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 establishing strong links between linguistic patterns and personality or psychological state, but makes possible far more detailed results than did hand counts.[4][6] Pennebaker and associates have used this tool 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. It is commonly used to examine how different groups of people communicate or write, how individuals may differ in their writing across contexts, and is used to detect deception. Pennebaker blogs with associates on what linguistic analysis says 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.[7]
In January 2017, Pennebaker was one of the speakers in the Linguistic Society of America's inaugural Public Lectures on Language series.[8]
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