In verbis, vinum? Relating themes in an open-ended writing task to alcohol behaviors.

Alcohol's function as a regulator of emotions has long been denoted in figures of speech, most famously 'in vino, veritas' (in wine, truth). In contrast, we ask whether an individual's self-reported alcohol consumption and related attitudes can be correlated with the words they use to write about alcohol. Participants completed an open-ended essay as part of a survey on alcohol attitudes and behaviors. We used a computerized technique, the Meaning Extraction Method, to summarize the responses into thematic tropes, and correlated these with quantitative measurements of demographics, attitudes and behaviors. Participants were recruited using a random population postal survey in the UK (n=1001). Principal components analysis identified regular co-occurring words, to locate themes in the responses. Seven themes were identified that corresponded to both negative and positive aspects of alcohol consumption ranging from concern for the influence of alcohol on others (e.g., children and family) to participants' own enjoyment of alcohol (e.g., social drinking). Small but significant correlations suggested a relationship between the essay responses and individual consumption patterns and attitudes.

Experimental manipulations of perspective taking and perspective switching in expressive writing.

Previous studies suggest that those who naturally vary their pronoun use over the course of expressive writing subsequently report the greatest improvements in physical and mental health. To explore possible perspective taking or perspective switching effects, two studies manipulated writing perspectives about emotional events from either a first-person, second-person, or third-person perspective. In Study 1, 55 students were randomly assigned to one of the three writing perspectives and were asked to write from the same perspective for three 5-minute writing sessions. In Study 2, 129 students wrote for three 5-minute sessions, one from each perspective in a counterbalanced order. The results showed that writing from a first-person perspective conferred more perceived benefits and was associated with using more cognitive mechanism words, whether engaged in perspective taking or perspective switching.

Inpatient treatment to online aftercare: e-mailing themes as a function of therapeutic outcomes.

The authors applied the meaning extraction method (MEM) to 4,241 e-mails written by 297 participants of an email-based aftercare program following inpatient psychotherapy. Principal-components analysis of the most frequently used nouns in the e-mails yielded nine components: life decisions and coping, relationship conflict, psychological and physical symptoms, family of origin, social and leisure activities, present family and household, treatment, exercise and diet, and work. Relative to men, women focused more on symptoms, exercise and diet, and family of origin, but less on work. Older participants were more likely to e-mail about their present family. Younger participants were more likely to e-mail about their family of origin and exercise and diet. Patients who showed no therapeutic gains during their prior treatment wrote more about symptoms than patients who had improved. The potentials and limitations of the MEM for the analysis of therapy corpora are discussed.

Variations in the spacing of expressive writing sessions.

OBJECTIVES: In a test to determine whether a brief version of the expressive writing (EW) method was viable, 106 college students participated in an experiment dealing with the study of life transitions. DESIGN: Individuals were randomly assigned to write for 15 minutes on three occasions: either three times separated by 10-min break (1-hour condition), 35-min break (3-hour condition), or 24-hour break (3-day condition). METHODS: Participants were randomly assigned to write about their thoughts and feelings about the transitions (N=80), or to describe daily behaviours surrounding the transitions in a non-emotional way (N=26). RESULTS: The three emotional writing conditions did not vary in terms of their engagement with writing, their emotional reactions, short- or long-term reactions to the intervention. Compared to controls, those in the experimental conditions evidenced fewer symptom reports 9 months after writing. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that a brief 1-hour EW is more emotionally demanding, but that it has comparable effects on physical symptoms as the traditional 3-day method.

The relations between personality and language use.

The authors of this study provided basic descriptive data on the correlation between personality tests and Korean language use. Native Korean-speaking students (N = 80) at Pusan National University completed 2 personality tests, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI; I. B. Myers, M. H. McCaulley, N. L. Quenk, & A. L. Hammer, 1998) and the 5-Factor Inventory (0. P. John, E. M. Donahue, & R. L. Kentle, 1991). They completed a stream-of-consciousness essay, which the authors analyzed using the Korean version of Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (KLIWC; C. H. Lee, J. Shim, & A. Yoon, 2005). Personality traits were significantly correlated with linguistic variables. Furthermore, the observed correlations between the two types of variables in Korean were consistent with the results of previous LIWC studies conducted in English. The authors discuss language use as a marker of personality.

When small words foretell academic success: the case of college admissions essays.

The smallest and most commonly used words in English are pronouns, articles, and other function words. Almost invisible to the reader or writer, function words can reveal ways people think and approach topics. A computerized text analysis of over 50,000 college admissions essays from more than 25,000 entering students found a coherent dimension of language use based on eight standard function word categories. The dimension, which reflected the degree students used categorical versus dynamic language, was analyzed to track college grades over students' four years of college. Higher grades were associated with greater article and preposition use, indicating categorical language (i.e., references to complexly organized objects and concepts). Lower grades were associated with greater use of auxiliary verbs, pronouns, adverbs, conjunctions, and negations, indicating more dynamic language (i.e., personal narratives). The links between the categorical-dynamic index (CDI) and academic performance hint at the cognitive styles rewarded by higher education institutions.