Abstract
Depressive symptomatology is manifested in greater first-person singular pronoun use (i.e., I-talk), but when and for whom this effect is most apparent, and the extent to which it is specific to depression or part of a broader association between negative emotionality and I-talk, remains unclear. Using pooled data from N = 4,754 participants from 6 labs across 2 countries, we examined, in a preregistered analysis, how the depression-I-talk effect varied by (a) first-person singular pronoun type (i.e., subjective, objective, and possessive), (b) the communication context in which language was generated (i.e., personal, momentary thought, identity-related, and impersonal), and (c) gender. Overall, there was a small but reliable positive correlation between depression and I-talk (r = .10, 95% CI [.07, .13]). The effect was present for all first-person singular pronouns except the possessive type, in all communication contexts except the impersonal one, and for both females and males with little evidence of gender differences. Importantly, a similar pattern of results emerged for negative emotionality. Further, the depression-I-talk effect was substantially reduced when controlled for negative emotionality but this was not the case when the negative emotionality-I-talk effect was controlled for depression. These results suggest that the robust empirical link between depression and I-talk largely reflects a broader association between negative emotionality and I-talk. Self-referential language using first-person singular pronouns may therefore be better construed as a linguistic marker of general distress proneness or negative emotionality rather than as a specific marker of depression.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Journal | Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |
| DOIs | |
| State | Accepted/In press - Mar 5 2018 |
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Keywords
- Depression
- Language
- LIWC
- Negative emotionality
- Personality
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Psychology
- Sociology and Political Science
Cite this
Depression, Negative Emotionality, and Self-Referential Language : A Multi-Lab, Multi-Measure, and Multi-Language-Task Research Synthesis. / Tackman, Allison M.; Sbarra, David A; Carey, Angela L.; Donnellan, M. Brent; Horn, Andrea B.; Holtzman, Nicholas S.; Edwards, To'Meisha S.; Pennebaker, James W.; Mehl, Matthias R.
In: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 05.03.2018.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Depression, Negative Emotionality, and Self-Referential Language
T2 - A Multi-Lab, Multi-Measure, and Multi-Language-Task Research Synthesis
AU - Tackman, Allison M.
AU - Sbarra, David A
AU - Carey, Angela L.
AU - Donnellan, M. Brent
AU - Horn, Andrea B.
AU - Holtzman, Nicholas S.
AU - Edwards, To'Meisha S.
AU - Pennebaker, James W.
AU - Mehl, Matthias R
PY - 2018/3/5
Y1 - 2018/3/5
N2 - Depressive symptomatology is manifested in greater first-person singular pronoun use (i.e., I-talk), but when and for whom this effect is most apparent, and the extent to which it is specific to depression or part of a broader association between negative emotionality and I-talk, remains unclear. Using pooled data from N = 4,754 participants from 6 labs across 2 countries, we examined, in a preregistered analysis, how the depression-I-talk effect varied by (a) first-person singular pronoun type (i.e., subjective, objective, and possessive), (b) the communication context in which language was generated (i.e., personal, momentary thought, identity-related, and impersonal), and (c) gender. Overall, there was a small but reliable positive correlation between depression and I-talk (r = .10, 95% CI [.07, .13]). The effect was present for all first-person singular pronouns except the possessive type, in all communication contexts except the impersonal one, and for both females and males with little evidence of gender differences. Importantly, a similar pattern of results emerged for negative emotionality. Further, the depression-I-talk effect was substantially reduced when controlled for negative emotionality but this was not the case when the negative emotionality-I-talk effect was controlled for depression. These results suggest that the robust empirical link between depression and I-talk largely reflects a broader association between negative emotionality and I-talk. Self-referential language using first-person singular pronouns may therefore be better construed as a linguistic marker of general distress proneness or negative emotionality rather than as a specific marker of depression.
AB - Depressive symptomatology is manifested in greater first-person singular pronoun use (i.e., I-talk), but when and for whom this effect is most apparent, and the extent to which it is specific to depression or part of a broader association between negative emotionality and I-talk, remains unclear. Using pooled data from N = 4,754 participants from 6 labs across 2 countries, we examined, in a preregistered analysis, how the depression-I-talk effect varied by (a) first-person singular pronoun type (i.e., subjective, objective, and possessive), (b) the communication context in which language was generated (i.e., personal, momentary thought, identity-related, and impersonal), and (c) gender. Overall, there was a small but reliable positive correlation between depression and I-talk (r = .10, 95% CI [.07, .13]). The effect was present for all first-person singular pronouns except the possessive type, in all communication contexts except the impersonal one, and for both females and males with little evidence of gender differences. Importantly, a similar pattern of results emerged for negative emotionality. Further, the depression-I-talk effect was substantially reduced when controlled for negative emotionality but this was not the case when the negative emotionality-I-talk effect was controlled for depression. These results suggest that the robust empirical link between depression and I-talk largely reflects a broader association between negative emotionality and I-talk. Self-referential language using first-person singular pronouns may therefore be better construed as a linguistic marker of general distress proneness or negative emotionality rather than as a specific marker of depression.
KW - Depression
KW - Language
KW - LIWC
KW - Negative emotionality
KW - Personality
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85042869093&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85042869093&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1037/pspp0000187
DO - 10.1037/pspp0000187
M3 - Article
C2 - 29504797
AN - SCOPUS:85042869093
JO - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
JF - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
SN - 0022-3514
ER -