Df. Scholz et Jj. Forest, EFFECTS OF FICTIONAL, AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL AND SELF-HELP LITERATURE ON PERSONALITY MEASURES, Psychological reports, 80(1), 1997, pp. 91-96
This study evaluated three types of books under different reading cond
itions and using two measures of personality. Data from 163 women were
analyzed in a ? x 2 x 2 multivariate design, with control groups, whi
ch Varied type of book (fiction, autobiography, self-help), reading co
ndition (supervised and unsupervised), and order of testing (Eysenck P
ersonality Questionnaire and Personal Orientation Inventory). None oi:
the groups who received books to read had mean scores significantly d
ifferent from those of the control groups. However, the group reading
the self-help book had significantly higher scores on scales of self-a
ctualization than the groups using fictional or autobiographical books
.