Use Of Positive Emotion Words Research Articles

Feelings in words: Emotion word use and cardiovascular reactivity in marital interactions.

Putting feelings into words is often thought to be beneficial. Few studies, however, have examined associations between natural emotion word use and cardiovascular reactivity. This laboratory-based study examined emotion word use (i.e., from computerized text analysis) and cardiovascular reactivity (i.e., interbeat interval changes from baseline) across two interaction contexts (i.e., conflict and positive conversations) in 49 mixed-sex married couples (age: M = 43.11, SD = 9.20) from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. We focused on both frequency (i.e., relative proportion of emotion words) and diversity (i.e., relative proportion of unique emotion words) of emotion words. Data were collected between 2015 and 2017 and analyzed treating both partners and conversations as repeated measures, resulting in 196 observations overall (four per dyad). Findings showed that (a) when spouses used more negative emotion words (especially anger), they showed higher cardiovascular reactivity. This finding was robust when controlling for covariates; generalized across gender, interaction contexts, and socioeconomic status. Moreover, (b) when spouses used a more diverse negative emotion vocabulary, they showed higher cardiovascular reactivity, but this was not robust when controlling for negative emotion word frequency. Associations between (c) positive emotion word use and cardiovascular reactivity were not statistically significant. Verbalizing negative emotions thus seems to go along with higher cardiovascular reactivity, at least in the short term. Replication is needed across other relationship types, genders, and sexual orientations. These findings highlight emotion word use as an indicator of cardiovascular reactivity, which has implications for the identification of potential health risks that emerge during marital interactions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploring linguistic markers, threat appraisals, and genetic variation during mixed‐sex couples' conflict conversations

AbstractHow couples communicate during conflict interactions can have important implications for their relational well‐being. The theory of resilience and relational load provides a valuable lens for exploring the associations among couples' language use during conflict conversations and the extent to which such conversations are perceived as threatening to one's relationship, as well as whether genetic markers moderate such associations. Forty‐seven mixed‐sex couples had a conversation about a topic causing conflict in their relationship and provided saliva samples that were tested for their genotype (GG, AA, or AG) for oxytocin receptor gene rs53576. The results revealed that neither the use of communal language nor positive emotion words were associated with perceiving the conversation as less threatening to their relationship. Genetic variation did not moderate the associations with either positive emotion word use or communal language. However, a three‐way interaction between sex, OXTR, and positive emotion word use emerged in the post hoc analyses, indicating that positive emotion word use was negatively associated with threat appraisals for women with a GG genotype, and positively associated with threat appraisals for men with a GG genotype. Implications for mixed‐sex couples' communication and research on language use during conflict conversations are discussed.

Leveraging values to promote adherence to endocrine therapy among breast cancer survivors: A mixed-methods investigation

BackgroundImproving medication adherence represents one of the greatest behavioral challenges in medicine. Personal values are an under-examined source of motivation for adhering to medication. This secondary analysis leverages a mixed-method approach to understanding a novel, online, values-based intervention (‘REACH’) for promoting endocrine therapy (ET) adherence among breast cancer survivors, using data from a randomized trial. MethodsBreast cancer survivors with challenges taking ET (n = 88) were randomized 1:1 to ET Education + Values (REACH) or Education-only online interventions. This report focuses on the three values strategies used in REACH to promote ET adherence: affirming health-related values, using values-based perspective-taking to motivate adherence, and creating a personalized cue-to-action values sticker for participants’ ET pillbox. Immediate responses to these values strategies were analyzed using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) and in both conditions, using repeated assessment of positive and negative affective states. Long-term responses to these strategies were evaluated using structured study exit interviews. ResultsCompared to Education, REACH led to less tense and sad and more loving states in the immediate term. Convergently, during REACH values exercises, LIWC identified greater use of positive emotion words than negative emotion words. Thematic coding of exit interviews identified generally positive responses to values content in the longer-term with a small minority of negative responses. ConclusionsDistinct approaches to linking domain-relevant values directly to ET adherence were associated with generally positive affective responses, informing theory and practice.

Links between Parent-Child Emotion Talk and Preschoolers’ Socioemotional Behaviors in Chinese-Heritage Families

ABSTRACT Research Findings: Emotion talk (ET) is an emotion socialization practice theorized to promote children’s socioemotional competence. The present study examined parent and child ET in two subgroups of Chinese-heritage families in low-income communities: Chinese immigrant families in U.S. (CA) and Taiwanese families in Taiwan (TW). In a sample of 75 children (age = 3.2 to 7.4 years, 55% girls, 37 TW and 38 CA) and their parents (99% mothers), parents’ and children’s ET (emotion words, emotion questions and explanations, and global quality or elaborateness of ET) were coded from a shared book reading task. Children’s socioemotional behaviors (prosocial behaviors and behavioral problems) were reported by parents, and emotion expressions were coded from an emotion-eliciting task. Significant associations were found between parent and child ET and children’s socioemotional behaviors. Controlling for child age, family SES, and total utterances, parents’ use of positive emotion words was negatively associated with children’s externalizing problems. Children’s use of emotion reasoning was positively associated with their expressed sadness. A few cultural group differences were also found: TW children used more negative emotion words and engaged in more elaborative ET than CA children, and TW parents used more emotion reasoning than CA parents. Moreover, TW children had fewer peer problems than CA children. Practice or Policy: The findings suggest emotion talk during shared book reading may be a beneficial family activity that promotes children’s socioemotional development in Chinese-heritage families. Parents in low-income Chinese immigrant families likely face socio-cultural barriers to engage in elaborative emotion talk with their children.

A laboratory medical anamnesis interview elicits psychological and physiological arousal

Since medical communication can be perceived as stressful, the assessment of patients’ physiological arousal and behavior during anamnesis interviews may lead to a better understanding of doctor-patient interactions. Therefore, the aim of this study was to test physiological arousal and word use in a laboratory anamnesis interview. In total, sixty-five participants with a mean age of 25.0 years were randomly assigned either to an experimental group (n = 35, 65.7% women) in which they underwent an anamnesis interview or to a control group (n = 30, 73.3% women). Physiological arousal was assessed by salivary cortisol, salivary alpha-amylase (sAA), heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV). Psychological arousal was assessed using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Anamnesis interviews were analyzed using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count text analysis tool (LIWC). Participants of the experimental group showed an increase of sAA, HR and negative affect (p’s ≤.0.05). Moreover, higher cortisol area under the curve with respect to ground (AUCg) was associated with lesser use of positive emotion words during the interview and subsequent higher negative affect (p’s <.05). These results indicate that talking about one’s own and family’s medical history in anamnesis interview induces physiological arousal. Our findings suggest that anamnesis interviews could not only induce higher negative affect, but also induce physiological arousal, underscoring the importance of good doctor-patient communication.

Post-Traumatic Growth and Identity Construction in Covid-19 Messages Delivered to the People of Ghana by President Nana Akuffo Addo

This work analyses post-traumatic growth in Covid-19 addresses delivered to the people of Ghana by President Nana Akuffo Addo. We draw on Post-Traumatic Growth Theory to explain how Akuffo Addo constructs a new identity for himself and the nation in order to navigate through the pandemic and forge an agenda of growth and prosperity for Ghana. The study employs a linguistic content analysis approach. The data consists of twenty different speeches from the president to the people. The speeches are first analysed and coded manually for the five main tenets of Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG) identified in the updates. Consequently, the linguistic markers that are used in reconstructing the Ghanaian identity in response to the pandemic are delineated and mapped to the goals of the president using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count 2015 (LIWC2015; Pennebaker et al., 2015) software; a vocabulary analysis tool. The analysis showed that there was a high prevalence of personal pronoun use, use of positive-emotion words, and cognitive-processing words. This confirms our hypothesis that linguistic markers can be used to detect PTG.

Does it matter whether we or I talk aboutus? Distinguishing we-talk in couples’ conflict discussions and partners’ private thoughts before and after conflict

According to extensive evidence, we-talk—couples’ use of first-person, plural pronouns—predicts better relationship quality and well-being. However, prior work has not distinguished we-talk by its context, which varies widely across studies. Also, little is known about we-talk’s consistency over time. To assess the stability and correlates of we-talk in private versus conversational contexts, 43 married couples’ language was captured during a marital problem discussion and in each partner’s privately recorded thoughts before and after conflict. Participants were asked to describe any current thoughts and feelings in the baseline thought-listing and to focus on their reaction to the conflict itself in the post-conflict sample. Couples repeated this protocol at a second study visit, approximately 1 month later. We-talk in baseline and post-conflict thought-listings was largely uncorrelated with we-talk during conflict discussions, but each form of we-talk was consistent between the two study visits. Their correlates were also distinct: more we-talk during conflict was associated with less hostility during conflict, whereas more baseline we-talk predicted greater closeness in both partners, as well as lower vocally encoded arousal and more positive emotion word use in partners after conflict. These novel data reveal that we-talk can be meaningfully distinguished by its context—whether language is sampled from private thoughts or marital discussions, and whether the study procedure requests relationship talk. Taken together, these variants of we-talk may have unique implications for relationship function and well-being.

Exploring the Psychological Effects of COVID-19 Home Confinement in China: A Psycho-Linguistic Analysis on Weibo Data Pool.

BackgroundsWith the rapid spread of COVID-19, strict home confinement has been implemented in most parts of Chinese regions. Millions of people were not allowed to leave their homes except for special reasons. Home confinement plays an essential role in curbing pandemic and promoting preventive behaviors, but it may affect individuals’ mental health as well.ObjectsThe objective of this study was to explore the psychological impacts of home confinement.Materials and MethodsWe collected more than 150,360 Weibo messages from 5,370 Chinese active users, and then extracted psycho-linguistic features from these messages. Psycho-linguistic analysis was carried out using the 2 (confinement vs. non-confinement) × 2 (before vs. after confinement) repeated measure analysis of variance (RM ANOVA).ResultsThe results showed that the frequency of positive emotion words was remarkably decreased during home confinement [F(1,5368) = 7.926, p = 0.005, η2 = 0.001]. In high-endemic subgroup, home confinement also reduced the frequency of exclusion words [F(1,3445) = 4.518, p = 0.034, η2 = 0.001] and inhibition words [F(1,3445) = 10.154, p = 0.001, η2 = 0.003].ConclusionHome confinement caused a decline in the use of positive emotion words. This indicates that home confinement can increase the frequency of negative emotions. The changes of exclusion words and inhibition words in high-endemic areas may be related to the high epidemic threat and the urgent need for social distancing in these areas.

Using computerized text analysis to examine associations between linguistic features and clients' distress during psychotherapy.

Raw linguistic data within psychotherapy sessions may provide important information about clients' progress and well-being. In the current study, computerized text analytic techniques were applied to examine whether linguistic features were associated with clients' experiences of distress within and between clients and whether changes in linguistic features were associated with changes in treatment outcome. Transcripts of 729 psychotherapy sessions from 58 clients treated by 52 therapists were analyzed. Prior to each session, clients reported their distress level. Linguistic features were extracted automatically by using natural language parser for first-person singular identification and using positive and negative emotion words lexicon. The association between linguistic features and levels of distress was examined using multilevel models. At the within-client level, fewer first-person singular words, fewer negative emotional words and more positive emotional words were associated with lower distress in the same session; and fewer negative emotion words were associated with lower next session distress (rather small f2 effect sizes = 0.011 < f2 < 0.022). At the between-client level, only first session use of positive emotion words was associated with first session distress (ηp2 effect size = 0.08). A drop in the use of first-person singular words was associated with improved outcome from pre- to posttreatment (small ηp2 effect size = 0.05). The findings provide preliminary support for the association between clients' linguistic features and their fluctuating experience of distress. They point to the potential value of computerized linguistic measures to track therapeutic outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Manifestations of clinical depression in daily life: a daily diary study of descriptions of naturally occurring events

ABSTRACT In the present study, clinically depressed (n = 135) and non-depressed adults (n = 138) described the events that happened to them each day for two weeks, and these descriptions were content analysed. Participants also rated how stressful and how positive each event was. Multilevel analyses found that depressed individuals, compared to the non-depressed, used more negative emotion words and more pronouns and used fewer positive emotion words, and they rated events as more stressful and less positive. Stressfulness of events was positively related to the use of pronouns and negative emotion words and was negatively related to the use of positive emotion words. Relationships between positivity of events and word counts were in the opposite direction. Controlling for stressfulness or positivity of events eliminated differences between the depressed and non-depressed in word use, except for use of other-pronouns words. Compared to the non-depressed, depressed people may either experience a greater number of objectively stressful or less pleasant daily events or perceive naturally occurring daily events as more stressful and less positive, and they describe daily events in ways that are consistent with such differences.

Emotional reactivity to grief-related expressive writing

The efficacy of expressive writing for bereavement remains unclear, although some evidence suggests that writing about positive memories of one’s loved one may be particularly beneficial. The current pilot study compared the effects of a brief positive expressive writing intervention for enhancing positive affect among bereaved adults (N = 403). Participants were randomly assigned to write about a positive memory of the deceased person or recent neutral activity. Results revealed no main effect of the positive writing condition on mood change. However, greater positive emotion word use mediated positive affect among those in the positive writing condition.

Parent Emotion Expression and Autonomic-Linked Emotion Dysregulation in Childhood ADHD.

Despite evidence that ADHD is associated with disruptions in emotion regulation, few studies have examined the biological correlates of emotion dysregulation among children with this disorder. Prior work has pointed to roles of the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system, as indexed via respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP), respectively. Work in typically developing populations suggests that parenting behavior and parental emotion expression may shape the development of these systems. To date, a single study has examined the independent and interactive roles of autonomic nervous system functioning and parent emotion expression in youth with ADHD. This study seeks to extend that work. 86 children (42 with ADHD), aged 8-12 years, and a parent completed a parent-child interaction task, while electrocardiography and impedance cardiography data were recorded to derive RSA and PEP. Parent and child emotion word use (positive and negative valence) were coded from recordings of the task. Parents of youth with ADHD used fewer positive emotion words throughout the task. Additionally, throughout the task, children with ADHD engaged in excessive RSA withdrawal from baseline. Further, the association between RSA reactivity and ADHD diagnosis was moderated by parent positive emotion word use. Specifically, those with RSA augmentation and parents displaying high positive affect across the task conditions were least likely to have an ADHD diagnosis. If replicated and extended, these results support the use of interventions specifically designed to increase parental modeling of positive emotions, while simultaneously focusing on building emotion regulation skills in youth with ADHD.

Caregivers' positive emotional expression and children's psychological functioning after parental loss.

The death of a loved one, particularly a parent, has been identified as not only the most common, but also the most distressing form of adversity youth may experience in their lifetime. Surviving caregivers' communication with their children may play a critical role in shaping bereaved children's psychological functioning. However, few studies have examined the specific content (e.g., word usage) of caregivers' verbal communication as a predictor of psychological functioning in bereaved youth. In a sample of 39 parentally-bereaved children and their surviving caregivers, we investigated whether the frequency of caregivers' use of positive emotion words (e.g., "love", "happy", "hope") during a reminiscing task about the deceased was associated with children's psychological functioning and coping. In a cross-sectional analysis, we specifically examined whether these associations were moderated by the amount of time passed since children lost their parents. The Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count Program (LIWC) was used to code and evaluate the percentage of positive emotion words caregivers used during the discussion. When caregivers used more positive emotion words, children were less likely to experience depression, anxiety, and avoidant coping. Those associations were present for children who had experienced parental loss at least 105 days prior to the study. Our findings have implications for how caregivers can support their children and help to alleviate psychological distress in the aftermath of parental loss.

Helping Yourself by Offering Help: Mediators of Expressive Helping in Survivors of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant.

A randomized experiment by Rini et al. (Health Psychol. 33(12):1541-1551, 2014) demonstrated that expressive helping, which involves three expressive writing sessions regarding hematopoietic stem cell transplant, followed by one writing session directed toward helping other stem cell transplant recipients, reduced psychological distress and bothersome physical symptoms among stem cell transplant recipients with elevated survivorship problems, relative to a neutral writing control condition. The current study evaluated whether word use reflective of emotional expression, cognitive processing, and change in perspective mediates the effects of expressive helping. The essays of 67 stem cell transplant recipients with high survivorship problems were analyzed with Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count. Multiple mediation modeling was used to test the hypothesized mechanisms of expressive helping on distress and bothersome physical symptoms. Relative to the control condition, expressive helping produced significant reductions in psychological distress and marginal reductions in physical symptom bother in the analyzed subset of participants from the parent study. Results indicated that positive emotion word use significantly mediated effects of expressive helping on reduced distress, but only for participants who used average (compared to above or below average) rates of negative emotion words. Cognitive processing and change in perspective did not significantly mediate benefits of expressive helping. Expressive helping carried its positive effects on distress through participants' higher expression of positive emotions when coupled with moderate rates of negative emotions. Findings highlight the benefit of expressing both positive and negative emotions in stressful situations.

LANGUAGE IN CONSULTATION: THE EFFECT OF AFFECT AND VERB TENSE

This study was an exploration of school consultation interactions between instructional consultants and consultees. Of specific interest was how consultants (n = 18) and consultees (n = 18) used verb tense and emotion words during the problem identification and analysis instructional consultation stage, similarities and differences in communication patterns, and whether verb tense and emotion words were related to perceptions of collaboration, consultee outcomes, or client outcomes. Data provided mixed support for study hypotheses. Among the findings, consultants’ past tense verb use negatively correlated with the consultation relationship (r = −.62, p = .01), consultees’ present tense use correlated with better consultee outcomes (r = .49, p = .05), and positive emotion word use by consultees was correlated with better consultee outcomes (r = .54, p = .05). Implications of these and other findings are explored in the context of interpersonal communication during school consultation.

Maternal Depressive Symptoms and At-Risk Young Children's Internalizing Problems: The Moderating Role of Mothers' Positivity

Maternal depressive symptoms predict negative child behaviors, including internalizing problems. However, protective factors, such as positive emotionality and positive parenting behaviors, may play an important a role in attenuating associations between maternal depressive symptoms and child behavior problems. This manuscript presents two studies that examined buffers of links between maternal depressive symptoms and child internalizing problems. Each study examined samples of primarily African American families with young children in an impoverished large city in the Midwestern United States. Families were recruited from kindergarten classes and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) centers. In both studies, indicators of mothers' positivity, as measured by text based analysis of positive emotion word use or behavioral observation of positive parenting behaviors, attenuated links between maternal depressive symptoms and child internalizing problems. The results suggest that risk for internalizing problems within the context of maternal depressive symptoms is reduced when parents experience and express more positive emotions and behaviors.

Self-Expression on Social Media: Do Tweets Present Accurate and Positive Portraits of Impulsivity, Self-Esteem, and Attachment Style?

Self-expression values are at an all-time high, and people are increasingly relying upon social media platforms to express themselves positively and accurately. We examined whether self-expression on the social media platform Twitter elicits positive and accurate social perceptions. Eleven perceivers rated 128 individuals (targets; total dyadic impressions = 1,408) on their impulsivity, self-esteem, and attachment style, based solely on the information provided in targets' 10 most recent tweets. Targets were on average perceived normatively and with distinctive self-other agreement, indicating both positive and accurate social perceptions. There were also individual differences in how positively and accurately targets were perceived, which exploratory analyses indicated may be partially driven by differential word usage, such as the use of positive emotion words and self- versus other-focus. This study demonstrates that self-expression on social media can elicit both positive and accurate perceptions and begins to shed light on how to curate such perceptions.

The interpretative lenses of older adults are not rose-colored—just less dark: Aging and the interpretation of ambiguous scenarios.

We are all faced with ambiguous situations daily that we must interpret to make sense of the world. In such situations, do you wear rose-colored glasses and fill in blanks with positives, or do you wear dark glasses and fill in blanks with negatives? In the current study, we presented 32 older and 32 younger adults with a series of ambiguous scenarios and had them continue the stories. Older adults continued the scenarios with less negativity than younger adults, as measured by negative and positive emotion word use and by the coded overall emotional valence of each interpretation. These results illuminate an interpretative approach by older adults that favors less negative endings and that supports broader age-related positivity. In addition, older adults interpreted social scenarios with less emotionality than did younger adults. These findings uncover a new manifestation of age-related positivity in spontaneous speech generated in response to ambiguity, indicating that older adults tend to create emotional meaning differently from the young.

Positive Emotional Language in the Final Words Spoken Directly Before Execution.

How do individuals emotionally cope with the imminent real-world salience of mortality? DeWall and Baumeister as well as Kashdan and colleagues previously provided support that an increased use of positive emotion words serves as a way to protect and defend against mortality salience of one’s own contemplated death. Although these studies provide important insights into the psychological dynamics of mortality salience, it remains an open question how individuals cope with the immense threat of mortality prior to their imminent actual death. In the present research, we therefore analyzed positivity in the final words spoken immediately before execution by 407 death row inmates in Texas. By using computerized quantitative text analysis as an objective measure of emotional language use, our results showed that the final words contained a significantly higher proportion of positive than negative emotion words. This emotional positivity was significantly higher than (a) positive emotion word usage base rates in spoken and written materials and (b) positive emotional language use with regard to contemplated death and attempted or actual suicide. Additional analyses showed that emotional positivity in final statements was associated with a greater frequency of language use that was indicative of self-references, social orientation, and present-oriented time focus as well as with fewer instances of cognitive-processing, past-oriented, and death-related word use. Taken together, our findings offer new insights into how individuals cope with the imminent real-world salience of mortality.

Ideological Happiness Gap: Politicianss Linguistic Expression on Twitter

Previous research in political psychology has found an ideological happiness gap between political conservatives and liberals, in which conservatives report higher happiness levels than liberals; however, recent research has found that this ideological happiness gap essentially reverses when using unobtrusive behavioral measures of subjective well-being (SWB). In the present study, we conducted linguistic analyses on over 118,000 Twitter status updates collected from United States Senators, Representatives, and Governors' verified Twitter accounts to compare the negative and positive emotion word use of political liberals and conservatives. We conducted a two-part study, in which we compared the baseline emotionality of tweets between liberals and conservatives, and conducted a secondary analysis of how the elections affected emotionality. For the baseline analysis, our results were consistent with the findings from studies using unobtrusive behavioral measures of SWB: liberals expressed significantly more positive emotion words and less negative emotion. These results support recent findings of the ideological happiness gap that liberals display more positive emotion behaviors than liberals. For our secondary analysis, we did not find significant differences in positive emotion expression between the parties around the election; however, we found that Republicans became less negative after electoral success, while Democrats became more negative. Future research may shed more insight on political ideology differences in election outcomes during a bigger election, like the 2016 presidential elections.