Five studies explored the ways relative rank is revealed among individuals in small groups through their natural use of pronouns. In Experiment 1, four-person groups worked on a decision-making task with randomly assigned leadership status. In Studies 2 and 3, two-person groups either worked on a task or chatted informally in a get-to-know-you session. Study 4 was a naturalistic study of incoming and outgoing e-mail of 9 participants who provided information on their correspondents’ relative status. The last study examined 40 letters written by soldiers in the regime of Saddam Hussein. Computerized text analyses across the five studies found that people with higher status consistently used fewer first-person singular, and more first-person plural and second-person singular pronouns. Natural language use during group interaction suggests that status is associated with attentional biases, such that higher rank is linked with other-focus whereas lower rank is linked with self-focus.
The present studies demonstrate two computerized approaches to examining the expression of depression on the Internet. Study 1 observed linguistic markers of depression in English and Spanish forums. English and Spanish posts by depressed (N=160) and non-depressed individuals (N=160) were collected from Internet forums using bulletin board systems (bbs). A computer program (LIWC2001) was used to compare linguistic categories across groups within the English and Spanish language. Study 2 analyzed the themes people use when talking about their depression in forums in English and Spanish. Posts by English speaking (N=404) and Spanish speaking depressed people (N=400) were collected from bbs. An automated inductive approach to content analysis was used to compare how the expression of depression varies across cultures. The results for Study 1 showed that linguistic cues previously associated with depression were found to be higher in depressed than in non-depressed posts in English and Spanish. Study 2 showed that depressed people who wrote in Spanish were more likely to mention relational concerns than depressed people who wrote in English, who were more likely to mention medicinal concerns. Implications for informational and support needs and concerns in psychotherapy vs. online support across cultures are addressed and discussed.
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