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The big two dictionaries : Capturing agency and communion in natural language

Pietraszkiewicz, Agnieszka ; Formanowicz, Magdalena ; Gustafsson Sendén, Marie ; Boyd, Ryan L. ; Sikström, Sverker LU orcid and Sczesny, Sabine (2019) In European Journal of Social Psychology 49(5). p.871-887
Abstract

Four studies developed and validated two dictionaries to capture agentic and communal expressions in natural language. Their development followed the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) approach (Study 1) and we tested their validity with frequency-based analyses and semantic similarity measures. The newly developed Agency and Communion dictionaries were aligned with LIWC categories related to agency and communion (Study 2), and corresponded with subjective ratings (Study 3), confirming their convergent validity. Very low or absent correspondence between proposed dictionaries and unrelated LIWC categories demonstrated their discriminant validity (Study 2). Finally, we applied both dictionaries to language used in advertisements. In... (More)

Four studies developed and validated two dictionaries to capture agentic and communal expressions in natural language. Their development followed the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) approach (Study 1) and we tested their validity with frequency-based analyses and semantic similarity measures. The newly developed Agency and Communion dictionaries were aligned with LIWC categories related to agency and communion (Study 2), and corresponded with subjective ratings (Study 3), confirming their convergent validity. Very low or absent correspondence between proposed dictionaries and unrelated LIWC categories demonstrated their discriminant validity (Study 2). Finally, we applied both dictionaries to language used in advertisements. In correspondence to gender stereotypes, male-dominated jobs were advertised with more agentic than communal words, and female-dominated jobs with more communal than agentic words (Study 4). Both dictionaries represent reliable tools for quantifying agentic and communal content in natural language, and will improve and facilitate future research on agency and communion.

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author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
agency, Big Two, communion, computerized text analysis, Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count, measurement
in
European Journal of Social Psychology
volume
49
issue
5
pages
871 - 887
publisher
John Wiley & Sons Inc.
external identifiers
  • scopus:85061908899
ISSN
0046-2772
DOI
10.1002/ejsp.2561
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
14f69556-e7b5-4711-8710-a8b79c5db931
date added to LUP
2019-03-04 11:55:58
date last changed
2022-04-25 21:26:32
@article{14f69556-e7b5-4711-8710-a8b79c5db931,
  abstract     = {{<p>Four studies developed and validated two dictionaries to capture agentic and communal expressions in natural language. Their development followed the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) approach (Study 1) and we tested their validity with frequency-based analyses and semantic similarity measures. The newly developed Agency and Communion dictionaries were aligned with LIWC categories related to agency and communion (Study 2), and corresponded with subjective ratings (Study 3), confirming their convergent validity. Very low or absent correspondence between proposed dictionaries and unrelated LIWC categories demonstrated their discriminant validity (Study 2). Finally, we applied both dictionaries to language used in advertisements. In correspondence to gender stereotypes, male-dominated jobs were advertised with more agentic than communal words, and female-dominated jobs with more communal than agentic words (Study 4). Both dictionaries represent reliable tools for quantifying agentic and communal content in natural language, and will improve and facilitate future research on agency and communion.</p>}},
  author       = {{Pietraszkiewicz, Agnieszka and Formanowicz, Magdalena and Gustafsson Sendén, Marie and Boyd, Ryan L. and Sikström, Sverker and Sczesny, Sabine}},
  issn         = {{0046-2772}},
  keywords     = {{agency; Big Two; communion; computerized text analysis; Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count; measurement}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{5}},
  pages        = {{871--887}},
  publisher    = {{John Wiley & Sons Inc.}},
  series       = {{European Journal of Social Psychology}},
  title        = {{The big two dictionaries : Capturing agency and communion in natural language}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2561}},
  doi          = {{10.1002/ejsp.2561}},
  volume       = {{49}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}