Abstract
The association of language used to describe social representations and psychopathology has long been observed in severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia (Bleuler, 1950). In contrast, there is a lower link between depression and similar behavioral disorders in non-pathological individuals.In the present study, the free association method was used to investigate the interrelationships of language and mental state. Free association has been used in the past to detect how words are connected to the linguistic semantic network (Nelsonetal, 2000; Nelsonetal, 2004). Such a process is not appropriate at the group level, as the internal network of semantic relationships for each issue is created through the strictly personal interaction with the environment, thus acquiring a unique identity. However, among the members of the same community, it is expected that common language descriptions will be created to express important social representations related to life experiences, common to a ...
The association of language used to describe social representations and psychopathology has long been observed in severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia (Bleuler, 1950). In contrast, there is a lower link between depression and similar behavioral disorders in non-pathological individuals.In the present study, the free association method was used to investigate the interrelationships of language and mental state. Free association has been used in the past to detect how words are connected to the linguistic semantic network (Nelsonetal, 2000; Nelsonetal, 2004). Such a process is not appropriate at the group level, as the internal network of semantic relationships for each issue is created through the strictly personal interaction with the environment, thus acquiring a unique identity. However, among the members of the same community, it is expected that common language descriptions will be created to express important social representations related to life experiences, common to all members of the community. In addition, it is natural to assume that the degree to which these Common descriptions are embraced, is an indication of a person's social compliance and are therefore expected to be related to his or her general psychological state.The aim of this dissertation is to link certain psychological and social parameters (age, gender, educational level, marital status, external shame, internal shame, internal psychopathology) to the linguistic way in which the description of eight common life experiences related to aggravating factors is chosen. The approach followed is bibliographically original as the representation of the words in a graph was chosen based on the frequency of occurrence and the number of combinations presented between them. The quantification of their position in the graph allowed their participation in further analytical processes and their correlation with the psychometric characteristics of the subjects.The present research was carried out in the spring and summer of 2019. The sample of the present study was determined to be adult individuals residing in the wider area of Ioannina. A total of 500 people were interviewed, 498 of which were filled in, 193 men (38.8%) and 305 women (61.2%) aged 19 to 91, (M = 56.7, SD = 18.1) were fully eligible. . The sample was collected at two times. The first part, consisting of 204 respondents, answered the Psychopathology Questionnaire (SCL - 90R), the Cardiac Stress Stress Scale (CAQ), the Fear of Fear Scale (FPQ) and a questionnaire aimed at recording avoidances and good practices and detected in terms of its structure in the present study. In the second part of the sample, three associative words were recorded by the respondent regarding eight different words - stimuli given to him by the researcher.The research tools used were: a) the Psychopathology Scale (SymtomChecklist 90-R - SCL-90), b) the OtherAsShamerScale-OAS Scale c) C) Scale for the Experience of Shame dSSS (Experience of Shame) ) the scale of fear of cardiac function (CAQ) e) the scale of fear of pain (FPQ) and another questionnaire which included questions about their socio-demographic data. For their representation and on the eight aggravating factors of health, the method of free association was used, where each participant was asked to state three words for the eight categories of diet, exercise, smoking, alcoholic beverages, nightlife, lifestyle, diseases and health. A single-factor and multi-factor analysis was applied to the statistical processing of the data, which showed that: (a) the centrality of words decreases from the first to the second and from the second to the third word confirming the view of language as a symbolic system structured as a significant chain that inevitably acquires an increasingly personal character as it deepens from the level of general social representations to unconscious personal images, (b) the word categories related to exercise, smoking, and disease were the least affected by psycho-demographics. variables, a finding that shows that these experiences have a more uniform semantic distribution in language. (c) the categories related to diet, alcohol consumption, nightlife and lifestyle were found to be a group with common characteristics as they were found to have similar effects on age, gender and psychopathology on the centrality of the words chosen. for their description (d) shame (internal and external) affects the words concerning lifestyle and health (e) age and gender are associated with a different way of expression in the category of nightlife and diet.The study's findings highlight the link between language and mental health, but suggest differences in the extent to which a representation is commonly accepted.
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