The purpose of this study was to examine whether working homemakers who performed multiple roles had different emotional experiences according to their way of self-compartmentalization and of viewing themselves in a bid to verify the effect of their s...
The purpose of this study was to examine whether working homemakers who performed multiple roles had different emotional experiences according to their way of self-compartmentalization and of viewing themselves in a bid to verify the effect of their self- compartmentalization and self-view.
Defining one's own structure based on the level of compartment- alization refers to polarized structuralization of oneself. That is, one's own aspects that he or she considers important is structuralized as belief based on positive emotion, and one's own aspects that he or she considered unimportant is structuralized as belief based on negative emotion. Such a bipolar structure appears when one takes a single view of himself or herself. In the event of working housewives, what aspects of their own they consider important depends on whether they take a relationship-oriented or achievement-oriented view of themselves. Those who take an achievement-oriented self-view attach importance to their roles as office workers, and those who take a relationship-oriented self- view give weight to their roles as homemakers. In contrast, structuralizing oneself in a dualistic way means that he or she takes a dual-view of himself or herself. So those with a double-view structuralize themselves by owning both types of belief that are respectively based on positive and negative emotion.
It's assumed in this study that working homemakers might compartmentalize themselves better when they have a single self-view, and that they might be less stressed about the performance of multiple roles and undergo less stress-related emotional changes when they take a double self-view.
After a pilot study was conducted to develop instruments to evaluate self-compartmentalization and self-view, questionnaires were prepared by including different sorts of scales that respectively covered self- compartmentalization/self-view, job stress, maternal stress, stress as a spouse, positive/negative emotion and depression. The subjects in this study were 256 working housewives in Seoul, Gyeonggi province and Busan, on whom a survey was conducted to gather data.
The findings of the study were as follows:
First, the group of housewives that had a relationship-oriented single self-view compartmentalized themselves significantly more than the group that took a double self-view. The hypothesis that the single self-view group might excel the double self-view group in self- compartmentalization was accepted in part, as only the relationship- oriented single self-view group surpassed the double self-view group in that regard.
Second, in terms of stress about multiple roles, the housewives that took a double self-view suffered less stress as homemakers and company employees than the others who took a single self-view or took no view of themselves. The group with achievement-oriented self-view felt more stress as housewives than the others, while the relationship- oriented self-view group underwent more stress about the roles of office workers than the others.
Third, as for emotional changes triggered by multiple-role stress, the interaction between the sort of self-view and stress level had no significant impact on their positive and negative emotions, but their changes in depression was under the significant influence of the interaction between the type of self-view and stress level. The stress level made no difference to the depression scores of the double self-view group, but in the groups with a single self-view and without any self- view, those who were more stressed scored significantly higher in depression. In the low-stress group, the type of self-view made no significant difference to depression, whereas that made a significant difference to the depression of the high-stress group. The findings backed up the hypothesis of this study that a double self-view might be effective at regulating emotion in times of severe stress.
According to Showers(1996), the experience of self-reflection was not effective at recovering from negative emotion in a group whose compartmentalization was at a higher level, but in another group whose compartmentalization was on a higher level, that was effective. The findings of the study also showed that the double self-view group that could be defined as a group whose compartmentalization was at a lower level controlled their depression or negative emotion in highly stressful situations. If it's believed that their self-reflection produced that effect, self-reflection could be said to make it possible for them to look at themselves from another perspective, to differentiate themselves and eventually to enlarge their self-view. In the long run, it could be said that enlarged self-view deterred the housewives from looking at themselves negatively and thereby from making a perverted self- evaluation.
The findings of the study suggested that an enlarged self-view made it possible to look at stressful incidents from multiple angles, and that it was one of mediating variables that functioned as a buffer in preventing stress from turning into negative emotion or depression. Clients who have been thrown into emotional confusion because of stressful incidents get to see the incidents in a new light and undergo less negative emotion or depression when they learn to take an enlarge view of themselves. The findings of the study illustrated that helping clients to take an enlarged self-view and interpret stressful incidents from a new perspective might be one of efficient therapeutic counseling mechanisms.