Abstract
Information on personality development (and its linguistic predictors) in the aftermath of a critical life event among depressive patients is relatively limited. The study’s aim was to verify two hypotheses: (1) Participants with depression will use concrete rather than abstract language to describe their most recent critical life event and its psychological consequences and (2) The more abstract the language used, the higher the level of personality development. 16 Cognitive Behavioral Therapy patients suffering from depression participated in the study (M = 34 years old; SD = 4.02). Their level of personality development was assessed qualitatively by two independent coders. The coding system was based on the Positive Disintegration Theory (Dąbrowski 1964). We used typology from the Linguistic Category Model (Semin and Fiedler 1991) to analyse the level of abstractness vs. concreteness. Depressed patients were classified as either abstract language speakers or concrete language speakers. There were equal numbers of both types of speakers. Moreover participants consistently used one type of language, regardless of whether they were describing the critical life event itself or its psychological consequences. As expected, using higher levels of language abstractness when speaking correlated with possessing higher levels of personality development. Our findings provide practitioners with useful knowledge on the benefits of using abstract language to improve supportive strategies when dealing with people in crisis and modify the psychotherapeutic protocols used to treat depression.
Highlights
Information on personality development in the aftermath of a critical life event among depressive patients is relatively limited
The distribution of results was found to be significantly different from the norm (p < .05) when assessing the intensity of abstract language in narratives on a recent critical life events (CLE) itself and such psychological consequences of the event as changes in thinking about the world, the meaning of life, what is most important in life and changes in behaviour and emotions
For narratives on a recent CLE and such its psychological consequences as changes in thinking about oneself, others and the world, what is most important in life, the meaning of life, and changes in relationships, behaviour, emotions and body sensations, the analyses showed that the same proportion of depressed patients used abstract language as those who used concrete language: χ2 (1) = 0; p = 1
Summary
Information on personality development (and its linguistic predictors) in the aftermath of a critical life event among depressive patients is relatively limited. The study’s aim was to verify two hypotheses: (1) Participants with depression will use concrete rather than abstract language to describe their most recent critical life event and its psychological consequences and (2) The more abstract the language used, the higher the level of personality development. ‘As the individual loses their cohesion (which is necessary for feeling a sense of meaning and purpose in life) they become motivated to develop themselves This developmental instinct contributes to personality reconstruction at a higher level after one’s disintegration of the existing personality structure’ These mechanisms make the positive appraisal of an event even more difficult for this group
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