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Personality development through natural language
Kevin Lanning1, Rachel E Pauletti2, Laura A King3
1Florida Atlantic University, Jupiter, FL, USA. lanning@fau.edu.
Nature Human Behaviour
|April 10, 2019
Summary
This study analyzes language to understand personality development across different ego levels. Higher ego levels correlate with increased linguistic complexity and broader perspectives, revealing distinct language patterns at each stage.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Linguistics
- Computational Social Science
Background:
- Ego level is a broad construct summarizing individual differences in personality development.
- Understanding personality development through language provides insights into psychological constructs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine ego level as represented in natural language.
- To identify linguistic markers associated with different stages of ego development.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of a composite sample of four datasets (nearly 44,000 responses).
- Utilized Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) categories and individual word analysis.
- Examined correlations between ego levels and linguistic features.
Main Results:
- Found support for a developmental sequence in ego levels reflected in language.
- LIWC analyses indicated increasing complexity and breadth of perspective with higher ego levels.
- Identified characteristic language patterns for each ego level, reflecting shifts in desires, doubt, motivation, mutuality, and life goals.
Conclusions:
- Language analysis offers a valuable method for studying ego development.
- Findings deepen the understanding of ego development's relationship with personality and individual differences.
- Language patterns can characterize individuals, texts, and cultural contexts.
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