39-2 From I to You to He/She: Exploring Psychological Properties of the Psychological Displacement Paradigm Diary-Writing with Word-Frequency Analysis

In his effort to improve the traditional expressive writing method, Jin (2005, 2010) developed the Psychological Displacement Paradigm of Diary-writing (PDPD) that is based on the wisdom of Zen and Buddhism, and integrated with Western psychotherapy theory. Existing research has supported PDPD's short term effect of reducing negative emotions and long term effect of promoting psychological wellbeing. Although there have been some qualitative studies that examine the psychological properties corresponding to each writing phases in great detail, reliable quantitative indices have not been proposed. The purpose of this study is to explore the psychological properties of PDPD using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC2007; Pennebaker, Booth, & Francis, 2007) analysis, which uses word usage to index psychological processes. With a recently developed Chinese LIWC dictionary, the current study examined the linguistic and psychological characteristics of the three phases in PDPD. The results mostly supported Jin's (2005, 2010) arguments. Related mechanisms and applications were also discussed.

Keywords
 linguistic analysis ; LIWC psychological displacement paradigm in diary-writing ; psychological distance

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