

James W. Pennebaker
James W. Pennebaker is the Regents Centennial Chair of Psychology and the Executive Director of Project 2021 at the University of Texas at Austin. He and his students are exploring the links between emotional experiences, natural language, and physical and mental health. His most recent research focuses on how everyday language reflects basic social and personality processes. Author or editor of 9 books and over 250 articles, Pennebaker has received numerous awards and honors. Beginning in 2016, he has assumed the leadership of Project 2021, a program to change the way the University of Texas thinks about and delivers undergraduate education.
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:
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Books:
- Pennebaker, J. W. (2011). The secret life of pronouns: What our words say about us. New York: Bloomsbury Press.
- Pennebaker, J. W. (2004). Writing to heal: A guided journal for recovering from trauma and emotional upheaval. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Press.
- Pennebaker, J. W. (1997). Opening up: The healing power of expressing emotions. New York: Guilford Press.
- Pennebaker, J.W., & Evans, J. (2014). Expressive Writing: Words that Heal. Idyll Arbor Books.
- Pennebaker, J. W., Paez, D., & Rimé, B. (Eds.). (1997). Collective memory of political events: Social psychological perspectives. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
- Pennebaker, J. W., & Smyth, J. (2016). Opening up by writing it down: The healing power of expressive writing (3rd. ed.). New York: Guilford.
Journal Articles:
- Boyd, R.L., & Pennebaker, J.W. (2015). Did Shakespeare write Double Falsehood? Identifying an individual’s mental world with text analysis. Psychological Science, doi:10.1177/0956797614566658.
- Ireland, M. E., Slatcher, R. B., Eastwick, P. W., Scissors, L. E., Finkel, E. J., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2010). Language style matching predicts relationship initiation and stability. Psychological Science.
- Pennebaker, J. W., Groom, C. J., Loew, D., & Dabbs, J. (2004). Testosterone as a social inhibitor: Two case studies of the effect of testosterone treatment on language. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 113, 172-175.
- Pennebaker, J. W., Mehl, M. R., & Niederhoffer, K. (2003). Psychological aspects of natural language use: Our words, our selves. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 547-577.
- Pennebaker, J. W., & King, L. A. (1999). Linguistic styles: Language use as an individual difference. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1296-1312.
- Slatcher, R. B., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2006). How do I love thee? Let me count the words: The social effects of expressive writing. Psychological Science, 17, 660-664.
- Pennebaker, J. W. (1997). Writing about emotional experiences as a therapeutic process. Psychological Science, 8, 162-166.
- Mehl, M. R., Vazire, S., Ramirez-Esparza, N., Slatcher, R. B., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2007). Are women really more talkative than men? Science, 317, 82.
- Ireland, M.E., & Pennebaker, J.W. (2010). Language style matching in writing: Synchrony in essays, correspondence, and poetry. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 549-571.
- Pennebaker, J. W., Paez, D., Deschamps, J. C., Rentfrow, J., Davis, M., Techio, E. M., Slawuta, P., Zlobina, A., & Zubieta, E. (2006). The social psychology of history: Defining the most important events of the last 10, 100, and 1000 years. Psicologia Politica, 32, 15-32.
- Tausczik, Y. R., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2010). The psychological meaning of words: LIWC and computerized text analysis methods. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 29, 24-54.
Other Publications:
- Pennebaker, J. W., Booth, R. J., & Francis, M. E. (2007). Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC2007): A text analysis program. Austin, TX: LIWC.net.
- Pennebaker, J.W., Booth, R.J., Boyd, R.L., & Francis, M.E. (2015). Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count: LIWC 2015. Austin, TX: Pennebaker Conglomerates Inc (www.liwc.net)
- Chung, C. K., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2007). The psychological functions of function words. In K. Fiedler (Ed.), Social communication (pp. 343-359). New York: Psychology Press.
- Pennebaker, J. W., & Chung, C. K. (in press). Expressive writing: Connections to physical and mental health. In H. S. Friedman (Ed.), Oxford handbook of health psychology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
James W. Pennebaker
Department of Psychology
University of Texas
1 University Station A8000
Austin, Texas 78712
United States
- Phone: (512) 232-2781