Early Linguistic Markers of Trauma-Specific Processing Predict Post-trauma Adjustment

Kleim, Birgit; Horn, Andrea B.; Kraehenmann, Rainer; Mehl, Matthias R.; Ehlers, Anke

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00645

Cited by 53 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Markers of working through can be measured by a group of words, which include insight words (e.g., understand, meaning), causal words (e.g., because, result), and selfdiscrepancy or modal words (e.g., would, should). Multiple studies have found that cognitive processing words are connected to the ways people process traumatic events (24)(25)(26). Researchers hypothesize that cognitive words are used at greater rates to describe negative events because people are in the middle of figuring out why the event occurred and to ultimately produce a coherent narrative (27).…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

Language left behind on social media exposes the emotional and cognitive costs of a romantic breakup

Seraj

Blackburn

Pennebaker

2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Using archived social media data, the language signatures of people going through breakups were mapped. Text analyses were conducted on 1,027,541 posts from 6,803 Reddit users who had posted about their breakups. The posts include users’ Reddit history in the 2 y surrounding their breakups across the various domains of their life, not just posts pertaining to their relationship. Language markers of an impending breakup were evident 3 mo before the event, peaking on the week of the breakup and returning to baseline 6 mo later. Signs included an increase in I-words, we-words, and cognitive processing words (characteristic of depression, collective focus, and the meaning-making process, respectively) and drops in analytic thinking (indicating more personal and informal language). The patterns held even when people were posting to groups unrelated to breakups and other relationship topics. People who posted about their breakup for longer time periods were less well-adjusted a year after their breakup compared to short-term posters. The language patterns seen for breakups replicated for users going through divorce (n = 5,144; 1,109,867 posts) or other types of upheavals (n = 51,357; 11,081,882 posts). The cognitive underpinnings of emotional upheavals are discussed using language as a lens.

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Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

Language left behind on social media exposes the emotional and cognitive costs of a romantic breakup

Seraj

Blackburn

Pennebaker

2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…The LIWC cognitive process index, which captures the frequency of words such as think, question, and because. This index is believed to indicate individuals' efforts to analyze or mentally organize experience 64 .…”

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Natural emotion vocabularies as windows on distress and well-being

2020

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To date we know little about natural emotion word repertoires, and whether or how they are associated with emotional functioning. Principles from linguistics suggest that the richness or diversity of individuals’ actively used emotion vocabularies may correspond with their typical emotion experiences. The current investigation measures active emotion vocabularies in participant-generated natural speech and examined their relationships to individual differences in mood, personality, and physical and emotional well-being. Study 1 analyzes stream-of-consciousness essays by 1,567 college students. Study 2 analyzes public blogs written by over 35,000 individuals. The studies yield consistent findings that emotion vocabulary richness corresponds broadly with experience. Larger negative emotion vocabularies correlate with more psychological distress and poorer physical health. Larger positive emotion vocabularies correlate with higher well-being and better physical health. Findings support theories linking language use and development with lived experience and may have future clinical implications pending further research.

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“…More frequent use of first-person singular (eg, I ) and negative emotion words and marginally fewer positive emotion words have been identified in those experiencing depression [ 19 , 20 ]. Greater use of cognitive processing words (eg, because and realization ) predicts fewer posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms among trauma survivors [ 21 ], and in our own research, third-person plural use (eg, we ) is higher in groups with lower EE [ 22 ]. Taking this research together, we expected participants with concerning levels of EE at baseline to use more first-person singular and negative emotion words and fewer third-person plural, positive emotion, and cognitive processing words in their letters.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Gratitude at Work: Prospective Cohort Study of a Web-Based, Single-Exposure Well-Being Intervention for Health Care Workers

2020

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Background Emotional exhaustion (EE) in health care workers is common and consequentially linked to lower quality of care. Effective interventions to address EE are urgently needed. Objective This randomized single-exposure trial examined the efficacy of a gratitude letter–writing intervention for improving health care workers’ well-being. Methods A total of 1575 health care workers were randomly assigned to one of two gratitude letter–writing prompts (self- vs other focused) to assess differential efficacy. Assessments of EE, subjective happiness, work-life balance, and tool engagement were collected at baseline and 1-week post intervention. Participants received their EE score at baseline and quartile benchmarking scores. Paired-samples t tests, independent t tests, and correlations explored the efficacy of the intervention. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software assessed the linguistic content of the gratitude letters and associations with well-being. Results Participants in both conditions showed significant improvements in EE, happiness, and work-life balance between the intervention and 1-week follow-up (P<.001). The self-focused (vs other) instruction conditions did not differentially predict improvement in any of the measures (P=.91). Tool engagement was high, and participants reporting higher motivation to improve their EE had higher EE at baseline (P<.001) and were more likely to improve EE a week later (P=.03). Linguistic analyses revealed that participants high on EE at baseline used more negative emotion words in their letters (P=.005). Reduction in EE at the 1-week follow-up was predicted at the level of a trend by using fewer first-person (P=.06) and positive emotion words (P=.09). No baseline differences were found between those who completed the follow-up assessment and those who did not (Ps>.05). Conclusions This single-exposure gratitude letter–writing intervention appears to be a promising low-cost, brief, and meaningful tool to improve the well-being of health care workers.

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Early Linguistic Markers of Trauma-Specific Processing Predict Post-trauma Adjustment

Cited by 53 publications

References 42 publications

Language left behind on social media exposes the emotional and cognitive costs of a romantic breakup

Language left behind on social media exposes the emotional and cognitive costs of a romantic breakup

Natural emotion vocabularies as windows on distress and well-being

Gratitude at Work: Prospective Cohort Study of a Web-Based, Single-Exposure Well-Being Intervention for Health Care Workers

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