scholarly journals Identification of Emotional Expression With Cancer Survivors: Validation of Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count

10.2196/18246 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (10) ◽  
pp. e18246
Author(s):  
Michelle McDonnell ◽  
Jason Edward Owen ◽  
Erin O'Carroll Bantum

Background Given the high volume of text-based communication such as email, Facebook, Twitter, and additional web-based and mobile apps, there are unique opportunities to use text to better understand underlying psychological constructs such as emotion. Emotion recognition in text is critical to commercial enterprises (eg, understanding the valence of customer reviews) and to current and emerging clinical applications (eg, as markers of clinical progress and risk of suicide), and the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) is a commonly used program. Objective Given the wide use of this program, the purpose of this study is to update previous validation results with two newer versions of LIWC. Methods Tests of proportions were conducted using the total number of emotion words identified by human coders for each emotional category as the reference group. In addition to tests of proportions, we calculated F scores to evaluate the accuracy of LIWC 2001, LIWC 2007, and LIWC 2015. Results Results indicate that LIWC 2001, LIWC 2007, and LIWC 2015 each demonstrate good sensitivity for identifying emotional expression, whereas LIWC 2007 and LIWC 2015 were significantly more sensitive than LIWC 2001 for identifying emotional expression and positive emotion; however, more recent versions of LIWC were also significantly more likely to overidentify emotional content than LIWC 2001. LIWC 2001 demonstrated significantly better precision (F score) for identifying overall emotion, negative emotion, and anxiety compared with LIWC 2007 and LIWC 2015. Conclusions Taken together, these results suggest that LIWC 2001 most accurately reflects the emotional identification of human coders.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle McDonnell ◽  
Jason Edward Owen ◽  
Erin O'Carroll Bantum

BACKGROUND Given the high volume of text-based communication such as email, Facebook, Twitter, and additional web-based and mobile apps, there are unique opportunities to use text to better understand underlying psychological constructs such as emotion. Emotion recognition in text is critical to commercial enterprises (eg, understanding the valence of customer reviews) and to current and emerging clinical applications (eg, as markers of clinical progress and risk of suicide), and the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) is a commonly used program. OBJECTIVE Given the wide use of this program, the purpose of this study is to update previous validation results with two newer versions of LIWC. METHODS Tests of proportions were conducted using the total number of emotion words identified by human coders for each emotional category as the reference group. In addition to tests of proportions, we calculated F scores to evaluate the accuracy of LIWC 2001, LIWC 2007, and LIWC 2015. RESULTS Results indicate that LIWC 2001, LIWC 2007, and LIWC 2015 each demonstrate good sensitivity for identifying emotional expression, whereas LIWC 2007 and LIWC 2015 were significantly more sensitive than LIWC 2001 for identifying emotional expression and positive emotion; however, more recent versions of LIWC were also significantly more likely to overidentify emotional content than LIWC 2001. LIWC 2001 demonstrated significantly better precision (F score) for identifying overall emotion, negative emotion, and anxiety compared with LIWC 2007 and LIWC 2015. CONCLUSIONS Taken together, these results suggest that LIWC 2001 most accurately reflects the emotional identification of human coders.


2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-14
Author(s):  
Corrin G. Richels ◽  
Rogge Jessica

Purpose: Deficits in the ability to use emotion vocabulary may result in difficulties for adolescents who stutter (AWS) and may contribute to disfluencies and stuttering. In this project, we aimed to describe the emotion words used during conversational speech by AWS. Methods: Participants were 26 AWS between the ages of 12 years, 5 months and 15 years, 11 months-old (n=4 females, n=22 males). We drew personal narrative samples from the UCLASS database. We used Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software to analyze data samples for numbers of emotion words. Results: Results indicated that the AWS produced significantly higher numbers of emotion words with a positive valence. AWS tended to use the same few positive emotion words to the near exclusion of words with negative emotion valence. Conclusion: A lack of diversity in emotion vocabulary may make it difficult for AWS to engage in meaningful discourse about negative aspects of being a person who stutters


2007 ◽  
Vol 120 (2) ◽  
pp. 263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey H. Kahn ◽  
Renée M. Tobin ◽  
Audra E. Massey ◽  
Jennifer A. Anderson

Author(s):  
Sanaz Aghazadeh ◽  
Kris Hoang ◽  
Bradley Pomeroy

This paper provides methodological guidance for judgment and decision-making (JDM) researchers in accounting who are interested in using the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC) text analysis program to analyze research participants’ written responses to open-ended questions. We discuss how LIWC’s measures of psychological constructs were developed and validated in psycholinguistic research. We then use data from an audit JDM study to illustrate the use of LIWC to guide researchers in identifying suitable measures, performing quality control procedures, and reporting the analysis. We also discuss research design considerations that will strengthen the inferences drawn from LIWC analysis. The paper concludes with examples where LIWC analysis has the potential to reveal participants’ deep, complex, effortful psychological processing and affective states from their written responses.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 296-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia Smirnova ◽  
Helena Laranetto ◽  
Nicholas Kolenda

This article continues the line of research that combines the paradigm of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with quantitative methods. We propose that Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), a software for automated text analysis widely used in social sciences, can enrich the CDA toolkit. The methodological advantage of LIWC is that its semantic categorization was developed and validated independently, which addresses the concerns about subjectivity. In two case studies we use LIWC to analyze the construction and representation of the ‘Other’ in mass media. Study 1 focuses on the representation of Russia in The New York Times (NYT) before and after its annexation of Crimea; Study 2 analyzes the change in sentiment toward Islam in NYT before and after 9/11. We find that in both cases the change in attitude is driven by an increase in negative emotion words rather than by a decrease in positive words.


Crisis ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Fernández-Cabana ◽  
A. García-Caballero ◽  
M. T. Alves-Pérez ◽  
M. J. García-García ◽  
R. Mateos

Background: Linguistic inquiry and word count (LIWC), a computerized method for text analysis, is often used to examine suicide writings in order to characterize the quantitative linguistic features of suicidal texts. Aims: To analyze texts compiled in Marilyn Monroe’s Fragments using LIWC, in order to explore the use of different linguistic categories in her narrative over the years. Method: Selected texts were grouped into four periods of similar word count and processed with LIWC. Spearman’s rank correlation was used to assess changes in language use across the documents over time. The Kruskal-Wallis test was applied to compare means between periods and for each of the 80 LIWC output scores. Results: Significant differences (p < .05) were found in 11 categories, the most relevant being a progressive decrease in the use of negative emotion words, a reduction in the use of long words in the third period, and an increase in the proportion of personal pronouns used as Monroe approached the time of her death. Conclusions: The consistently elevated usage of first-person personal singular pronouns and the consistently diminished usage of first-person personal plural pronouns are in line with previous studies linking this pattern with a low level of social integration, which has been related to suicide according to different theories.


2021 ◽  
pp. 154805182110124
Author(s):  
Alexa J. Doerr

Just over one year after COVID-19 reached the United States, the number of confirmed cases exceeds 26 million. The Centers for Disease Control has consistently recommended frequent handwashing, avoiding crowds, wearing masks, and staying home as much as possible to prevent the spread of the virus. Additionally, 42 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico issued stay-at-home orders in the spring of 2020. Length of stay-at-home orders varied and states have also diverged on policies that mandate masks in public places. Through the lens of signaling theory and the emotion as social information model, the current research sheds light on how governors' differing policies and communication have influenced COVID-19 behavior and outcomes. Governor press briefings between January 7, 2020, and January 1, 2021, were run through the linguistic inquiry and word count software. Results indicated that states with longer stay-at-home orders and a stronger mask mandate reported fewer COVID-19 cases. Furthermore, negative emotion in governor press briefings was related to fewer cases and this relationship was mediated by individuals spending less time away from home for an extended period (3–6 h). Practical implications and guidance for future public health messaging, including messaging aimed at bolstering vaccination efforts, are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 167
Author(s):  
Nicholas Shea

A descending bass line coordinated with sad lyrics is often described as evoking the "lament" topic—a signal to listeners that grief is being conveyed (Caplin, 2014). In human speech, a similar pattern of pitch declination occurs as air pressure is lost ('t Hart, Collier, & Cohen, 1990) which—coordinated with the premise that sad speech is lower in pitch (Lieberman & Michaels, 1962)—suggests there may be a cognitive-ecological association between descending bass lines and negative emotion more broadly. This study reexamines the relationship between descending bass lines and sadness in songs with lyrics. First, two contrasting repertoires were surveyed: 703 cantata movements by J. S. Bach and 740 popular music songs released ca. 1950–1990. Works featuring descending bass lines were identified and bass lines extracted by computationally parsing scores for bass or the lowest sounding musical line that descends incrementally by step. The corresponding lyrics were then analyzed using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (Pennebaker et al., 2015a, 2015b). Results were not consistent with the hypothesis that descending bass lines are associated with a general negative affect and thus also not specifically with sadness. In a follow-up behavioral study, popular music excerpts featuring a descending bass were evaluated for the features of sad sounds (Huron, Anderson, & Shanahan, 2014) by undergraduate musicians. Here, tempo and articulation, but not interval size as anticipated, were found to be the best predictors of songs with descending bass lines.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janak Judd

Research on regulatory focus has often used hopes versus duties to operationalize promotion and prevention focus, respectively. The current research examined regulatory focus in terms of exploration versus self-control to determine whether people tend to bring different types of experiences to mind when thinking about these experiences. I used Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software to analyze written descriptions of exploration and self-control and used t-tests to examine between-condition differences on word categories that participants used at least 0.5% of the time. Across two studies, descriptions of exploration had more positive emotional tone and used more insight words. In contrast, descriptions of self-control used more function words, more negative emotion words, including anger, more words about ingestion, and more words about power.


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