Papers by Sverker Sikström
Journal of cognitive psychology, Aug 30, 2019
Gender differences have been found in several aspects of autobiographical memory (i.e. personally... more Gender differences have been found in several aspects of autobiographical memory (i.e. personally experienced events). For example, previous studies have shown that females' autobiographical memories contain more communal and emotional expressions than do males. However, an important question concerns whether these differences can be observed both in the manifest content (i.e. what is actually said) and in the latent content (i.e. the underlying meaning of what is said). In the present exploratory study, we extended the current knowledge concerning gender differences in autobiographical memory by investigating the manifestly expressed words, as well as the latently expressed words in autobiographical memory descriptions. We observed an overall gender difference in the latent content of the autobiographical memories. Furthermore, females latently described their memories in more communal terms than males did. No other gender differences were found. Our results indicate that females' autobiographical memories are more communally oriented than male's.
Frontiers in Psychology, Jan 9, 2023
Previous research has shown that language in job adverts implicitly communicates gender stereotyp... more Previous research has shown that language in job adverts implicitly communicates gender stereotypes, which, in turn, influence employees' perceived fit with the job. In this way, language both reflects and maintains a gender segregated job market. The aim of this study was to test whether, and how, language in organizational descriptions reflects gender segregation in the organizations by the use of computational text analyses. We analyzed large Swedish companies' organizational descriptions from LinkedIn (N = 409), testing whether the language in the organizational descriptions is associated with the organizations' employee gender ratio, and how organizational descriptions for organizations with a majority of women and men employees differ. The statistical analyses showed that language in the organizational descriptions predicted the employee gender ratio in organizations well. Word clouds depicting words that differentiate between organizations with a majority of women and men employees showed that the language of organizations with a higher percentage of women employees was characterized by a local focus and emphasis on within-organizations relations, whereas the language of organizations with a higher percentage of men employees was characterized by an international focus and emphasis on sales and customer relations. These results imply that the language in organizational descriptions reflects gender segregation and stereotypes that women are associated with local and men with global workplaces. As language communicates subtle signals in regards to what potential candidate is most sought after in recruitment situations, differences in organizational descriptions can hinder underrepresented gender groups to apply to these jobs. As a consequence, such practices may contribute to gender segregation on the job market.
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, Jan 25, 2019
Computer based analyses offer a possibility for objective methods to assess semantic-linguistic q... more Computer based analyses offer a possibility for objective methods to assess semantic-linguistic quality of narratives at the text level. The aim of the present study is to investigate whether a semantic language impairment index (SELIMI) based on latent semantic analysis (LSA) can discriminate between children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and children with typical language development. Spoken narratives from 54 children with DLD and 54 age matched controls with typical language development were summarized in a semantic representation generated using LSA. A statistical model was trained to discriminate between children with DLD and children with typical language development, given the semantic vector representing each individual child's narrative. The results show that SELIMI could distinguish between children with DLD and children with typical language development significantly better than chance and thus has a potential to complement traditional analyses focussed on form or on the word level.
PLOS ONE, Aug 18, 2021
The correct communication of the severity of violence is essential in the context of legal trials... more The correct communication of the severity of violence is essential in the context of legal trials, custody cases, support of victims, etc., for providing fair treatment. A narrator that communicates their experiences of interpersonal violence may rate the seriousness of the incident differently than a rater reading the narrator's text, suggesting that there exist perceptual differences (PD) in severity ratings between the narrator and the rater. We propose that these perceptual differences may depend on whether the narrative is based on physical or psychological violence, and on gender differences. Physical violence may be evaluated as more serious by the receiver of the narrative than by the narrator (Calibration PD), whereas the seriousness of psychological violence may be difficult to convey, leading to a discrepancy in the seriousness ratings between the narrator and the rater (Accuracy PD). In addition, gender stereotypes may influence the seriousness rating (Gender PD), resulting in violence against women being perceived as more serious than the same violence against men. These perceptual differences were investigated in 3 phases using a new experimental procedure. In Phase 1, 113 narrators provided descriptions and seriousness ratings of selfexperienced physical and psychological violence in relationships. In Phase 2, 340 independent raters rated the seriousness of 10 randomly selected narrations from Phase 1. In Phase 3, the genders in the narrations were changed to the opposite gender, and seriousness ratings were collected from 340 different raters. Our results confirmed the hypothesized perceptual differences. Violence to male victims was considerably more likely to be seen as severe when the raters were misled to believe the victim was a woman. We propose that these data provide practical guidelines for how to deal with misinformation in the communication of violence. The data also show that mean values and the confidence of such severity ratings need to be adjusted for several factors, such as whether it is self-experienced or communicated, the type of violence, and the gender of the victims and raters.
Springer eBooks, 2020
Application of LSA to quantify semantics in oral narratives • Semantic/lexical difficulties are o... more Application of LSA to quantify semantics in oral narratives • Semantic/lexical difficulties are often part of developmental language disorder in children • Oral narratives from 108 children with typical language development and 54 children with developmental language disorder were analysed using LSA • Two measures were created, an index of semantic linguistic maturity (SELMA) and a semantic language impairment index (SELIMI) • The results from SELMA and SELIMI suggest that the semantic representation of the narratives contain information on semantic maturity and suggest that semantic quality is different in children with language disorder
New computational method to study value and stereotypes Current research on female and male stere... more New computational method to study value and stereotypes Current research on female and male stereotypes has problems in explaining how stereotypes arise, sustain and are shared between people. Empirical studies have found that stereotypes are reproduced and enhanced in communication (Lyons & Kashima, 2003) and media articles could therefore be interesting to examine. Latent semantics analysis makes it possible to analyze text as an empirical record of human behavior. The analyzes are completely data driven and not influenced by prior values. The technique makes is possible to analyze larger text volumes than humans can read. The findings show that females are higher evaluated than men, and that females are more homogenously described.
PLOS ONE
Power can be applied in different domains (e.g., politics, work, romantic relationships, family e... more Power can be applied in different domains (e.g., politics, work, romantic relationships, family etc.), however, we do not always reflect on which domains we have power in and how important power in these domains is. A dominant idea is that men have more power than women. This notion may be biased because the concept of power is associated with public life. We introduce the concept of preference-weighted power (PWP), a measure of power that includes different domains in life, weighted by the domains’ subjective importance. Two studies investigated power from this perspective. In Study 1, participants generated words related to power, which were quantified/categorized by latent semantic analysis to develop a semantic measure of the power construct. In Study 2, we computed a PWP index by weighting the participants' self-rated power in different power domains with the importance of having power in that domain. Together the studies suggest that men have more perceived power in the pu...
Noise is Not a Nuisance : Noise Improves Cognitive Performance in Low Achieving School Children
Statistical Semantics, 2020
Semantic analyses are potentially important, but underutilized, tools to study social psychology.... more Semantic analyses are potentially important, but underutilized, tools to study social psychology. This chapter focuses on how semantic analysis, using personal pronouns, can be used to study important phenomena in social psychology. Personal pronouns can be used as proxies for social categories, and the semantic contexts associated to these pronouns can be used to study stereotypes and how groups are evaluated (Gustafsson Senden, M., Personal pronouns in evaluative communication. Stockholm University, Stockholm, 2014; Pennebaker, J. W., The secret life of pronouns: What our words say about us. Bloomsbury Press, New York, NY, 2011). In this chapter, we exemplify this within three well-known social psychology phenomena; gender stereotypes, self-bias, and group-serving bias. The semantic analyses target both content and evaluations of these social categories.
Research has shown that white noise may have a positive impact on cognitive performance, among in... more Research has shown that white noise may have a positive impact on cognitive performance, among individuals who exhibit a change in their dopaminergic levels, through the phenomenon of stochastic resonance. The aim of this study was to examine lateralization effects of white noise exposure during a verbal memory task and a visuo-spatial working memory task within two age groups. The hypothesis was to find an age and ear interaction and the results supports the hypothesis to a certain extent. Findings are in line with the theory that noise exposure has an impact on cognitive performance.
Language and the Values of Personal Pronouns : A Tool to Redistribute Resources from Outgroup In... more Language and the Values of Personal Pronouns : A Tool to Redistribute Resources from Outgroup Individuals to Ingroup Collectives
Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 2018
Much of identity formation processes nowadays takes place online, indicating that intergroup diff... more Much of identity formation processes nowadays takes place online, indicating that intergroup differentiation may be found in online communities. This paper focuses on identity formation processes in an open online xenophobic, anti-immigrant, discussion forum. Open discussion forums provide an excellent opportunity to investigate open interactions that may reveal how identity is formed and how individual users are influenced by other users. Using computational text analysis and Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC), our results show that new users change from an individual identification to a group identification over time as indicated by a decrease in the use of “I” and increase in the use of “we”. The analyses also show increased use of “they” indicating intergroup differentiation. Moreover, the linguistic style of new users became more similar to that of the overall forum over time. Further, the emotional content decreased over time. The results indicate that new users on a forum c...
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Papers by Sverker Sikström