Study: Frequent 'I-Talk' May Signal Proneness To Emotional Distress!
@gettyimages
If your friend won't stop talking about himself or herself it might be more a sign of emotional distress than it is a sign of narcissism.
University of Arizona researchers analyzed data from more than 4,700 individuals from the U.S. and Germany. The data included measures of individuals' use of I-talk (saying "I," "me," and "my") -- either in written or spoken tasks -- as well as measures of depression and negative emotionality.
But you might wonder how much "I-talk" qualifies as a lot? The average person speaks about 16,000 words a day, and about 1,400 of those words (on average) are first-person singular pronouns.
Those prone to distress may say "I," "me," and "my" up to 2,000 times a day.
Study co-author Matthias Mehl explains, "Our results suggest that I-talk may not be very good at assessing depression in particular. It may be better at assessing proneness, not just to depression but to negative emotionality more broadly. [...] Stress can make you be caught up in the metaphorical 'I' of the storm."
Read more at the link... and discuss below!