Depression, neuroticism, extraversion and pronoun use in first and foreign languages following mood induction

Abstract

Previous studies have noticed that depression, neuroticism, extraversion, and mood can leave linguistic fingerprints, particularly on pronoun use. The first aim of the present study was to examine the linguistic associations and impacts of these psychological constructs among Iranian native speakers of Farsi. Secondly, the linguistic correlates of depression, neuroticism, and extraversion were investigated in English, as a foreign language. For these goals, 220 Iranian adults (58.2% female, Mage = 25.2; SD = 5.19) participated and were assigned to four different groups (positive, neutral, and negative Farsi mood groups and a neutral English group). As expected, depression correlated with I-talk in Farsi (r = 0.217, p < 0.05). It was also associated with more negative emotion words (r = 0.355, p < 0.05), less positive emotion words (r = 0.421, p < 0.05), and less we-talk (r = 0.22, p < 0.05). Nonetheless, the results were not supportive of the association between I-talk and neuroticism or extraversion. Consistent with former observations, induced negative mood decreased self-referential language. The English responses showed that speaking in one's foreign versus native language can strongly diminish the linguistic effects of the psychological constructs.