Social Psychology Network

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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:

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The Secret Life of Pronouns (TEDx talk)

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  • The Secret Life of Pronouns (TEDx talk)


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


  • The Expressive Writing Method


  • Using Expressive Writing to Heal Emotional Wounds


  • How to Get Started With Expressive Writing


  • Language of Truth and Lies: Performatives


  • Language of Truth and Lies: I-words


  • Emotional Well-Being


  • What Words Say About Our Personality


  • What Do Words Choices Tell Us About Relationships?


  • Can We Detect Lying by Word Choices?


  • The Effects of Translating Emotional Experiences Into Words


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


  • Emotions and Language in the Real World


  • The Arc of Narrative Presentation


  • 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

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