Play It (Again) Sam: Linguistic Changes Predict Improved Mental and Physical Health Among Older Adults

Studies suggest that disclosure alters representations of emotional or traumatic events and that linguistic parameters may index such change. Most work has been conducted among younger adults; hence, this report examined whether changes in the proportions of pronoun, emotion, and cognitive characteristics across two narrations predicted changes in mental and physical health outcomes in a later life sample. Black and White men and women (N = 160) aged 50 to 70 years completed two 10-minute oral disclosures at baseline and 1-month follow-up, describing a sad event in conjunction with either a happy or a neutral event, and completed measures of depressive symptomatology, stress, and health. Despite some variation across outcomes, reductions in symptoms were generally predicted by lowered proportions of first personal singular pronouns and sadness words and increased proportions of insight and causal words; directional change scores were more useful than absolute change in predicting outcomes. Results are dis...