Social Psychology Network

Maintained by Scott Plous, Wesleyan University

James W. Pennebaker

James W. Pennebaker

James W. Pennebaker is the Regents Centennial Professor of Liberal Arts and Professor of Psychology. He and his students are exploring natural language use, group dynamics, and personality in both laboratory and real world settings. His earlier work on expressive writing found that physical health and work performance can improve by simple writing and/or talking exercises. His cross-disciplinary research is related to linguistics, clinical and cognitive psychology, communications, medicine, and computer science. Author or editor of 12 books and over 300 articles, Pennebaker has received numerous research and teaching awards and honors.

Primary Interests:

  • Close Relationships
  • Communication, Language
  • Emotion, Mood, Affect
  • Gender Psychology
  • Group Processes
  • Health Psychology
  • Internet and Virtual Psychology
  • Interpersonal Processes
  • Personality, Individual Differences
  • Political Psychology
  • Research Methods, Assessment

Online Studies:

Note from the Network: The holder of this profile has certified having all necessary rights, licenses, and authorization to post the files listed below. Visitors are welcome to copy or use any files for noncommercial or journalistic purposes provided they credit the profile holder and cite this page as the source.

Video Gallery

Featured SVG

The Secret Life of Pronouns (TEDx talk)

Select video to watch

  • 17:59

    The Secret Life of Pronouns (TEDx talk)


  • 02:41

    The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us


  • 5:26

    The Expressive Writing Method


  • 52:0

    Using Expressive Writing to Heal Emotional Wounds


  • 03:38

    How to Get Started With Expressive Writing


  • 3:7

    Language of Truth and Lies: Performatives


  • 2:33

    Language of Truth and Lies: I-words


  • 3:16

    Emotional Well-Being


  • 4:34

    What Words Say About Our Personality


  • 4:33

    What Do Words Choices Tell Us About Relationships?


  • 2:44

    Can We Detect Lying by Word Choices?


  • 1:17:39

    The Effects of Translating Emotional Experiences Into Words


  • 04:08

    Do Word Choices Reveal Who the Leader of a Group Is?


  • 31:11

    Emotions and Language in the Real World


  • 16:39

    The Arc of Narrative Presentation


  • 75:41

    What Now? Moving Past the Replication Debate



Books:

Journal Articles:

Other Publications:

Courses Taught:

  • Eating Behavior and Disorders
  • Health Psychology
  • Introductory Psychology
  • Language and Literature
  • Language and Personality
  • Language and Social Media
  • Methodology
  • Social and Political Institutions (1854-present)
  • Social Physics
  • Social Psychology
  • Social Psychology of Language
  • Social Psychology of Religion
  • Stress and Psychosomatics
  • Words and Social Processes

James W. Pennebaker
Department of Psychology
University of Texas
1 University Station A8000
Austin, Texas 78712
United States of America

  • Phone: (512) 232-2781

Send a message to James W. Pennebaker

Note: You will be emailed a copy of your message.

Psychology Headlines

From Around the World

News Feed (35,797 subscribers)