Examining Linguistic Narratives and Symptoms of Anxiety, PTSD, and Depression

This study explores the relationship between cognitive processing styles, psychological symptom measures, and linguistic patterns identified by the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC-22) tool. The study aims to understand how processing styles and language use correlate with psychological symptoms. Key hypotheses test the correlations between processing styles like assimilation and overaccommodation with PTSD, anxiety, and depression. The study involved 149 students from RIT and used a narrative prompt, various psychological inventories, and the LIWC-22 for textual analysis. Results indicated significant correlations among the measured variables, suggesting that language use in personal narratives can reflect psychological states.

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