At some point over the weekend, I stumbled across a discussion of James W. Pennebacker, the author of The Secret Life of Pronouns. I didn’t get the whole interview, but Pennebaker’s theory seems to be that how we use language reflects a lot about our personality and how we see the world.
I didn’t get the entire interview, but they mentioned the exercises on the web site. Give them a look-see. I couldn’t get it to check my twitter feed for some reason but did have it analyze Chad Ochocinco’s twitter feed–why so angry and worried, Chad? I did take the Perceptual Style test. My results are below.
(EDIT)
What the heck?! Let’s go ahead and make this Blog Post #7 for March 29. Complete at least one the of the exercises from the web site above, post your results, and reflect on the experience and the results. Please do not complete the LIFE Survey; it does not include any text and, according to Stephanie, it will say mean things about you. I also suggest that you do not complete the “Language Style Matching” test; the results aren’t very enlightening.
Of course, spend some time with the format of your results; do not just copy and paste and expect much. I’m not sure why some people think the computer can read their minds . . . :heh:
| Visual Dimension | Your data | The average response |
|---|---|---|
| Words on the label: Verbal thinking | 0.78 | 1.74 |
| Colors and text: Visual sensitivity | 3.10 | 3.74 |
| Bottle contents: Functional thinking | 6.20 | 1.67 |
| The bottle itself: Tactile sensitivity | 2.33 | 2.91 |
| Light and shadow: Contextual thinking | 1.55 | 0.79 |
