James Whiting Pennebaker (born March 2, 1950) is an American social psychologist. He is a Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers.[1] His research focuses on the relationship between natural language use, health, and social behavior, most recently "how everyday language reflects basic social and personality processes".[2]
Over the course of his career, Pennebaker has studied the nature of physical symptoms, health consequences of secrets, expressive writing, and natural language, and has received grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Templeton Foundation, the U.S. Army Research Institute, and other federal agencies for studies in language, emotion, and social dynamics.
A pioneer of writing therapy, he has researched the link between language and recovering from trauma and been "recognized by the American Psychological Association as one of the top researchers on trauma, disclosure, and health."[4][5] In particular, he finds a person's use of "low-level words", such as pronouns and articles, predictive of recovery as well as indicative of sex, age, and personality traits: "Virtually no one in psychology has realized that low-level words can give clues to large-scale behaviors."[4][6]
In the mid-1990s, he and colleagues developed the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC; pronounced "Luke"), a computerized text analysis program that outputs the percentage of words in a given text that fall into one or more of over 80 linguistic (e.g., first-person singular pronouns, conjunctions), psychological (e.g., anger, achievement), and topical (e.g., leisure, money) categories. It builds on previous research linking language patterns with mental states and traits but is more efficient and objective than hand coding methods.[4][6] Pennebaker and his collaborators have used LIWC to analyze the language of Al Qaeda leaders and of political candidates, particularly in the 2008 United States presidential election.[4][6] The use of LIWC is widespread, particularly in the social-behavioral and computer sciences. It is commonly used to examine group and individual differences in communication and writing, the influence of context on language use, social dynamics in close relationships, and language patterns associated with deception and insider threats.[7][8] Pennebaker blogs with associates on what text analysis reveals about political leaders at Wordwatchers: Tracking the language of public figures,[4] and Pennebaker Conglomerates, Inc. offers free LIWC-based text analysis tools online, including a language style matching calculator and a language-based application of the Thematic Apperception Test.[9]
In January 2017, Pennebaker was one of the speakers in the Linguistic Society of America's inaugural Public Lectures on Language series.[10]
The Psychology of Physical Symptoms. New York: Springer, 1982. ISBN978-0-387-90730-7
(Ed., with Daniel M. Wegner) Handbook of Mental Control. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1993. ISBN978-0-13-379280-5
Emotion, Disclosure, and Health. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 1995. ISBN978-1-55798-308-4
Opening up: The Healing Power of Confiding in Others. New York: Morrow, 1990. Repr. Opening Up: The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions. New York: Guilford, 1997. ISBN978-1-57230-238-9
Writing to Heal: A Guided Journal for Recovering from Trauma and Emotional Upheaval. Oakland, California: New Harbinger, 2004. ISBN978-1-57224-365-1
Expressive Writing: Words that Heal. Idyll Arbor, 2014. James Pennebaker; John Evans. ISBN9781611580464
Opening Up by Writing It Down, Third Edition: How Expressive Writing Improves Health and Eases Emotional Pain. Guilford Press, 2014. James Pennebaker, Joshua M. Smyth. ISBN978-1462524921
Pennebaker, James W. (1989). "Confession, Inhibition, and Disease". Advances in Experimental Social Psychology Volume 22. Vol. 22. Academic Press. pp. 211–244. doi:10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60309-3. ISBN9780120152223.
with Dorottya Demszky; Diyi Yang; David S. Yeager; Christopher J. Bryan; Margarett Clapper; Susannah Chandhok; Johannes C. Eichstaedt; Cameron Hecht; Jeremy Jamieson; Meghann Johnson; Michaela Jones; Danielle Krettek-Cobb; Leslie Lai; Nirel JonesMitchell; Desmond C. Ong; Carol S. Dweck; James J. Gross; James W. Pennebaker (2023). "Using large language models in psychology"(PDF). Nature Reviews Psychology. 2: 688–701. doi:10.1038/s44159-023-00241-5.
