Patterns of natural language use: disclosure, personality, and social integration

When people write about their deepest thoughts and feelings about an emotio nally significant event, numerous benefits in many domains (e.g, health, ac hievement, and well-being) result. As one step in understanding how writing achieves the-se effects, we have developed:a computer program that provide s a "fingerprint" of the words people use in writing or in natural settings . Analyses of text samples indicate that particular patterns of word use pr edict health and also reflect personality styles. We have also discovered t hat language use in the laboratory writing paradigm is associated with chan ges in social interactions and language use in the real world. The implicat ions for using computer-based text analysis programs in the development of psychological theory are discussed.