James W Pennebaker
Professor — Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin
Regents Centennial Professor

Contact
- E-mail: pennebaker@utexas.edu
- Phone: (512) 232-2781
- Office: SEA 3.212
- Campus Mail Code: A8000
Interests
Natural language and social behavior; group processes and educational outcomes; how individuals, groups, and cultures respond to traumatic events
Biography
Dr. Pennebaker does not plan to admit a new clinical doctoral student for Fall.
James W. Pennebaker is the Regents Centennial Professor of Liberal Arts and Professor of Psychology. He and his students are exploring natural language use, group dynamics, and personality in both laboratory and real world settings. His earlier work on expressive writing found that physical health and work performance can improve by simple writing and/or talking exercises. His cross-disciplinary research is related to linguistics, clinical and cognitive psychology, communications, medicine, and computer science. Author or editor of 12 books and over 300 articles, Pennebaker has received numerous research and teaching awards and honors.
Personal Information
Born: Midland, Texas
Married to Ruth Burney Pennebaker
Children: Teal Pennebaker and Nick Pennebaker
Education
B.A. Eckerd College, 1972 with honors
Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin, 1977
Positions
2009-present |
Regents Centennial Professor of Liberal Arts |
2016-2018 |
Executive Director, Project 2021, and Special Advisor to the Provost |
2005-2014 |
Chair of Psychology Department, University of Texas at Austin |
2005-2010 |
International Research Professor, University of Central Lancashire, UK |
1997-present |
Professor of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin |
1983-1997 |
Associate and Full Professor, Southern Methodist University |
|
Chair of Psychology Department, Southern Methodist University |
1977-1983 |
Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Virginia |
Courses
PSY 194Q • Text Analysis Workshop-Wb
43005 • Spring 2021
Meets M 5:30PM-7:00PM
Internet; Synchronous
PSY 394V • Readings In Text Analysis-Wb
43045 • Spring 2021
Meets W 4:00PM-6:30PM
Internet; Synchronous
PSY 394V • Text Analysis/Social Media-Wb
41679 • Fall 2020
Meets M 5:00PM-8:00PM
Internet; Synchronous
PSY 394V • Text Analysis/Social Media
42764 • Spring 2019
Meets M 6:00PM-7:30PM SEA 5.106
PSY 194Q • Text Analysis For Soc Scien
42557 • Spring 2016
Meets M 6:00PM-7:30PM SEA 3.250
PSY 301 • Introduction To Psychology
42160 • Fall 2015
Meets TTH 1:00PM-2:30PM SEA 2.114
SB
PSY 301 • Introduction To Psychology
42170 • Fall 2015
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM
Two-way Interactive Video
SB
PSY 301 • Introduction To Psychology
43545 • Fall 2014
Meets TTH 1:00PM-2:30PM SEA 2.114
SB
PSY 301 • Introduction To Psychology
43551 • Fall 2014
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM
Two-way Interactive Video
SB
PSY 394V • Text Analysis Of Literature
44370 • Spring 2014
Meets M 3:00PM-6:00PM SEA 4.242
PSY 301 • Introduction To Psychology
43610-43612 • Fall 2013
Meets TTH 6:00PM-7:30PM
Two-way Interactive Video
SB
PSY 394V • Language And Social Processes
43695 • Spring 2013
Meets M 3:00PM-6:00PM SEA 1.332
PSY 301 • Introduction To Psychology
43135-43150 • Fall 2012
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM BUR 106
SB
PSY 394V • Smnr In Socl & Personality Psy
43520 • Spring 2012
Meets W 4:00PM-7:00PM SEA 1.332
PSY 301 • Introduction To Psychology
43035-43045 • Fall 2011
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM BUR 106
SB
PSY 394V • Language And Social Processes
44050 • Spring 2011
Meets M 3:00PM-6:00PM SEA 4.242
PSY 301 • Introduction To Psychology
42995 • Fall 2010
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM BUR 106
SB
PSY 394V • Words And Social Processes
43472 • Spring 2009
Meets T 2:30PM-5:30PM SEA 4.242
PSY 301 • Introduction To Psychology
44045 • Fall 2008
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM BUR 106
SB
PSY 394V • Curr Tpcs In Social-Pers Psy
44330 • Spring 2008
Meets W 5:00PM-8:00PM SEA 3.250
PSY 301 • Introduction To Psychology
44900 • Fall 2007
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM BUR 106
SB
PSY 394V • Psychosomatic Processes
43965 • Spring 2007
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM SEA 2.224
PSY 301 • Introduction To Psychology
44675 • Fall 2006
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM BUR 106
SB
PSY 394V • Spec Tpcs In Biolinguistics
45150 • Fall 2006
Meets W 8:00AM-11:00AM SEA 4.402
PSY 394V • Personality And Language
43305 • Spring 2006
Meets T 8:30AM-11:30AM SEA 2.224
PSY 301 • Introduction To Psychology
42815 • Fall 2005
Meets MW 3:00PM-4:30PM JES A121A
SB
PSY 301 • Introduction To Psychology
42370 • Fall 2004
Meets MW 3:30PM-5:00PM BUR 106
SB
PSY 394V • Personality And Language
42855 • Fall 2004
Meets M 8:00AM-11:00AM SEA 2.224
PSY 394V • Curr Tpcs In Social-Pers Psy
40295 • Spring 2004
Meets M 5:00PM-8:00PM SEA 5.106
PSY 301 • Introduction To Psychology
40933 • Fall 2003
Meets MW 3:30PM-5:00PM BUR 106
SB
PSY 394V • Personality And Language
41408 • Fall 2003
Meets M 8:30AM-11:30AM SEA 3.430B
PSY 394V • Psychosomatic Processes
40565 • Spring 2003
Meets MW 3:30PM-5:00PM SEA 5.106
PSY 301 • Introduction To Psychology
40730 • Fall 2002
Meets MW 3:30PM-5:00PM BUR 106
SB
PSY 394V • Social Psychol Of Language Use
41380 • Fall 2001
Meets M 2:00PM-5:00PM CAL 419
PSY 394V • Psychosomatic Processes
40200 • Spring 2001
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM BEN 318
PSY 394V • Curr Tpcs In Social-Pers Psy
40205 • Spring 2001
Meets F 3:00PM-6:00PM BEN 318
PSY 301 • Introduction To Psychology
40655 • Fall 2000
Meets MW 3:30PM-5:00PM BUR 106
SB
PSY 341K • Health Psychology-W
39350 • Spring 2000
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM BEN 130
C2
PSY 394V • Psychosomatic Processes
39585 • Spring 2000
Meets TTH 8:00AM-9:30AM MEZ 402
Honors & Grants
Honors |
|
2016 |
APA Distinguished Contributions to Applications in Psychology |
2015 |
Innovations in Methodology Award, Society of Personality and Social Psychology |
2014 |
President, Society for Personality and Social Psychology |
2012 |
Hamilton Book Grand Prize Award, University of Texas at Austin |
2010 |
Academy of Distinguished Teachers |
2008 |
Dads’ Association Centennial Teaching Fellowship |
2006-present |
ISI HighlyCited.com selection for being among the most cited researchers in Psychology/Psychiatry |
2004 |
Hero of Midland, Texas Award, Midland Independent School District |
2002 |
Outstanding Contributions to Health Psychology (APA Division 38) |
2002 |
Freshman Honor Societies Teaching Award, University of Texas |
2000 |
President's Associates University Teaching Award, University of Texas |
1995 |
Pavlov Award, The Pavlov Society |
1993 |
Honorary Doctorate Degree, University of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium |
1989 |
Hilgard Visiting Professor, Stanford University |
Grants |
|
2019-2023 |
Templeton Foundation, Tracking and understanding the effects of transformative events in people’s lives (coPI) |
2018-2021 |
NSF grant, Sensor-based Assessment of Behavioral Lifestyles and Experiences (coPI) |
2018-2020 |
FBI funding, Arch of narratives in natural language use (PI) |
2015-2018 |
NSF grant, Ambulatory monitoring to understand learning (coPI) |
2015-2018 |
Templeton Foundation, Assessing values and behaviors using big data (coPI) |
2013-2017 |
NSF grant and subcontract. Natural language and values, $600,000. Co-PI |
2013-2016 |
Army Research Institute Language and group dynamics, $500,000. PI |
2010-2013 |
NSF grant and subcontract. Social and language cues in threatening behavior, $500,000. Co-PI |
2010-2011 |
DOD and DIA contract. The language of secrets in electronic communication, $300,000. PI |
2009-2011 |
DHS contract. The language of extremist leaders, $600,000. PI |
2007-2011 |
Army Research Institute, Language and social dynamics, $450,000, PI |
2007-2008 |
DOD and CIFA contract, Viewing text through English and Arabic eyes, $300,000, PI |
2005-2006 |
NSF Grant, Language and deception workshop, $59,000, PI |
2005-2006 |
DOD Contract, Timing of expressive writing exercises, $28,000, PI |
2000-2006 |
NIMH Grant, Interpersonal disclosure processes and health, $1,600,000, PI |
1996-2000 |
NIMH Grant, Interpersonal disclosure processes and health, $320,000, PI |
1994-1997 |
NSF Grant, Disclosure, language, and health, $80,000, PI |
1991-1994 |
NSF Grant, Cognition, disclosure and health, $149,000, PI |
1989-1991 |
NSF grant, The psychological consequences of the 1989 California earthquake, $14,919, PI |
1987-1989 |
NSF grant, Inhibition, disclosing, and health, $89,717, PI |
1984-1987 |
NIH grant, Perception of physical symptoms and blood pressure, $183,415, PI |
1980-1981 |
NSF grant, Psychological impact of Mt. St. Helens Volcano, with Darren Newtson, $10,000 |
Publications
Selected Publications
Boyd, R.L., Blackburn, K.G., & Pennebaker, J.W. (2020). The narrative arc: Revealing core narrative structures through text analysis. Science Advances, August 7, 2020, doi:10.1126/sciadv.aba2196. By analyzing function and cognitive words, we identify the common fingerprints of novels, movies, and other genres of fiction. Watch the 5-minute video and analyze your own text to see if it adheres to a traditional narrative structure.
Boyd, R.L., & Pennebaker, J.W. (2015). Did Shakespeare write Double Falsehood? Identifying individuals by creating psychological signatures with text analysis. Psychological Science, online version April 8, doi:10.1177/0956797614566658. Using LIWC, meaning extraction, and machine learning, it is possible to build a smart approach to author identification.
Boyd, R.L., & Pennebaker, J.W. (2017). Language-based personality: A new approach to personality in a digital world. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 18, 63-68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2017.07.017. The ways people talk and write are reliable, consistent, and reflect how they think, feel, and behave. We propose that language has all the characteristics of personality. Who needs self-reports?
Boyd, R.L., Wilson, S.R., Pennebaker, J.W., Kosinki, M., Stillwell, D.J., & Mihalcea, R. (2015). Values in words: Using language to evaluate and understand personal values. Proceedings of the Ninth International AAAI conference on Web and Social Media. We developed language-based value algorithms that were applied to 130K Facebook status updates that predicted value-based behaviors better than self-reported values.
Chung, C.K. & Pennebaker, J.W. (2008). Revealing dimensions of thinking in open-ended self-descriptions: An automated meaning extraction method for natural language. Journal of Research in Personality, 46, 96-132. By using a factor analytic method on content-related words, it is possible to extract meaning from samples of text files. These language dimensions are linked to personality.
Cohn, M.A., Mehl, M.R., & Pennebaker, J.W. (2004). Linguistic markers of psychological change surrounding September 11, 2001. Psychological Science, 15, 687-693. An analysis of over 1000 people who wrote online journals in the weeks before and after September 11.
Davison, K.P, Pennebaker, J.W., & Dickerson, S.S. (2000). Who talks? The social psychology of illness support groups. American Psychologist, 55, 205-217. An analysis of internet and real world support groups for 20 different diseases.
Ireland, M.E., Slatcher, R.B., Eastwick, P.W., Scissors, L.E., Finkel, E.J., & Pennebaker, J.W. (2011). Language style matching predicts relationship initiation and stability. Psychological Science, online version, December 13, 2010. doi:10.1177/0956797610392928. Two studies demonstrate that language style matching in the natural conversation of couples in speed dating predicts future dating behavior and, in instant messaging between young dating couples, predicts the stability of the relationship three months later.
Jordan, K.N., Sterling, J., Pennebaker, J.W., & Boyd, R.L. (2019). Examining long-term trends in politics and culture through language of political leaders and cultural institutions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), online version, February 11, 2019. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1811987116. The analysis of the language of political leaders in the U.S. and other major English-speaking democracies reveals a 200-year trend of simpler language delivered with increasing confidence. Trump is not the outlier many believed.
Kacewicz, E., Pennebaker, J.W., Davis, M., Moongee, J., & Graesser, A.C. (2013). Pronoun use reflects standings in social hierarchies. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 33, 125-143. doi: 10.1177/0261927X1350265. Five studies demonstrate that high status people use I-words less and you-words and we-words more than lower-status individuals.
Linguist Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC2015). The LIWC2015 computer text analysis program is an updated version of LIWC2001 and LIWC2007. The actual program can be purchased from www.liwc.net. However, the two manuals are available here:
- Pennebaker, J.W., Boyd, R.L., Jordan, K., & Blackburn, K. (2015). The development and psychometrics of LIWC2015. Pennebaker Conglomerates: Austin, TX.
- Pennebaker, J.W., Booth, R.J., Boyd, R.L., & Francis, M.E. (2015). Operator's manual to LIWC2015. Pennebaker Conglomerates: Austin, TX.
Mehl, M.R. & Pennebaker, J.W. (2003). The social dynamics of a cultural upheaval: Social interactions surrounding September 11, 2001. Psychological Science, 14, 579-585. An analysis of 11 people who wore the EAR prior to and for 10 days after September 11.
Mehl, M.R., Vazire, S., Ramirez-Esparza, N., Slatcher, R.B., & Pennebaker, J.W. (2007). Are women really more talkative than men? Science, 316, 82. Across six EAR studies with college students in the U.S. and Mexico, tape-recorded conversations over several days reveal that both men and women say about 16,000 words per day. Women and men don’t differ in talking rates.
Newman, M.L., Groom, C.J., Handelman, L.D., & Pennebaker, J.W. (2008). Gender differences in language use: An analysis of 14,000 text samples. Discourse Processes, 45, 211-236. Women and men use langauge differently and talk about different things. Women use words that reflect social concerns; men refer to more concrete objects and impersonal topics.
Newman, M.L., Pennebaker, J.W., Berry, D.S., & Richards, J.M. (2003). Lying words: Predicting deception from linguistic style. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 665-675. An analysis of 5 studies where participants lied and/or told the truth. Truth-tellers use more 1st person singular words, markers of cognitive complexity, and fewer negative emotion words.
Pennebaker, J.W. (1994). Hints on running a writing experiment. Unpublished manual. This is a general how-to manual that will help the individual in designing a disclosure experiment -- with particular attention to measurement.
Pennebaker, J.W. (1997). Writing about emotional experiences as a therapeutic process. Psychological Science, 8, 162-166. A brief overview of the nature of the writing paradigm and its effects on physical health.
Pennebaker, J.W. (1982). The psychology of physical symptoms. New York: Springer-Verlag. Warning: This is very large file since it is the entire book that is now out of print.
Pennebaker, J.W. (2003). Social physics: The metaphorical application of principles of physics to social behavior. Unpublished manuscript, University of Texas at Austin. A short position paper about the idea of social physics. The central idea is that the ways humans and other organisms use space can be modeled by applying Newtonian rules of gravity, mass, motion, etc.
Pennebaker, J.W. & Beall, S.K. (1986). Confronting a traumatic event: Toward an understanding of inhibition and disease. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95, 274-281. The first experiment on expressive writing. A classic.
Pennebaker, J.W. & Chung, C.K. (2011). Expressive writing and its links to mental and physical health. In H. Friedman (Ed.), Oxford handbook of health psychology. New York , NY : Oxford. A general summary of expressive writing research.
Pennebaker, J.W., Chung, C.K., Frazee, J., Lavergne, G.M., & Beaver, D.I. (2014). When small words foretell academic success: The case of college admissions essays. PLoS ONE 9(12): e115844. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0115844. Introduces the CDI or categorical-dynamic index to predict grade point average from admissions essays four years later.
Pennebaker, J.W., & Gonzales, A. (2008). Making history: Social and psychological processes underlying collective memory. In J.V. Wertsch and P. Boyer (Eds.), Collective memory (pp. 110-129). New York: Cambridge University Press. An analysis of the ways major cultural events are remembered, forgotten, and changed in the days, weeks, years, and decades after their occurrence.
Pennebaker, J.W., Gosling, S.D., & Ferrell, J.D. (2013). Daily online testing in large classes: Boosting college performance while reducing achievement gaps. PLoS ONE, November 20, 2013. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.007977. An in-class online software system was developed that allowed for 901 students to take daily class benchmark quzzes. In comparison with traditionally-taught and graded exams by the same instructors, students performed better in the psychology class as well as the other classes they took that semester and the subsequent semester. Differences in the performance of upper-middle and lower-middle class students were reduced.
Pennebaker, J.W., Groom, C.J., Loew, D., & Dabbs, J.M. (2004). Testosterone as a social inhibitor: Two case studies of the effect of testosterone treatment on language. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 113, 172-175. The personal diary or outgoing emails of two people (one a female-to-male transexual; another a heterosexual male) undergoing testosterone treatment were tracked over 1-2 years. LIWC analyses found that testosterone injections suppressed participants’ reference to other people.
Pennebaker, J.W., Kiecolt-Glaser, J., & Glaser, R. (1988). Disclosure of traumas and immune function: Health implications for psychotherapy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 56, 239-245. The first writing study to demonstrate that disclosure of emotional upheavals can influence immune function.
Pennebaker, J.W. & King, L.A. (1999). Linguistic styles: Language use as an individual difference. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1296-1312. A series of studies that reveal how language use reflects personality, health, and social behaviors.
Pennebaker, J.W., Mehl, M.R., & Niederhoffer, K. (2003). Psychological aspects of natural language use: Our words, our selves. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 547-577. A general review of text analysis approaches in the social sciences -- with primary attention to word count strategies. This extensive literature review also summarizes work linking pronouns, prepositions, and other particles to social, personality, and clinical psychology.
Pennebaker, J.W., Paez, D., Deschamps, J.C., Rentfrow, J., Davis, M., Techio, E.M., Slawuta, P., Zlobina, A., & Zubieta, E. (2006). The social psychology of history: Defining the most important events of the last 10, 100, and 1000 years. Psicologia Politica, 32, 15-32. A summary of a large cross-cultural project wherein students reported on significant national and cultural events.
Petrie, K.J., Pennebaker, J.W., & Sivertsen, B. (2008). The things we said today: A linguistic analysis of the Beatles. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 2, 197-202. A language analysis of the history of the Beatles, including a comparison of the lyrics of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and George Harrison.
Ramirez-Esparza, N., Gosling, S.D., Benet-Martinez, V., Potter, J., & Pennebaker, J.W. (2005). Do bilinguals have two personalities? A special case of frame switching. Journal of Research in Personality. When bilinguals switch languages, their personalities subtly change.
Roberts, T.A. & Pennebaker, J.W. (1995). Women's and men's strategies in perceiving internal state. In M. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology, Vol. 27 (pp 143-176). New York: Academic Press. Women and men perceive their bodies, symptoms, and physical health differently. We propose that women rely more on external situational cues relative to men.
Rude, S.S., Gortner, E.M., & Pennebaker, J.W. (2004). Language use of depressed and depression-vulnerable college students. Cognition and Emotion, 18, 1121-1133. Depressed students use more first person singular pronouns than never-depressed when writing about their college experiences. Formerly-depressed students initially use few pronouns but, by the end of the writing exercise, use pronouns like currently-depressed students.
Seraj, S., Blackburn, K.G., & Pennebaker, J.W. (2021). Language left behind on social media exposes the emotional and cognitive costs of a romantic breakup. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, February 16, 2021,118 (7) e2017154118. An analysis of the Reddit postings of over 6,000 people who underwent emotional breakups. Clues from their written language pointed to impending breakups 3 months before they occurred and showed emotional aftereffects for more than six months afterwards.
Slatcher, R.B. & Pennebaker, J.W. (2006). How do I love thee? Let me count the words: The social effects of expressive writing. Psychological Science, 17, 660-664. A study using expressive writing that finds that people who write about their relationship are more likely to remain in that relationship. Also, the analysis of Instant Messages (IMs) finds that certain word-use patterns correlates with relationship success.
Spera, S.P., Buhrfeind, E.D., & Pennebaker, J.W. (1994). Expressive writing and coping with job loss. Academy of Management Journal, 37, 722-733. High level engineers who lost their jobs were more likely to be re-employed if they wrote about their job loss than those who either did not write or who wrote about time management.
Tausczik, Y., & Pennebaker, J.W. (2010). The psychological meaning of words: LIWC and computerized text analysis methods. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 29, 24-54. A broad summary of the LIWC dimensions and how they are related to various psychological states. A must read for the LIWC researcher.
Tausczik, Y.R., & Pennebaker, J.W. (2013). Improving teamwork using real-time language feedback. CHI 2013, ACM 978-1-4503-1899-0/13/04. Small online working groups received real-time feedback based on computer analyses of their language use.
Tellakat, M., Boyd, R.L., & Pennebaker, J.W. (2019). How do online learners study? The psychometrics of students' clicking patterns in online classes. PlosONE, March 25, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0213863. In two large online introductory psychology classes, the ways students accessed study materials outside class strongly predicted course performance. What they studied, when they studied, and their SAT scores accounted for 40% of the overall variance in course grades.
Watson, D. & Pennebaker, J.W. (1989). Health complaints, stress, and disease: Exploring the central role of negative affectivity. Psychological Review, 96, 234-254. Self-reports of stress and physical symptoms are often colored by people’s general Negative Affectivity (NA) or neuroticism.
Writing & Health
Writing and Health: Some Practical Advice
Writing about emotional upheavals in our lives can improve physical and mental health. Although the scientific research surrounding the value of expressive writing is still in the early phases, there are some approaches to writing that have been found to be helpful. Keep in mind that there are probably a thousand ways to write that may be beneficial to you. Think of these as rough guidelines rather than Truth. Indeed, in your own writing, experiment on your own and see what works best.
Getting Ready to Write
Find a time and place where you won’t be disturbed. Ideally, pick a time at the end of your workday or before you go to bed.
Promise yourself that you will write for a minimum of 15 minutes a day for at least 3 or 4 consecutive days.
Once you begin writing, write continuously. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar. If you run out of things to write about, just repeat what you have already written.
You can write longhand or you can type on a computer. If you are unable to write, you can also talk into a tape recorder.
You can write about the same thing on all 3-4 days of writing or you can write about something different each day. It is entirely up to you.
What to Write About
Something that you are thinking or worrying about too much
Something that you are dreaming about
Something that you feel is affecting your life in an unhealthy way
Something that you have been avoiding for days, weeks, or years
In our research, we generally give people the following instructions for writing:
Over the next four days, I want you to write about your deepest emotions and thoughts about the most upsetting experience in your life. Really let go and explore your feelings and thoughts about it. In your writing, you might tie this experience to your childhood, your relationship with your parents, people you have loved or love now, or even your career. How is this experience related to who you would like to become, who you have been in the past, or who you are now?
Many people have not had a single traumatic experience but all of us have had major conflicts or stressors in our lives and you can write about them as well. You can write about the same issue every day or a series of different issues. Whatever you choose to write about, however, it is critical that you really let go and explore your very deepest emotions and thoughts.
Warning: Many people report that after writing, they sometimes feel somewhat sad or depressed. Like seeing a sad movie, this typically goes away in a couple of hours. If you find that you are getting extremely upset about a writing topic, simply stop writing or change topics.
What to do with your Writing Samples
The writing is for you and for you only. Their purpose is for you to be completely honest with yourself. When writing, secretly plan to throw away your writing when you are finished. Whether you keep it or save it is really up to you.
Some people keep their samples and edit them. That is, they gradually change their writing from day to day. Others simply keep them and return to them over and over again to see how they have changed.
Here are some other options:
Burn them. Erase them. Shred them. Flush them. Tear them into little pieces and toss them into the ocean or let the wind take them away. Eat them (not recommended).
Some References for Writing, Journaling, or Diaries
A video of the original writing method can be seen by clicking here.
There are some outstanding books by people who have an intuitive and practical approach to writing. Each author approaches journaling or diary writing in very different ways. Check the various books out and see what works best for you.
Adams, Kathleen (1998). The Way of the Journal : A Journal Therapy Workbook for Healing. Sidron Press.
Baldwin, Christina (1992). One to One : Self-Understanding Through Journal Writing. Evans Publisher
DeSalvo, Louise A. (2000). Writing As a Way of Healing : How Telling Our Stories Transforms Our Lives. Beacon Press.
Fox, John (1997). Poetic Medicine : The Healing Art of Poem-Making. Tarcher Press
Goldberg, Natalie and Guest, Judith (1986). Writing Down the Bones : Freeing the Writer Within. Shambhala Press.
Jacobs, Beth (2005). Writing for Emotional Balance, New Harbinger Publishers.
Pennebaker, James W. (1997). Opening Up: The Healing Power of Expressing Emotion. NY: Guilford Press.
Pennebaker, J.W. & Smyth, J.M. (2016). Opening Up by Writing it Down. NY: Guilford Press.
Pennebaker, J.W. & Evans, J.F. (2014). Expressive Writing: Words that Heal. Enumclaw, WA: Idyll Arbor.
Pennebaker, J.W. (2004). Writing to Heal: A Guided Journal for Recovering from Trauma and Emotional Upheaval. Denver, CO: Center for Journal Therapy.
Rainer, Tristine (1979). The New Diary : How to Use a Journal for Self-Guidance and Expanded Creativity. Tarcher
Explorations into Language
The World of Words
The words we use reflect who we are. Word choice can serve as a key to people's personality and social situations. Since the mid-1990s, my students, colleagues, and I have been exploring the psychology of word use. Before reading further, you might want to try one or more brief demonstrations that will give you an appreciation of language use, measurement, and personality.
Demonstration 1: The basic text analysis using the LIWC computer program. This asks you to respond to a traditional TAT picture. The feedback is fairly broad.
Demonstration 2: Using a new method that we call the meaning extraction method, we are able to get LIWC to analyze people’s personality along a completely new set of dimensions.
Demonstration 3: Using the meaning extraction strategy, the computer can give you feedback about the ways you see the world depending on how you describe something as simple as a bottle.
Demonstration 4: Applying both LIWC and the meaning extraction method, we have developed an interesting way to analyze people's Twitter feeds. If you have a twitter handle, just enter one and you get feedback about that particular person. If you don't have one, try BarackObama for a demonstration.
What words should we pay attention to?
Very broadly, there are two types of words: content and style. Content words include nouns, regular verbs, and most adjectives and adverbs. Style words include pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, articles, and auxiliary verbs. The content words tell us what a person is saying; style words convey how they are saying it.
Style words, then, can be powerful indicators of people’s psychological states. They require a certain social skill to both use and interpret. In a conversation, if one person refers to “her table”, both people must remember who the “her” is. Similarly, the difference between “a table” and “the table” conveys a subtle difference in the relationship between the speaker and the table in question.
What can the analysis of words tell us about people?
For starters, style-related words can signal basic social and demographic categories, such as:
- Sex. In general, women tend to use more pronouns and references to other people; men are more likely to use articles, prepositions, and big words.
- Age. As people get older, they tend to refer to themselves less, use more positive emotion and fewer negative emotion words. Older people also use more future tense and fewer past tense verbs.
- Social class. The higher the social class, the less likely one uses 1st person singular pronouns and the less one uses emotion words.
Style-related words can also reveal basic social and personality processes, including:
- Lying vs telling the truth. When people tell the truth, they are more like to use 1st person singular pronouns. They also use more exclusive words like except, but, without, excluding. Words such as this indicate that a person is making a distinction between what they did do and what they didn’t do. Liars have a problem with such complex ideas.
- Dominance in a conversation. Analyze the relative use of the word “I” between two speakers in an interaction. Usually, the higher status speaker will use fewer “I” words.
- Social bonding after a trauma. In the days and weeks after a cultural upheaval, people become more self-less (less use of “I”) and more oriented towards others (increased use of “we”).
- Depression and suicide-proneness. Public figures speaking in press conferenecs and published poets in their poetry use more 1st person singular when they are depressed or prone to suicide.
- Testosterone levels. In two case studies, it was found that when people’s testosterone levels increased rapidly, they dropped in their use of references to other people.
- Basic self-reported personality dimensions. Multiple studies are now showing that style-related words do much better than chance at distinguishing people who are high or low in the Big Five dimensions of personality: neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.
- Consumer patterns. By knowing people’s linguistic styles, we are able to predict (at reasonable rates), their music and radio station preference, liking for various consumer goods, car preferences, etc.
- And much, much more.
What is the best way to measure words?
LIWC, of course. The computer program Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count, or LIWC, has been in development in our lab since the mid-1990s. LIWC analyzes individual text files and computes the percentage of words in each text file fall into each of 70+ linguistic categories.
Some of the categories that are measured include:
- Emotion-related words
- General positive emotions
- Optimism
- General negative emotions
- Sadness
- Anger
- Anxiety
- Cognitive process words
- Causation
- Self-reflection (realize, understand)
- Inhibition
- Self-discrepancies (would, should, could)
- Social processes
- Physical issues
- Body
- Sex
- Eating
- Current concerns
- Work and school
- Metaphysical issues (religion, death)
- Home and leisure activities
- Linguistic style markers
- Pronouns
- Prepositions
- Articles
Is LIWC available for the general public?
Yes. You can either purchase it online (www.liwc.net) or I would be happy to analyze your text files for free. All I ask in return is the right to keep a copy of your files to add to my growing text archive of over 500,000 files. Indeed, if you would like to analyze some of the archived text as part of another project, contact me.
To learn more about LIWC, you can read a detailed description online or download the manual which is in pdf format. Also, feel free to browse and/or download several of our recent papers on language use by clicking on one of the buttons below:
Check out the LIWC site online
For those who would like a very good overview of LIWC and the meaning of words, check out:
Tausczik, Y., & Pennebaker, J.W. (2010). The psychological meaning of words: LIWC and computerized text analysis methods. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, in press.
Helpful Questionnaires
The following questionnaires are available for research use. Feel free to download and use them as needed. (*indicates an adobe acrobat pdf file).
*The Pennebaker Inventory of Limbic Languidness (the PILL). From Pennebaker, J.W. (1982). The psychology of physical symptoms. New York: Springer-Verlag. This is a 54-item scale taps the frequency of occurrence of a group of common physical symptoms and sensations. Cronbach alphas range from .88 to .91; 2-month test-retest reliability range from .79 to .83. The PILL can be scored by summing up the total number of items on which individuals score C, D, or E (every month or so or higher). With this strategy, the mean score is 17.9 (SD=4.5) based on a sample of 939 college students. You can also simply sum up the 54 items resulting in a mean score of 112.7 (SD=24.7).
*************Take the PILL online. Once you complete the questionnaire, you will get feedback about your score relative to others.***************
*The College Adjustment Test (CAT). From Pennebaker, J.W., Colder, M., & Sharp, L.K. (1990). Accelerating the coping process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 528-537. This 19-item survey taps the degree to which students have experienced a variety of thoughts and feelings about being in college. Cronbach alpha = .79; 2-mo test-retest = .65. Three stable factors have emerged that tap general negative affect, positive affect or optimism, and home sickness. You have my permission to use this questionnaire in any way you like.
*The SMU Health Questionnaire (SMUHQ). From Watson, D., & Pennebaker, J.W. (1989). Health complaints, stress, and distress: Exploring the central role of Negative Affectivity. Psychological Review, 96, 234-254. This 63-item symptom and illness questionnaire measures whether individuals have either been diagnosed or treated for a variety of health problems. The health items can be viewed separately or as a composite index. On a sample of 437 SMU undergraduates (see Watson & Pennebaker, 1989), the coefficient alpha for the full 63-item version of the SMU-HQ was .75. The coefficient alpha for the factor-analytically derived 13 item SMU-HQ Symptom scale (described in Watson & Pennebaker, 1989) was .72.
*College Activities and Behavior Questionnaire (CABQ). From Pennebaker, J.W., Colder, M., & Sharp, L.K. (1990). Accelerating the coping process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 528-537. This questionnaire is a general inventory of objective behaviors and activities commonly performed by students. Most behaviors reflect social activity and health-related behaviors. You have my permission to use this questionnaire in any way you like.
*The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). From Pennebaker, J.W. & Susman, J.R. (1988). Disclosure of traumas and psychosomatic processes. Social Science and Medicine, 26, 327-332. A brief survey of 6 early traumatic experiences (death, divorce, violence, sexual abuse, illness, or other) and ratings of the degree to which individuals confided the traumas. There is no psychometric information available for this questionnaire. The items are face valid. There is no scoring key for this questionnaire. You can score it any way that you like. Feel free to change the items in any way you prefer. Go ahead and translate it into any language. You do not need my permission to use this. You have my permission to use this questionnaire in any way you like.
*Questionnaires from a typical writing study. From Pennebaker, J.W., Colder, M., & Sharp, L.K. (1990). Accelerating the coping process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 528-537. This file includes a group of questionnaires and other materials used in the Pennebaker et al (1990) experiment. Many of these items have been used in a variety of writing studies by our lab and the labs of others.
Recent Books
The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us
James W. Pennebaker
Bloomsbury Press, 2011
Opening Up by Writing it Down
James Pennebaker and Joshua Smyth
Guilford Press, 2016
Expressive Writing: Words that Heal
James Pennebaker and John Evans
Idyll Arbor, 2014
The Psychology of Physical Symptoms
James Pennebaker
Springer-Verlag, 1982
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