2024 Katz-Newcomb Social Psychology Annual Lecture - James Pennebaker, Ph.D.

James Pennebaker is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Trained as a social psychologist, his work has been influential across psychology and other social sciences, computer and information sciences, and health and business.

The study of words is the organizing principle of much of my career. Early on, I discovered that if people wrote about emotional experiences their physical and mental health tended to improve. To better understand expressive writing, my students and I developed a text analysis program which revealed some surprising links between word use and psychological states. Over the years, we learned how word use can reflect people’s age, sex, education, personality, and mental health. Word analyses are now providing insights into social and psychological processes of individuals, groups, and entire societies.