James W. Pennebaker

Pennebaker received his B.A. in psychology from Eckerd College in 1972 with honors and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1977. He has held the following positions: • 1977–1983: Assistant Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Virginia • 1983–1997: Associate and Full Professor, Southern Methodist University; 1995–1997: Chair of Psychology Department • 1997–present: Professor of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin • 2005–2009: Bush Regents Professor of Liberal Arts and Barbara Bush Professor of Psychology • 2009–2023: Regents Centennial Professor of Liberal Arts • 2023–present: Emeritus Professor of Psychology • 2005–2014: Chair of Psychology Department • 2005–2010: International Research Professor, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, England • 2016–2018: Executive Director, Project 2021 to rethink undergraduate education University of Texas at Austin == Research ==

Over the course of his career, Pennebaker has studied the nature of physical symptoms, health consequences of secrets, expressive writing, and natural language, and has received grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Templeton Foundation, the U.S. Army Research Institute, and other federal agencies for studies in language, emotion, and social dynamics. A pioneer of writing therapy, he has researched the link between language and recovering from trauma and been "recognized by the American Psychological Association as one of the top researchers on trauma, disclosure, and health." In particular, he finds a person's use of "low-level words", such as pronouns and articles, predictive of recovery as well as indicative of sex, age, and personality traits: "Virtually no one in psychology has realized that low-level words can give clues to large-scale behaviors." In the mid-1990s, he and colleagues developed the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC; pronounced "Luke"), a computerized text analysis program that outputs the percentage of words in a given text that fall into one or more of over 80 linguistic (e.g., first-person singular pronouns, conjunctions), psychological (e.g., anger, achievement), and topical (e.g., leisure, money) categories. It builds on previous research linking language patterns with mental states and traits but is more efficient and objective than hand coding methods. Pennebaker blogs with associates on what text analysis reveals about political leaders at Wordwatchers: Tracking the language of public figures, In January 2017, Pennebaker was one of the speakers in the Linguistic Society of America's inaugural Public Lectures on Language series. == Recognition ==

In 2023 Pennebaker was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Pennebaker was elected president of the Association for Psychological Science in May 2024, with his term as president-elect beginning June of the same year. == Selected publications ==

Books • The Psychology of Physical Symptoms. New York: Springer, 1982. • (Ed., with Daniel M. Wegner) Handbook of Mental Control. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1993. • Emotion, Disclosure, and Health. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 1995. • Opening up: The Healing Power of Confiding in Others. New York: Morrow, 1990. Repr. Opening Up: The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions. New York: Guilford, 1997. • Writing to Heal: A Guided Journal for Recovering from Trauma and Emotional Upheaval. Oakland, California: New Harbinger, 2004. • The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011. Co-authored books • Expressive Writing: Words that Heal. Idyll Arbor, 2014. James Pennebaker; John Evans. • Opening Up by Writing It Down, Third Edition: How Expressive Writing Improves Health and Eases Emotional Pain. Guilford Press, 2014. James Pennebaker, Joshua M. Smyth. Articles • • • • • • • • • • • • ==See also==