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Linguistic styles: language use as an individual difference
Abstract
Can language use reflect personality style? Studies examined the reliability, factor structure, and validity of written language using a word-based, computerized text analysis program. Daily diaries from 15 substance abuse inpatients, daily writing assignments from 35 students, and journal abstracts from 40 social psychologists demonstrated good internal consistency for over 36 language dimensions. Analyses of the best 15 language dimensions from essays by 838 students yielded 4 factors that replicated across written samples from another 381 students. Finally, linguistic profiles from writing samples were compared with Thematic Apperception Test coding, self-reports, and behavioral measures from 79 students and with self-reports of a 5-factor measure and health markers from more than 1,200 students. Despite modest effect sizes, the data suggest that linguistic style is an independent and meaningful way of exploring personality.
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“while agreeableness is correlated with a lower incidence of words referring to negative emotions and anger (Hirsh & Peterson, 2009;Pennebaker & King, 1999).”
From The Role of Personality in Language Learning (2026) · cites this paper as Pennebaker & King, 1999
In the citing paper
“Neuroticism was associated with a preference for words pertaining to negative emotions (Pennebaker & King, 1999)”
From The Role of Personality in Language Learning (2026) · cites this paper as Pennebaker & King, 1999
In the citing paper
“Their results were quite consistent across such domains, finding patterns such as agreeable people using more articles, introverts and those low in conscientiousness using more words signaling distinctions, and neurotic individuals using more negative emotion words.”
From Personality, Gender, and Age in the Language of Social Media: The Open-Vocabulary Approach (2013) · cites this paper as [21]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Pennebaker, J. W., & King, L. A.
- Affiliations
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
- Southern Methodist University (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 1999
- Volume
- 77
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1296-1312
- ISSN
- 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1315
- OpenAlex
- W1972820248
- Cited by
- 1,961
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 99 · 2025: 92 · 2024: 126 · 2023: 128 · 2022: 121 · 2021: 141 · 2020: 155 · 2019: 132 · 2018: 134 · 2017: 90 · 2016: 95 · 2015: 69 · 2014: 101 · 2013: 68 · 2012: 71
- FWCI
- 12.05
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH052391, MH52391, MH54142)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health via Writing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Authorship Attribution and Profiling
- Keywords
- language style, personality, individual differences, written language, text analysis, computational text analysis, factor structure, reliability statistics, validity, Thematic Apperception Test, health indicators, students
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Female, Humans, Linguistics, Male, Middle Aged, Personality, Psychological Theory, Reproducibility of Results
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