Diversity of word usage as a stress indicator in an interview situation

Abstract

Two experiments testing stress in interview situations were carried out. In the first, 40 college student subjects were asked to tell two different tales, 16 of them were frustrated by the experimentor in between the two tales; 24 told them without interruption. The type-token-ratio (T.T.R.) of the first group was significantly higher before than after treatment, while the second group showed a tendency toward the reverse. In the second experiment, 38 subjects were asked about their motives for choosing psychology as a major; 19 were treated normally; 19 in an unfriendly manner. The T.T.R. of the second group was significantly lower than that of the first group. Both experiments confirmed the following hypothesis: in an interview situation, a positive relationship evokes more differentiated word (nouns) usage than does a negative one.