15 Nov 2002 18 13 AR AR178 PS54 21 tex AR178 PS54 21 sgm LaTeX2e 2002 01 18 P1 FHD 10 1146 annurev psych 54 101601 145041 Annu Rev Psychol 2003 54 547 77 doi 10 1146 annurev psych 54 101601 145041 c 2003 by Annual Reviews All rights reserved Copyright First published online as a Review in Advance on August 14 2002 PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF NATURAL LANGUAGE USE Our Words Our Selves James W Pennebaker Matthias R Mehl and Kate G Niederhoffer Department of Psychology University of Texas at Austin Austin Texas 78712 e mail Pennebaker psy utexas edu Mehl psy utexas edu Key Words LIWC text analysis artificial intelligence discourse pronouns particles Abstract The words people use in their daily lives can reveal important aspects of their social and psychological worlds With advances in computer technology text analysis allows researchers to reliably and quickly assess features of what people say as well as subtleties in their linguistic styles Following a brief review of several text analysis programs we summarize some of the evidence that links natural word use to personality social and situational fluctuations and psychological interventions Of particular interest are findings that point to the psychological value of studying particles parts of speech that include pronouns articles prepositions conjunctives and auxiliary verbs Particles which serve as the glue that holds nouns and regular verbs together can serve as markers of emotional state social identity and cognitive styles CONTENTS INTRODUCTION METHODS OF STUDYING LANGUAGE USE PSYCHOLOGICAL WORD COUNT APPROACHES The General Inquirer Analyzing Emotion Abstraction Patterns TAS C Weintraub s Analysis of Verbal Behavior Analyzing Verbal Tone with DICTION Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count Biber Factor Analyzing the English Language Summary and Evaluation WORD USE AS A REFLECTION OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES Psychometric Properties of Word Use Demographic Variables Traditional Personality Measures Mental Health and Psychopathology Physical Health and Health Behavior 0066 4308 03 0203 0547 14 00 548 549 550 551 551 552 553 553 554 554 555 556 558 559 561 547 15 Nov 2002 18 13 548 AR AR178 PS54 21 tex PENNEBAKER MEHL AR178 PS54 21 sgm LaTeX2e 2002 01 18 P1 FHD NIEDERHOFFER WORD USE AS A REFLECTION OF SITUATIONAL AND SOCIAL PROCESSES Formal Versus Informal Settings Deception and Honesty Emotional Upheavals Social Interactions WORD USE AS A REFLECTION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL AND HEALTH CHANGE Use of Cognitive and Emotion Words Use of Word Analyses in Psychotherapy References to Self and Others Pronouns and Perspectives FUTURE DIRECTIONS IN THE STUDY OF WORD USE Which Words Should We be Studying SOME FINAL WORDS LIMITATIONS AND POSSIBILITIES 562 562 564 564 566 567 567 568 569 569 570 571 INTRODUCTION The ways people use words convey a great deal of information about themselves their audience and the situations they are in Individuals choice of words can hint at their social status age sex and motives We sense if the speaker or writer is emotionally close or distant thoughtful or shallow and possibly extraverted neurotic or open to new experience Although several Annual Review chapters have summarized research on language acquisition production comprehension and its links to brain activity this is the first to discuss how language and more specifically word use is a meaningful marker and occasional mediator of natural social and personality processes That the words people use are diagnostic of their mental social and even physical state is not a new concept Freud 1901 provided several compelling examples in his discussion of parapraxes or slips of the tongue He pointed out that common errors in speech betray people s deeper motives or fears Drawing heavily on psychoanalysis Jacques Lacan 1968 extended these ideas by suggesting that the unconscious asserts itself through language Indeed language in his view is the bridge to reality Philosopher Paul Ricoeur 1976 argued that the ways we describe events define the meanings of the events and that these meanings help us keep our grasp on reality Similar assumptions are implicit in much of the work in sociolinguistics e g Eckert 1999 Tannen 1994 narrative and discourse analyses Schiffrin 1994 and communication research Robinson Giles 2001 This article explores the methods and recent findings on word use rather than language per se the styles in which people use words rather than the content of what they say The distinction between linguistic style and linguistic content can be seen in how two people may make a simple request Would it be possible for you to pass me the salt and Pass the salt both express the speaker s desire for salt and direct the listener s action However the two utterances also reveal different features of the interactants relationship the speaker s personality and perhaps the way the speaker understands himself 15 Nov 2002 18 13 AR AR178 PS54 21 tex AR178 PS54 21 sgm LaTeX2e 2002 01 18 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF WORD USE P1 FHD 549 Because word use is a relatively unstudied phenomenon this article focuses on four broad topics The first deals with ways researchers have tried to study the ways people naturally use words By natural we refer to relatively open ended responses to questions natural interactions and written or spoken text The most common methodologies include manual word counts and more recently computer analyses of language The second section of this article explores recent findings linking word use to individual differences The final two sections consider the links between word usage and social or situational differences and how we can use words to mark psychological change METHODS OF STUDYING LANGUAGE USE PSYCHOLOGICAL WORD COUNT APPROACHES Although many of the assumptions about language as a psychological marker are shared the methods of studying language and word use have often been a battleground Most narrative researchers assume that language is by definition contextual Consequently phrases sentences or entire texts must be considered within the context of the goals of the speaker and the relationship between the speaker and the audience Because of the complexity of communication this strategy assumes that the investigator must attend to the meaning of the utterances in context However defined meaning is believed to be sufficiently multilayered to only be decoded by human judges who then evaluate what is said or written Qualitative analyses then provide the researcher with
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