Abstract
This study examines the relationship between language use and psychological characteristics of the communicator. The aim of the study was to find models predicting the depressivity of the writer based on the computational linguistic markers of his/her written text. Respondents’ linguistic fingerprints were traced in four texts of different genres. Depressivity was measured using the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21). The research sample (N = 172, 83 men, 89 women) was created by quota sampling an adult Czech population. Morphological variables of the texts showing differences (M-W test) between the non-depressive and depressive groups were incorporated into predictive models. Results: Across all participants, the data best fit predictive models of depressivity using morphological characteristics from the informal text “letter from holidays” (Nagelkerke r2 = 0.526 for men and 0.670 for women). For men, models for the formal texts “cover letter” and “complaint” showed moderate fit with the data (r2 = 0.479 and 0.435). The constructed models show weak to substantial recall (0.235 – 0.800) and moderate to substantial precision (0.571 – 0.889). Morphological variables appearing in the final models vary. There are no key morphological characteristics suitable for all models or for all genres. The resulting models’ properties demonstrate that they should be suitable for screening individuals at risk of depression and the most suitable genre is informal text (“letter from holidays”).
Highlights
DepressionThe 10th Revision of International Classification of Diseases ICD-10, which is the basis for diagnosing mental disorders in the Czech Republic, classifies depression as an affective disorder
The chosen methodology is novel: (a) the source for analyses were texts written on an assigned topic under strictly controlled experimental conditions, (b) only formal, quantitative linguistic syntactical and morphological variables were subject to analyses, (c) the research sample was representative of an adult population with respect to age and education
The results show that acceptable level of accuracy show models predicting depression in men sample from texts TXT1, TXT2 and TXT3, and in women sample from TXT2
Summary
The 10th Revision of International Classification of Diseases ICD-10, which is the basis for diagnosing mental disorders in the Czech Republic, classifies depression as an affective disorder (mood disorder). One of the first symptoms is a change in mood toward the negative pole: the individual feels sad, needless, and/or unimportant. The disorder significantly affects self-confidence, which is often reflected in social relationships. It is typically accompanied by vegetative symptoms which can manifest as gastrointestinal problems (nausea, diarrhea etc.), tremors, sweating, or dry mouth. The effects of depression extend beyond the individual patient, with negative impact on patients’ employers, spouses, and children (Scott, 1995; Stewart et al, 2003; Sills et al, 2007)
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