scholarly journals Analytic Process and Linguistic Style: Exploring Analysts’ Treatment Notes in the Light of Linguistic Measures of the Referential Process

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 193-206
Author(s):  
Rachele Mariani ◽  
Leon Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Referential Activity ◽  
Linguistic Variables ◽  
Referential Process ◽  
Linguistic Style ◽  
Clinical Notes ◽  
Analytic Process ◽  
Supervisory Process ◽  
Clinically Significant

AbstractThis paper presents a comparison between a clinical evaluation and a computerized linguistic analysis of the treatment notes of the first two years of an analysis conducted four sessions a week with the patient lying on a couch. Clinical notes had been written as part of the analyst’s standard practice after every session, some years prior to the planning of this study. The notes describe the analytic interchange and the analyst’s internal thoughts. The linguistic analysis focuses on two analytically relevant linguistic variables: Referential Activity (RA), a measure of the degree of connection between emotional processing and language, and Reflection, the use of words referring to thoughts. The examination of the linguistic measures point to overlooked parts of sessions which may be clinically significant. In particular, the examination of the clinical material during the nodal points of the first summer break, where significant changes in the linguistic measures were seen, provided clinical understanding of the analytic work that was not explicitly noted at the time of treatment. This method has the potential to be utilized in ongoing treatments and to improve the supervisory process.

scholarly journals Stimulus Features of the Object Relations Technique Affecting the Linguistic Qualities of Individuals’ Narratives

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Attà Negri ◽  
Martino Ongis
Keyword(s):  
Object Relations ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Referential Activity ◽  
Italian Population ◽  
Italian Version ◽  
Referential Process ◽  
Linguistic Style ◽  
Reality Testing ◽  
Two Measures ◽  
Stimulus Features

AbstractPrevious studies on projective techniques have investigated the effects of variation in stimulus features on individuals’ response behavior. In particular, the influence of chromatic colors and form definition on the images elicited by the stimuli has been tested. Most studies have focused on the Rorschach and TAT and have examined effects in terms of variables such as reality testing and reactions to perceptual details. This is the first study to examine the effects of variation in visual stimuli as represented in features of the Object Relations Technique (ORT) cards on linguistic indicators of connection to emotional experience using measures of the referential process. The ORT was administered to 207 Italian non-clinical participants to explore effects of color, form and content variation on language style. The sample was stratified by age, gender, marital status and education to be representative of the Italian population. The stories told in response to the card images were rated using computerized linguistic measures, including the Weighted Referential Activity Dictionary—Italian version (IWRAD) which indicates the degree to which language is connected to nonverbal experience, and the Weighted Reflection/Reorganization List—Italian version (IWRRL) which detects a linguistic style of personal re-elaboration of emotional experience. The results provide support for the color-affect and form-reality testing hypotheses. Cards with better form definition, including color definition, and with fewer silhouettes of people elicited responses that were higher in IWRAD and lower in IWRRL, and also higher in the degree to which the two measures varied together. Implications of the results for use of ORT in clinical assessment and intervention are discussed.

scholarly journals Narratives of Dreams and Waking Thoughts: Emotional Processing in Relation to the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachele Mariani ◽  
Alessandro Gennaro ◽  
Silvia Monaco ◽  
Michela Di Trani ◽  
Sergio Salvatore
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Referential Activity ◽  
Code Theory ◽  
Referential Process ◽  
Emotional Management ◽  
Defensive Strategies ◽  
Emotional Processes ◽  
Emotional Distance ◽  
Online Forms

The Coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic posed a significant challenge to the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of each individual. It also brought the importance of daily emotional management for survival to the forefront of every human being. Our study aims to explore whether emotional processes perform different functions during waking thoughts and night dreams during the first lockdown in Italy. Utilizing Multiple Code Theory (MCT), our goal is to verify whether waking thoughts facilitate a functional disconnection in order to manage the trauma caused by COVID-19. Two online forms were distributed to random participants in the general population, presenting a total of 49 reports of night dreams (23 males; mean age 33.45 ds. 10.12; word mean 238.54 ds. 146.8) and 48 reports of waking thoughts (25 males; mean age 34.54 ds. 12.8; word mean M. 91 words ds. 23). The Referential Process linguistic measures and Affect Salience Index were utilized. It was found that Affect Salience is present in both dreams and in waking thoughts; however, Referential Activity was higher in dreams and Reflection and Affect words were higher in waking thoughts. Two different processes of emotional elaboration emerged. The results highlight the use of greater symbolization processes during dreams and a higher emotional distance in waking thoughts. These results confirm that during the nocturnal processes, there is greater contact with the processing of trauma, while during the diurnal processes, defensive strategies were activated to cope with and manage life via a moment of the defensive disruption of daily activities.

Neural Dysfunction in Postpartum Depression: An fMRI Pilot Study

CNS Spectrums ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 853-862 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael E. Silverman ◽  
Holly Loudon ◽  
Michal Safier ◽  
Xenia Protopopescu ◽  
Gila Leiter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Postpartum Depression ◽  
Postpartum Period ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
The United States ◽  
Depressive Illness ◽  
Critical Gap ◽  
Amygdala Activity ◽  
Clinically Significant ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Striatal Function

ABSTRACTIntroduction:With ∼4 million births each year in the United States, an estimated 760,000 women annually suffer from a clinically significant postpartum depressive illness. Yet even though the relationship between psychiatric disorders and the postpartum period has been documented since the time of Hippocrates, fewer than half of all these cases are recognized.Objective:Because postpartum depression (PPD), the most common complication of childbearing, remains poorly characterized, and its etiology remains unclear, we attempted to address a critical gap in the mechanistic understanding of PPD by probing its systems-level neuropathophysiology, in the context of a specific neurobiological model of fronto-limbic-striatal function.Methods:Using emotionally valenced word probes, with linguistic semantic specificity within an integrated functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) protocol, we investigated emotional processing, behavioral regulation, and their interaction (functions of clinical relevance to PPD), in the context of fronto-limbic-striatal function.Results:We observed attenuated activity in posterior orbitofrontal cortex for negative versus neutral stimuli with greater PPD symptomatology, increased amygdala activity in response to negative words in those without PPD symptomotology, and attenuated striatum activation to positive word conditions with greater PPD symptomotology.Conclusion:Identifying the functional neuroanatomical profile of brain systems involved in the regulation of emotion and behavior in the postpartum period will not only assist in determining whether the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition psychiatric diagnostic specifier of PPD has an associated, unique, functional neuroanatomical profile, but a neurobiological characterization in relation to asymptomatic (postpartum nondepressed) control subjects, will also increase our understanding of the affective disorder spectrum, shed additional light on the possible mechanism(s) responsible for PPD and provide a necessary foundation for the development of more targeted, biologically based diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for PPD.

scholarly journals The Clinical Use of Photography: A Single Case, Multimethod Study of the Therapeutic Process

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emanuela Saita ◽  
Carmine Parrella ◽  
Federica Facchin ◽  
Floriana Irtelli
Keyword(s):  
Single Case ◽  
Therapeutic Process ◽  
Clinical Intervention ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Referential Activity ◽  
Single Case Study ◽  
Coding System ◽  
Physical Pain ◽  
Psychological Pain

This single case study aimed at evaluating the use of a photographic tech-nique (i.e., Spectro Cards) within an eight-session clinical intervention based on the Brief, Intermittent Psychotherapy model developed by Nicholas Cummings (1990). We hypothesized that the use of photography may increase the patient’s Referential Activity (RA), facilitating the linking process between the nonverbal experience and the verbal code. Linguistic analysis of the discursive production of a 36-year-old female patient was conducted according to two different strategies: Measurement of the RA according to the coding system developed by Wilma Bucci (1997a, 1997b), and textual-linguistic analysis supported by the software T-LAB. Our findings revealed that the use of Spectro Cards during each psychotherapeutic session yielded significant changes in the patient’s language, in terms of greater RA values, richer discursive production, and a switch of language focus from physical pain to psychological pain.

The Diagnosis of Schizophrenia by Language Analysis

1986 ◽  
Vol 148 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
William I. Fraser ◽  
Kathleen M. King ◽  
Philip Thomas ◽  
Robert E. Kendell
Keyword(s):  
Discriminant Function ◽  
Discriminant Function Analysis ◽  
Function Analysis ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Linguistic Variables ◽  
Language Analysis ◽  
And Control

Our aim was to test the findings of a study which claimed that if the syntactic structure of schizophrenic speech were subjected to a detailed linguistic analysis, clear differences would be demonstrated between schizophrenic, manic and control populations. It was confirmed that schizophrenics do have less syntactically complex speech which contains more errors. Using linguistic variables in a discriminant function analysis, it was possible to predict diagnoses correctly in 79% of cases.

scholarly journals Study of a Short-term Treatment by Referential Activity Linguistic Measures

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachele Mariani ◽  
Alessandra De Coro
Keyword(s):  
Therapeutic Process ◽  
Term Treatment ◽  
Referential Activity ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Short Term Treatment ◽  
Emotional Involvement ◽  
Referential Process ◽  
Treat Ment ◽  
Negative Affects ◽  
Linguistic Patterns

The purpose of the present article is to evaluate in this successful clinical case the Referential Process (Bucci, 1997) in the whole course of the therapeutic process. Objectives: The goals of the study are: to explore the linguistic interaction between patient and therapist; and to analyze specific linguistic patterns marking symboliza-tion and reorganization phases during the sessions. Method: The whole treatment is composed of 14 sessions, each session was transcribed verbatim, all sessions were processed by DAAP software and the following Italian computerized linguistic measures of the referential process were applied: Positive Affects, Negative Affects, Sum Affects, Reflection, Disfluency, Referential Activity Dictionary. Results: The analysis of patient and therapist interactions show a specific linguistic pattern, based on a verbalization of Negative Affects. Through cluster analysis, the whole treat-ment shows two specific phases; the first is at the beginning when a deep emotional involvement rapidly emerges, along with a high symbolization phase; followed by the second phase characterized by closure and reduction of emotional connections. A specific session “number 7” was also analyzed because of it showed a major pat-tern change.

Using a Linguistic Analysis Tool to Detect Deception

2005 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 563-567 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary T. Dzindolet ◽  
Linda G. Pierce
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Analysis Tool ◽  
Music Preferences ◽  
Linguistic Style ◽  
Linguistic Inquiry Word Count ◽  
Detecting Deception ◽  
Linguistic Inquiry ◽  
Low X ◽  
Accuracy Rates

Detecting deception is important, yet accuracy rates remain low (e.g., DePaulo & Friedman, 1998). Pennebaker et al. (2003) suggest a linguistic analysis tool may be able to detect deception because people use a different linguistic style when telling the truth than when lying. For example, the anxiety experienced by liars may “leak” into their words. The cognitive resources devoted to the lie will be taken from the message. Newman et al. (2003) found support for these hypotheses using the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC). Dzindolet and Pierce (2004a) found the LIWC was useful in detecting deception among participants discussing music preferences. This study expands their work to include other topics. Results from the 2 (topic: movie or television) x 2 (topic importance: high or low) x 2 (communication type: lie or truth) design indicated that linguistic analysis tools may be useful in detecting deception across a variety of topics.

scholarly journals Fear Reduction Processes in Imaginal and In Vivo Flooding: A Comment on James' Review

1987 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 215-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey E. Hecker ◽  
Geoffrey L. Thorpe
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Specific Treatment ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Fear Reduction ◽  
Treatment Techniques ◽  
Clinically Significant

The research comparing imaginal and in vivo exposure in the treatment of clinically significant fear, recently reviewed by James (1986), is reexamined from the perspective of bioinformational theory and the concept of emotional processing. Fear is assumed to be stored in long term memory as a network of propositionally-coded information, which has to be processed if treatment is to be successful. Emotional processing is indicated by activation of fear responses and their habituation within and across treatment sessions. Consistent with the theory, our review indicates that successful treatment via imaginal and in vivo exposure is indeed related to activation and habituation of fear responses; interference with processing has a negative impact upon fear reduction, regardless of the specific treatment techniques employed. Furthermore, some apparently discrepant findings in the available research literature can be understood in terms of the theories cited. These ideas provide a useful perspective from which to plan future research efforts and to advance our understanding of the processes underlying reduction of pathological fear.

scholarly journals Dreaming in quarantine: linguistic analysis of referential process of dreams during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachele Mariani ◽  
Silvia Monaco ◽  
Christopher Christian ◽  
Michela Di Trani
Keyword(s):  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Psychological Health ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Traumatic Experience ◽  
Analysis Program ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Referential Process ◽  
Physical And Psychological Health ◽  
Double Blinded ◽  
The Impact

The spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) became a collective trauma adversely affecting physical and psychological health. The impact of this trauma made itself manifest in a myriad of ways, including through dreams. This study aimed to explore the Referential Process (RP, Bucci, 2021) of dreams reported during quarantine. Dream samples were collected through a social blog. Linguistic analysis and clinical evaluation were conducted to explore the group’s collective elaboration of a shared traumatic experience. Sixty-eight people (22 males; mean age 26.16 ds. 7.68) contributed to a social-blog, writing their dreams. 91 dreams were collected and transcribed using transcription rules for the Discourse Attributes Analysis Program (DAAP). Linguistic measures of RP were applied and a statistical cluster analysis was performed. In addition, each dream was evaluated by trained judges on three specific qualities of the RP (Arousal, Symbolizing, and Reflection/Reorganizing). Clinical judges in a double-blinded method reached reliable scoring (Arousal α.874 ICC 0.701; Symbolizing α.783 ICC 0.671; Reflection/reorganization α.884 ICC 0.758). Cluster Analysis yielded three dream clusters. 26 dreams fell under a cluster defined as a symbolizing process (Cluster A); 16 into a cluster defined as arousal of emotional activation (Cluster B); and 49 dreams fell into a cluster defined as Reflection/Reorganizing elaboration (Cluster C). Each cluster showed specific linguistic features. The dreams collected through a blog showed a Referential Process that is similar to that found in psychotherapy process. Results suggests that writing dreams can play different functions in processing and integrating social traumatic experience.

Hearing Aid Consumer Reviews: A Linguistic Analysis in Relation to Benefit and Satisfaction Ratings

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 761-768
Author(s):  
Vinaya Manchaiah ◽  
De Wet Swanepoel ◽  
Abram Bailey ◽  
James W. Pennebaker ◽  
Rebecca J. Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Aid ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Online Reviews ◽  
Clinic Visit ◽  
Linguistic Variables ◽  
Point Scale ◽  
Consumer Reviews ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Hearing Device ◽  
Hearing Aid Benefit

Purpose Online reviews have been used by hearing aid owners to share their experiences and to provide suggestions to potential hearing aid buyers, although they have not been systematically examined. The study was aimed at examining the hearing aid consumer reviews using automated linguistic analysis, and how the linguistic variables relate to self-reported hearing aid benefit and satisfaction ratings. Method The study used a cross-sectional design. One thousand three hundred seventy-eight consumer hearing aid reviews (i.e., text response to open-ended question), self-reported benefit and satisfaction ratings on hearing aids in a 5-point scale with meta-data (e.g., hearing aid brand, technology level) extracted from the Hearing Tracker website were analyzed using automated text analysis method known as the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count. Results Self-reported hearing aid benefit and satisfaction ratings were high (i.e., mean rating of 4.04 in a 5-point scale). Examining the association between overall rating and the key linguistic variables point to two broad findings. First, the more people were personally, socially, and emotionally engaged with the hearing device experience, the higher they rated their hearing device(s). Second, a minimal occurrence of clinic-visit language dimensions points to factors that likely affect benefit and satisfaction ratings. For example, if people mention paying too much money (money), their overall ratings are generally lower. Conversely, if people write about their health or home, the ratings were higher. There was no significant difference in linguistic analysis across different hearing aid brands and technology levels. Conclusions Hearing aid consumers are generally satisfied with their hearing device(s), and their online reviews contain information about social/emotional dimensions as well as clinic-visit related aspects that have bearing toward hearing aid benefit and satisfaction ratings. These results suggest that the natural language used by consumers provide insights on their perceived benefit/satisfaction from their hearing device.

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