Social Psychological Approaches to Using Natural Language Texts

Abstract

In recent years, the trend toward using natural language texts in social-psychological research has grown increasingly strong and a number of diverse approaches to such texts have appeared in the literature. The articles in this special issue illustrate this trend. They also highlight several key issues for researchers interested in language, including the role of context, the status of speech versus speakers in the research design and analysis, the appropriate methodology, and the appropriateness of studying language separately from the rest of the communication package.