Individual Differences are a Better Predictor of Moral Language Use in Australian Prime Ministers’ Speeches than is their Political Party

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Parker ◽  
Baljinder K. Sahdra ◽  
Michael Ondaatje
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Multilevel Models ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Moral Foundation ◽  
Moral Language ◽  
Prime Ministers ◽  
Word Use ◽  
Complex Picture

Moral foundation theory argues humans respond to five moral dimensions: a) care/harm; b) fairness; c) ingroup; d) authority; and e) purity. Research and theory from the US suggest progressives appeal to the care/harm dimension, while conservatives appeal to a more balanced profile. Using a corpus of nearly 5000 speeches by Australian prime ministers from the 1940s to 2013, we put this claim to the test. In simple models we find some support for this basic distinction. We then apply more complex multilevel models with random intercepts for prime ministers and new weighted log-odds models that allow us to map unique moral word use by a political party or prime minister. These models suggest a more complex picture. Here, the effect of party on moral language use is small and individual differences and historical context matters more.

scholarly journals Appraisal of the Fairness Moral Foundation Predicts the Language Use Involving Moral Issues on Twitter Among Japanese

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akiko Matsuo ◽  
Baofa Du ◽  
Kazutoshi Sasahara
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Japanese Version ◽  
Moral Foundations ◽  
Moral Concern ◽  
Moral Foundation ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Language Communication ◽  
The Relationship

Moral appraisals are found to be associated with a person’s individual differences (e.g., political ideology), and the effects of individual differences on language use have been studied within the framework of the Moral Foundations Theory (MFT). However, the relationship between one’s moral concern and the use of language involving morality on social media is not self-evident. The present exploratory study investigated that relationship using the MFT. Participants’ tweets and self-reported responses to the questionnaire were collected to measure the degree of their appraisals according to the five foundations of the MFT. The Japanese version of the Moral Foundations Dictionary (J-MFD) was used to quantify the number of words in tweets relevant to the MFT’s five moral foundations. The results showed that endorsement of the Fairness and Authority foundations predicted the word frequency in the J-MFD across all five foundations. The findings suggest that the trade-off relationship between the Fairness and Authority foundations plays a key role in online language communication. The implications and future directions to scrutinize that foundation are discussed.

Individual Differences in Meditation Outcomes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivana Buric ◽  
Inti A. Brazil
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Multilevel Models ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Psychological Variables ◽  
Biological Variables ◽  
Meta Regression ◽  
Participant Characteristics ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Health And Well Being

Meditation generally has small to moderate effects on health and well-being, but some people experience greater benefits from meditation than others. What are the characteristics of the study participants or meditation students that lead to beneficial outcomes of meditation? This chapter adopts a multilevel approach to evaluate the evidence on the relationship between participant characteristics and individual differences in meditation outcomes across four sources of variability: personality and other psychological variables, biological variables, illness severity, and demographic factors. Research in the area is sparse and has several methodological shortcomings, thus the authors recommend the use of multilevel models and meta-regression as ways of properly incorporating the study of individual differences with other variables.

scholarly journals Not All Bilinguals Are the Same: A Call for More Detailed Assessments and Descriptions of Bilingual Experiences

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela de Bruin
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Executive Functioning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Objective Measurements

No two bilinguals are the same. Differences in bilingual experiences can affect language-related processes but have also been proposed to modulate executive functioning. Recently, there has been an increased interest in studying individual differences between bilinguals, for example in terms of their age of acquisition, language proficiency, use, and switching. However, and despite the importance of this individual variation, studies often do not provide detailed assessments of their bilingual participants. This review first discusses several aspects of bilingualism that have been studied in relation to executive functioning. Next, I review different questionnaires and objective measurements that have been proposed to better define bilingual experiences. In order to better understand (effects of) bilingualism within and across studies, it is crucial to carefully examine and describe not only a bilingual’s proficiency and age of acquisition, but also their language use and switching as well as the different interactional contexts in which they use their languages.

Spatial Development

2013 ◽  
pp. 563-590 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nora S. Newcombe ◽  
David H. Uttal ◽  
Megan Sauter
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Mental Rotation ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Spatial Development ◽  
Formal Description ◽  
Spatial Skills ◽  
Modular Architecture ◽  
Normative Development ◽  
Selective Review

This chapter is a selective review of spatial development, stressing several points. First, we suggest that spatial development can be usefully considered to have two strands: (a) the development of intraobject (or intrinsic) representations along with the ability to transform them (e.g., in mental rotation) and (b) the development of interobject (or extrinsic) representations and the ability to use them to navigate. Second, we argue that both lines of development begin from strong starting points, but also undergo considerable development. They are far from innately specified, nor do they have a modular architecture. Third, we discuss the amplification of spatial skills by human symbolic capabilities, including language, use of maps and models, and gesture. Fourth, we identify areas where research is lacking, most notably the formal description of intraobject skills and the charting of their normative development, the exploration of the sources of individual differences in navigation-relevant skills, and the applications of research to education.

scholarly journals Cognitive Interference in the Context of Daily Stressors, Daily Awareness of Age-Related Change, and General Aging Attitudes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica L O’Brien ◽  
Genesis E Torres ◽  
Shevaun D Neupert
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Multilevel Models ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Cognitive Interference ◽  
Stress Effects ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Perceptions Of Aging ◽  
Aging Attitudes ◽  
Amazon's Mechanical Turk

Abstract Objectives Previous diary work indicates that older people experience more intrusive and unwanted thoughts (i.e., cognitive interference) on days with stressors. We examined additional predictors of daily cognitive interference to enhance understanding of the psychological context surrounding this link. We specifically focused on factors related to subjective experiences of aging based on studies that have related higher stress and impairments in cognition such as executive control processes (working memory) to negative age stereotypes. Consistent with these findings, we generally expected stronger stress effects on cognitive interference when daily self-perceptions of aging (i.e., within-person fluctuations in awareness of age-related losses [AARC losses]) and general aging attitudes (i.e., individual differences in attitudes toward own aging [ATOA]) were more negative. Methods Participants (n = 91; aged 60–80) on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk completed surveys on 9 consecutive days, reporting on their ATOA (Day 1) as well as their stressors, AARC losses, and cognitive interference (Days 2–9). Results Multilevel models showed that people reported more cognitive interference on days with more AARC losses. Individuals with positive ATOA also experienced less cognitive interference on days with more stressors, whereas those with negative ATOA experienced more. Discussion Both individual differences and fluctuating daily perceptions of aging appear to be important for older adults’ cognitive interference. Consistent with other work, positive ATOA protected against daily stressor effects. Further elucidating these relationships can increase understanding of and facilitate efforts to improve (daily) cognitive experiences in older adults.

scholarly journals Characterizing the social diversity of bilingualism using language entropy

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason W. Gullifer ◽  
Debra Titone
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Social Diversity ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Language History ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Control

AbstractBilingual and multilingual individuals exhibit variation in everyday language experience. Studies on bilingualism account for individual differences with measures such as L2 age of acquisition, exposure, or language proficiency, but recent theoretical perspectives posit that the relative balance between the two or more languages throughout daily life (i.e., interactional context) is a crucial determinant for language representation, access, and control. We propose an innovative measure to characterize this construct by using entropy to estimate the social diversity of language use. Language entropy is computed from commonly-collected language history data and generalizes to multilingual communicative contexts. We show how language entropy relates to other indices of bilingual experience and that it predicts self-report L2 outcome measures over and above classic measures of language experience. Thus, we proffer language entropy as a means to characterize individual differences in bilingual (and multilingual) language experience related to the social diversity of language use.

Phonological development from babbling to speech: Common tendencies and individual differences

1986 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn May Vihman ◽  
Charles A. Ferguson ◽  
Mary Elbert
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Biological Model ◽  
Phonological Development ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Word Use ◽  
Phonological Word ◽  
Knowledge Of Language ◽  
Increasing Knowledge ◽  
Word Selection ◽  
Point Of Departure

ABSTRACTTaking as a point of departure Locke's biological model for the origins of phonological development, this study encompasses analyses of phonetic tendencies, consonant use in babbling and early words, and phonological word-selection patterns. Data from 10 children aged 9 to 16 months are drawn from four lexically defined points covering the period from no word use to a cumulative vocabulary of 50 words. Individual differences are found to prevail from the start in all three domains analyzed, with some increase in uniformity across subjects with increasing knowledge of language. Furthermore, the phonological processes typical of development from age 1 to 3 or 4 years are found to be rooted in the phonetic tendencies of the prelinguistic period.

Language and the Society of Others

Philosophy ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 67 (261) ◽  
pp. 329-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Private Language ◽  
Rule Following ◽  
Critical Fields ◽  
Private Language Argument ◽  
Language User

The solitary language user is again stalking the critical fields of Europe (and America, one should add). This pre-social individual, abstracted from all social and historical context, has been seemingly revived after what many of us saw as a death-blow dealt by Wittgenstein in his analysis of the notion of following a rule, and his related discussions bringing out the impossibilities of a ‘private’ language—what has come to be known as Wittgenstein's ‘private language argument’. Just what a ‘private language’ is has become the issue. Did Wittgenstein show that language-use and rule-following essentially and necessarily involved others, and were therefore necessarily social in character (thus showing that to be human and to be rational was necessarily to be social—as Aristotle had it)? Or did his arguments bear only against the notion of a language which was essentially and necessarily private, one which could not in principle be taught to another?

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