Verbal Behavior and Personality Assessmentsionally acted impulsively. This tendency was reflected by greater
than average use of retractors and negatives.
- Anxious disposition. An internal rather than an observable state,
anxiety as a reflection of grammatical choice has received scant atten-
tion in the literature. Most investigators interested in "anxious
speech" have stressed vocal dynamics rather than verbal behavior.
What characterizes the typically anxious patient is the excessive
use of a number of categories. Self-preoccupation may be reflected by
the excessive use of 7 and me, defensiveness by the frequency of
explainers and negatives, and paralysis of decision by a more than
average use of qualifiers. Anxious speakers often have difficulty con-
taining their feelings and may use many expressions of feeling and
adverbial intensifies. Finally, pleas for help from the interviewer
may be reflected in the frequent use of direct references. The anxious
speaker's frequent use of several categories suggests a need to use all
the verbal resources available to him in order to master the inter-
viewing situation. An anxious disposition suggests psychopathol-
ogy. Few individuals having "verbal anxiety" are likely to be chosen
as leaders of their nations. - Moodimss. We have already identified some of the verbal
transmitters of emotion. They are high scores in the following cate-
gories: 11 we ratio, adverbial intensifies, direct references, expres-
sions of feeling, and personal references. Mercurial speakers are
characterized by a tendency to be erratic in their use of emotional
categories. Of the post—World War II presidents, Lyndon Johnson
and Richard Nixon showed verbal evidence of rapidly shifting
moods (Weintraub 1989, 97).
What about evidence of depression in speech? This topic has been
extensively researched, and the reader is referred to a previous publi-
cation devoted to the speech of depressed patients (Aronson and
Weintraub 1967). To summarize our findings, speakers with depres-
sive disorders show a verbal pattern that consists of a paucity of
speech, many personal references, and high scores in the following
categories: /, me, direct references, expressions of feeling, negatives,
and adverbial intensifies. These scores reflect the depressed speaker's
uncontrolled affect (high scores in the emotional categories), self-
preoccupation (high I score), dependent needs (high direct references
and me scores), and negativity (high negatives score). Richard