SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

At the University of Texas

Writing, Talking, and Language

The primary currency of social interaction is words. Most of our day is surrounded by language whether in talking, listening, reading, or just thinking. You would think that all social psychology programs would have courses and research programs dealing with language and communication. Oddly, the study of language has not yet become a central focus of the field. But it's just a matter of time. A number of projects are now underway in the social area that are ushering in a new way to think about language use in the real world.

Jamie Pennebaker and his students have studied language use in many ways. Based on some of his earlier work, they continue to find that people who write about traumatic experience evidence improvements in physical and mental health. They are now discovering that it is possible to discern a "linguistic fingerprint" of people's writing which predicts later health improvement. Using this linguistic fingerprinting, they are finding certain language patterns are related to deception, depression, aging, and even suicide.

Working with Sam Gosling, Pennebaker and their students are looking at how people use language in the real world. Individuals are given computerizes recorders that capture natural language for several days. Daily language use is associated with traditional personality measures as well as markers of health and well-being.

Even Bill Swann, Bob Josephs, and Jane Richards are getting into the act. Bill and his students are looking to see if Blirtatiousness is related to language use. Bob and his students are exploring the links between testosterone levels and words in both written and spoken language. Jane is interested in collaborating with students to explore what individuals' language patterns during face-to-face conversations can tell us about the emotions they are experiencing and how they really feel about each other.