness women who would practically push you aside while they cleaned "the right way." I usually ended up plunging the toilets. -
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Jehovah's Witnesses - Long overdue for a Renaissance
by truthseeker inthe renaissance was a revival that originated in italy in the 14th century and later spread throughout europe.
the transistion was made from the medieval era to the modern era.
during this time, a revival of classical literature, art, architecture and sculpture emerged.. .
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deneranys
I don't know...it's hard to predict what's going to happen with the witnesses... I can't help but wonder what the religion will be like in 20 years. I think it is going to have a radical transformation. At that point, the only annointed left will be those magical "replacements" that have been cropping up. (An annointed brother gave a dedication talk at an assembly hall shortly before I left. He was only in his 50's or 60's.) All the young ones that are around NOW will be the elders and CO's. I don't know about the congregations YOU were in, but in the half dozen or so I was in, the younger generation just wasn't as anal or strict. The pioneers, ministerial servants...they watched sex and violence that anyone over 35 that was a "good witness" never would (or at least wouldn't admit to). I can't help but wonder if the changing of the guard that is to come just might usher in a renaissance of sorts...
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Just got a knock at the door...yup you guessed it
by Lady Liberty inwell it wasn't the long awaited visit we have been looking for, but i guess they are still working on it!
my husband and i have been waiting for over 5 weeks for a reply back from the elders as to the date discrepancy of 607 (between the watchtower references and the appendix.
)we blew them away when they were here, and said they would go do the research...until today we have heard nothing from anyone.
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deneranys
When I left I blocked my friends' emails, changed my phone number, and refused to talk to any witness until I had time to think about what was and was not true, but my sister is having some fun times with the elders.
She and my brother in law are trying to just fade away. At first they ignored the elder's when they knocked on the door. But one time my brother in law opened the door and asked the elders a bunch of questions, and of course didn't get any good answers.
TWICE my sister has found an elder peeking in her living room window (He didn't knock first, and it was dark.), I imagine trying to see something to disfellowship them for. Then they tried to get my brother-in-law's dad to "go along" so that they could get in the door...but that didn't work, either.
Yet, every time my sister sees the elders in the grocery stores, they completely ignore her. -
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My life - a new turn
by InquiryMan inive been on the net ever since the miningco, old witnesses.net days and now here on jwd.
it has been an interesting journey.
yesterday my life took a new turn.
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deneranys
I wasn't married for as long as you were, but when I told my husband (we were separated at the time) that I was a lesbian, it opened the way for a new relationship. When he and I divorced, we went together, and we went out to lunch afterward. We stayed friends, and eventually he moved in with my girlfriend and I as our roommate. He and my girlfriend are buds, we are our own unique sort of family. It starts out a little awkward at first, but happiness can happen! I had my first child in December, a little boy, and my exhusband very much wanted to be Daddy. So my son has three parents who love him (Biological father just a sperm donor). I wish you luck with your newfound identity.
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Restatement
by pratt1 in.
for those of you that have been dfed - how long did it take you to be reinstated, and how long did you continue to be active?.
i was reinstated after 5 months out and i continued to be active for about 5 years.. although i have to admit, i never felt the same about the dubs after i was reinstated, and should have quit the religion much earlier.
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deneranys
My mother had allergies and we sat in one of the back rooms most of the times. I got to watch the D/Fed as they came in and left. They always looked so humiliated... When there was an announcement that someone was D/Fed, the feeling in the hall turned so cold. If the person was there, everyone would turn and look, there might as well have been a search light right on them. It horrified me every time. I grew up with a phobia about disfellowshipping...that ominous announcement in front of everybody. I refused to pretend they didn't exist...I would meet their eyes and smile. If no one was around I would say hi. When I found out the disfellowshipped me, even though I was way past wanting to be a Witness anymore, all my previous fears washed over me...and then I got mad because it was yet another control method, proved effective. There's no way I could return to the Witness song and dance in order to get reinstated. After the 3rd meeting I'd probably strip off all my clothes and scream profanities.
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Did anyone actually enjoy field service?
by Check_Your_Premises in.
did anyone ever actually admit it if they hated it?.
cyp
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deneranys
I enjoyed service until I was about 12 years old. I was/am a sensitive sort, and I would always be paying attention to the others in the car group. When a person really HATED service, but was pretending to enjoy it, there I was, the kid in the back seat, acting normal but feeling the weight of repressed emotions. Service terrified me. I was OK at the doors, but I was constantly putting myself in the shoes of the householder. Return visits were what I loathed the most. I was always pressured to return to people, even though I felt that they didn't WANT me to return... And when I went to other people's return visits, most of the time I would see this poor nice person, in agony but too polite to tell us to go away...and then on the way back to the car I'd listen to my partner ooze about how *wonderful* their call was. Service did do one good thing, though: I can have a full out panic attack, and unless you are an extremely perceptive person, you can't even tell. Yay. What skill.
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Another question about JW
by Shazard inas i never been jw i can't understand why some of you bother writing some letters.
if being in wt is not legaly binding (as i understood that baptism is not legaly binding), then who cares about writing.
just stop going to kh and that's all.
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deneranys
Although I wrote all of my friends and family, I didn't write the elders when I first left because I wasn't sure yet what I wanted and I didn't want anything *FINAL.*
Then my sister announced she was getting married, and for one reason or another, no one in the family was going to go. Even though I no longer believed and didn't want to be a Witness at this point, I held off writing any letters so that I could go to my sister's wedding and she would have someone there for her.
After getting back from her wedding, I immediately wrote a letter of disassociation, because being around witnesses after getting out was most traumatic, but before I could revise it and type it up, I got an email. The name on the email was an elder's wife's name, but when I opened it up, it was the Service Overseer writing me. He told me I had 2 choices: accept counsel or disassociate myself.
I was royally pissed off, and then I refused to send a letter. Why was he trying to "trick" me into opening an email? And who was he to make demands?? So I didn't do anything.
Somehow they found out I was pregnant A YEAR AFTER I CEASED HAVING CONTACT WITH ANY OF THEM, and they disfellowshipped me. I'm not sure how they did this according to their rules, because they never contacted me about it--I found out fourth hand. -
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A survey
by deneranys ini just joined this forum, for two main reasons.
1-i've been feeling the need to talk to some ex-jw's out there.
i feel like i've only been alive for 2 years, and it's hard to feel normal around the public.
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deneranys
DARN IT! I made paragraphs...where did they go??
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A survey
by deneranys ini just joined this forum, for two main reasons.
1-i've been feeling the need to talk to some ex-jw's out there.
i feel like i've only been alive for 2 years, and it's hard to feel normal around the public.
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deneranys
I know that establishing validity in this test is high nigh near impossible. The survey isn't the basis for most of my research, I have peer reviewed psychological articles concerning studies on adolescents, religion, etc. that I will be using to assert my theories. Surveys in general, and surveys that give you only a limited choice for response aren't that accurate, usually. (People lie, lie, lie for one, and giving choices prompts the person.) I most certainly would not use data of this sort in my master's thesis, but for the purpose of this paper, it serves to show that I have gathered data from more than just my own thoughts and experiences, and establishes some credibility for me. Plus there are a few other things...but I don't want to put too many of my thoughts down because I don't want to unduly influence anyone's unfilled-out survey. Suffice it to say that all data gathered by the survey will be qualified.