James W Pennebaker

Interests

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Natural language and social behavior; group processes and educational outcomes; how individuals, groups, and cultures respond to traumatic events

Biography

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Dr. Pennebaker does not plan any doctoral students 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

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Honors & Grants

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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

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Selected Publications

Ashokkumar, A., & Pennebaker, J.W. (2021). Social media conversations reveal large psychological shifts caused by COVID-19's onset across U.S. cities.  Science Advances, September 22,  2021, doi:10.1126/sciadv.abg7843. Analyses of city-level SubReddits and national surveys track the social, emotional, and cognitive changes that occurred in the U.S. in the years before to three months after the onset of COVID-19. Click here for supplemental material.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Shah, M., Seraj, S., & Pennebaker, J.W. (2021). Climate denial fuels climate change discussions more than local climate-related disasters. Frontiers in Psychology, August, 26,2021. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.682057. The subReddits of six U.S. cities that had faced a climate upheaval (e.g., hurricane, wildfire) were analyzed based on their levels of engagement surrounding climate change. Rates of climate change discussion were higher in response to national political events associated with climate-denying movements than in response to climate-related events in their own communities.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Vine, V., Boyd, R.L., & Pennebaker, J.W. (2020). Natural emotion vocabularies as windows on distress and well-being. Nature Communication, 11, 4525 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18349-0. Two large studies with 1,500 college students and 35,000 blog authors measured people's use of emotion words in open-ended text. Counter to popular belief, richer and more diverse negative emotion categories were associated with great distress, higher rates of illness, and poorer adjustment.

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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

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Explorations into Language

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Helpful Questionnaires

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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

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