Psychology: Faculty Publications

A Meta-Analysis of Correlations Between Depression and First Person Singular Pronoun Use

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-2017

Publication Title

Journal of Research in Personality

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2017.02.005

ISSN

0092-6566

Abstract

Depression is a burden. We discuss how theories, identification, assessment, and treatment of depression are at least partially tied to the correlation between first person singular pronoun use and individual differences in depression. We conducted a meta-analysis (k = 21, N = 3758) of these correlations, including numerous unpublished correlations from the file drawer. Our fixed effects analysis revealed a small correlation (r = 0.13, 95% CI = [0.10–0.16]) by modern standards. The correlation was not moderated by gender, nor by whether the effect had been published. These results more firmly establish first person singular pronoun use as a linguistic marker of depression—a marker that appears to be useful across demographic lines.

Comments

Copyright and Licensing: http://sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/issn/0092-6566/

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