BERTAgent: The Development of a Novel Tool to Quantify Agency in Textual Data

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dc.abstract.enPertaining to goal orientation and achievement, agency is a fundamental aspect of human cognition and behavior. Accordingly, detecting and quantifying linguistic encoding of agency are critical for the analysis of human actions, interactions, and social dynamics. Available agency-quantifying computational tools rely on word-counting methods, which typically are insensitive to the semantic context in which the words are used and consequently prone to miscoding, for example, in case of polysemy. Additionally, some currently available tools do not take into account differences in the intensity and directionality of agency. In order to overcome these shortcomings, we present BERTAgent, a novel tool to quantify semantic agency in text. BERTAgent is a computational language model that utilizes the transformers architecture, a popular deep learning approach to natural language processing. BERTAgent was fine-tuned using textual data that were evaluated by human coders with respect to the level of conveyed agency. In four validation studies, BERTAgent exhibits improved convergent and discriminant validity compared to previous solutions. Additionally, the detailed description of BERTAgent’s development procedure serves as a tutorial for the advancement of similar tools, providing a blueprint for leveraging the existing lexicographical data sets in conjunction with the deep learning techniques in order to detect and quantify other psychological constructs in textual data. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
dc.affiliationCentrum Badań nad Relacjami Społecznymi
dc.affiliationInstytut Psychologii
dc.contributor.authorNikadon, Jan
dc.contributor.authorSuitner, Caterina
dc.contributor.authorErseghe, Tomaso
dc.contributor.authorDzanko, Lejla
dc.contributor.authorFormanowicz, Magdalena
dc.date.access2026-01-12
dc.date.accessioned2026-01-12T10:33:17Z
dc.date.available2026-01-12T10:33:17Z
dc.date.created2025-01-10
dc.date.issued2025-07
dc.description.accesstimeafter_publication
dc.description.grantnumber2020/37/B/HS6/02587
dc.description.granttitleRola Językowych Markerów Sprawczości w Mobilizacji Działań Kolektywnych
dc.description.issue7
dc.description.physical1855–1877
dc.description.sdgNoSDGsAreRelevantForThisPublication
dc.description.versionfinal_author
dc.description.volume154
dc.identifier.doi10.1037/xge0001740
dc.identifier.eissn1939-2222
dc.identifier.issn0096-3445
dc.identifier.urihttps://share.swps.edu.pl/handle/swps/2134
dc.identifier.weblinkhttps://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fxge0001740
dc.languageen
dc.pbn.affiliationpsychologia
dc.rightsCC-BY
dc.rights.questionYes_rights
dc.share.articleOPEN_REPOSITORY
dc.subject.enlinguistic agency
dc.subject.ennatural language processing
dc.subject.enpsychological construct detection
dc.swps.sciencecloudsend
dc.titleBERTAgent: The Development of a Novel Tool to Quantify Agency in Textual Data
dc.title.journalJournal of Experimental Psychology: General
dc.typeJournalArticle
dspace.entity.typeArticle