Words without power: Reduced semantic (but not grammatical) agency signals low mood and self-esteem

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dc.abstract.enAgentic language—words and phrases that reflect a speaker's sense of control, intention, or ability to act—has been proposed as a linguistic marker of psychological well-being. Across two preregistered studies (N = 587), we examined whether individuals experiencing lower mood or reduced self-esteem use less agentic language in written utterances. Participants completed validated measures of current and prolonged mood, depressive symptoms, and explicit and implicit self-esteem, followed by a writing task. Agentic language use was assessed through both semantic and grammatical indicators. In both studies, low mood and self-esteem emerged as strong negative predictors of semantic indicators of agency, with prolonged affect and explicit self-liking being the most consistent and robust correlates. Furthermore, semantic indicators reliably distinguished individuals who met the screening threshold for depression from those who did not, with depressed participants using significantly less agentic language. Grammatical indicators of agency, on the other hand, showed weaker and less consistent associations. These findings suggest that semantic—but not grammatical—expressions of agency may serve as subtle behavioural markers of mood and self-related evaluations. Beyond theoretical implications for psycholinguistics and clinical psychology, this work offers potential applications in scalable psychological screening tools, therapeutic language-based interventions, and self-guided mental health technologies.
dc.affiliationInstytut Psychologii
dc.contributor.authorBeneda, Marta
dc.contributor.authorKowalski, Joachim
dc.contributor.authorWitkowska, Marta
dc.date.access2027-01-06
dc.date.accessioned2026-02-18T08:35:03Z
dc.date.available2026-02-18T08:35:03Z
dc.date.created2026-01-06
dc.date.issued2026-01-23
dc.description.accesstimeafter_publication
dc.description.grantnumber2021/43/B/HS6/02819
dc.description.granttitleBadanie związku między sprawczością lingwistyczną i nastrojem
dc.description.physical1-10
dc.description.sdgGoodHealthAndWellBeing
dc.description.versionfinal_author
dc.description.volume400
dc.identifier.doi10.1016/j.jad.2026.121170
dc.identifier.eissn1573-2517
dc.identifier.issn0165-0327
dc.identifier.urihttps://share.swps.edu.pl/handle/swps/2187
dc.identifier.weblinkhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165032726000212?via%3Dihub
dc.languageen
dc.pbn.affiliationpsychologia
dc.rightsCC-BY-NC-ND
dc.rights.questionYes_rights
dc.share.articleOPEN_REPOSITORY
dc.subject.endepression
dc.subject.enlinguistic agency
dc.subject.endepression markers
dc.subject.enmood
dc.subject.enself-esteem
dc.swps.sciencecloudsend
dc.titleWords without power: Reduced semantic (but not grammatical) agency signals low mood and self-esteem
dc.title.journalJournal of Affective Disorders
dc.typeJournalArticle
dspace.entity.typeArticle