Presenter: Jackie Cowell
Mentor: Jennifer Ablow
Poster: 6
Major: Psychology
Given the fundamental role that language plays in our lives, it is apparent that the words people use reveal information the ways in which they experience and interact with those around them. Examining the language use of at-risk first- time mothers is especially pertinent as risk factors such as maternal depression and anxiety lead to adverse child outcomes including delayed emotional development, behavioral problems and lower IQ (Bergman et at., 2007). To broaden the understanding of how language is used in emotion processing with regards to mental health outcomes, we used EMOTAIX-Tropes, a text-analysis software program aimed at assessing the emotional lexicon, to examine 65 first-time mothers’ use of emotion language such as words denoting worry, happiness, or anger. The women were interviewed using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and were recorded and transcribed verbatim, then analyzed via EMOTAIX-Tropes, which divides and classifies emotion terms into semantic categories according to valence (positive or negative). Additionally, participants filled out questionnaires to assess levels of depression (CESD) (Radloff, 1977), anxiety (BAI) (Beck, Brown, Epstein & Steer, 1998), trauma history (TSC) (Elliot & Briere, 1992), alexithymia (TAS) (Bagby, Parker & Taylor, 1994), and intelligence (Shipley, 1940). We hypothesized that participants’ emotional language would correlate with self-reported measures of distress, such that those with greater symptomatology will use more negative affect terms. Preliminary Results show that depression is positively correlated with the use of negative emotion words. Further analyses will look at the correlation between emotion language and other mental health factors.