title: Language and hope in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.
abstract: Hope is integral to recovery for those with schizophrenia. Considering recent advancements in the examination of clients' lexical qualities, we were interested in how clients' words reflect hope. Using computerized lexical analysis, we examined social, emotion, and future words' relations to hope and its pathways and agency components. Forty-five clients provided detailed narratives about their life and mental illness. Transcripts were analyzed using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count program (LIWC), which assigns words to categories (e.g., "anxiety") based on a pre-existing dictionary. Correlations and linear multiple regression were used to examine relationships between lexical qualities and hope. Hope and its subcomponents had significant or trending bivariate correlations in expected directions with several emotion-related word categories (anger and sadness) but were not associated with expected categories such as social words, positive emotions, optimism, achievement, and future words. In linear multiple regressions, no LIWC variable significantly predicted hope agency, but anger words significantly predicted both total hope and hope pathways. Our findings indicate lexical analysis tools can be used to investigate recovery-oriented concepts such as hope, and results may inform clinical practice. Future research should aim to replicate our findings in larger samples.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, 402N. Blackford St., Indianapolis, IN, United States. Electronic address: kbonfils@iupui.edu.
authors.forename: Kelsey A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Bonfils
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, 402N. Blackford St., Indianapolis, IN, United States.
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Luther
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, 402N. Blackford St., Indianapolis, IN, United States.
authors.forename: Ruth L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Firmin
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Recovery Center, Roudebush VA Medical Center, 1481W. 10thSt., Indianapolis, IN, United States; Department of Psychiatry, Indiana University School of Medicine, 340W. 10th St., Indianapolis, IN, United States.
authors.forename: Paul H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Lysaker
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, 402N. Blackford St., Indianapolis, IN, United States.
authors.forename: Kyle S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Minor
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, 402N. Blackford St., Indianapolis, IN, United States.
authors.forename: Michelle P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Salyers
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger; D003156:Community Mental Health Services; D003479:Curriculum; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D065026:Hope; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007802:Language; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D033262:Narration; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D012564:Schizophrenic Language; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012648:Self Care / Q000523:psychology; D012660:Semantics; D013223:Statistics as Topic
keywords: Goals; Lexical analysis; Psychosis; Recovery; Speech