Meier, Tabea and Mehl, Matthias R. and Martin, Mike and Horn, Andrea B. and Ptaszynski, Michal (2024) When I am sixty-four… evaluating language markers of well-being in healthy aging narratives. PLOS ONE, 19 (4). e0302103. ISSN 1932-6203
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Abstract
Natural language use is a promising candidate for the development of innovative measures of well-being to complement self-report measures. The type of words individuals use can reveal important psychological processes that underlie well-being across the lifespan. In this preregistered, cross-sectional study, we propose a conceptual model of language markers of well-being and use written narratives about healthy aging (N = 701) and computerized text analysis (LIWC) to empirically validate the model. As hypothesized, we identified a model with three groups of language markers (reflecting affective, evaluative, and social processes). Initial validation with established self-report scales (N = 30 subscales) showed that these language markers reliably predict core components of well-being and underlying processes. Our results support the concurrent validity of the conceptual language model and allude to the added benefits of language-based measures, which are thought to reflect less conscious processes of well-being. Future research is needed to continue validating language markers of well-being across the lifespan in a theoretically informed and contextualized way, which will lay the foundation for inferring people’s well-being from their natural language use.
Item Type: | Article |
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Subjects: | European Repository > Biological Science |
Depositing User: | Managing Editor |
Date Deposited: | 02 May 2024 10:37 |
Last Modified: | 02 May 2024 10:37 |
URI: | http://go7publish.com/id/eprint/4342 |