Quantitative Semantics Test Theory (QuSTT)

Background

Traditional psychological assessments rely heavily on numeric rating scales, but such methods often lack nuance in capturing complex mental states. With the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), QuSTT leverages advanced Natural Language Processing to analyze open-ended textual responses, transforming qualitative language data into quantitative semantic representations. This AI-driven approach provides a sophisticated alternative for understanding personality, well-being, and implicit attitudes by examining semantic patterns within language.

Aims

QuSTT aims to refine and validate models that use AI and ML algorithms to analyze the semantic content of language. Specifically, it seeks to enhance psychological assessment by enabling the prediction of mental states and personality traits based on self-generated narratives. This project explores both explicit and implicit aspects of human psychology, examining constructs like happiness, personality traits, intervention outcomes, and implicit attitudes through AI-driven semantic analysis.

Method

By employing Natural Language Processing techniques such as Latent Semantic Analysis and ML algorithms for semantic similarity and prediction, QuSTT processes large-scale textual data. Additionally, ML-trained semantic models are used for cross-validation and predictive analyses, enabling precise assessments across diverse psychological phenomena. Semantic representations are mapped onto high-dimensional spaces to capture nuanced associations between language and psychological variables.

Expected Results

QuSTT is anticipated to complement traditional rating scales in terms of predictive accuracy and flexibility. By integrating AI and ML, this approach is expected to reveal intricate patterns in language that correlate with psychological states and traits, such as agentic and communal characteristics or implicit biases. The approach’s capacity to adapt semantic spaces based on specific contexts (e.g., social media language, implicit attitudes) is expected to make it highly adaptable and scalable.

Relevance

QuSTT’s AI-driven methodology offers a transformative shift in psychological assessment, providing a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of human psychology. Its applications extend beyond clinical settings to include areas like social media analytics, where understanding implicit attitudes and mental states can inform digital interventions. By combining AI and ML with semantic analysis, QuSTT represents a novel and adaptable tool for capturing and interpreting psychological constructs through the richness of human language.

The frequency of self-descriptive words that significantly correlated with participants’ scores in the three “light” character traits in Cloninger’s biopsychosocial model of personality: Self-Directedness (A), Cooperativeness (B), and Self-Transcendence (C). See the illustration below.

Note: The font size represents the frequency of occurrence of the words.  The x-axis represents the full range of the scores in Self-Directedness (A), Cooperativeness (B), and Self-Transcendence (C).

The frequency of self-descriptive words that significantly correlated with participants’ scores in the three “dark” character traits: Machiavellianism (A), narcissism (B), and psychopathy (C). See the illustration below.

Note: The font size represents the frequency of occurrence of the words. The x-axis represents the full range of the scores in Machiavellianism (A), narcissism (B), and psychopathy (C).

Publications Within the Project

Articles

1. Amato, C., Sikström, S., & Garcia, D. (2020). “Tell Me Who You Are" Latent Semantic Analysis for Analyzing Spontaneous Self-Presentations in Different Situations. Testing, Psychometrics, Methodology in Applied Psychology, 27, 153-170. https://10.4473/TPM27.2.1.
2. Garcia, D., Rosenberg, P., Nima, A. A., Granjard, A., Cloninger, K. M., & Sikström, S. (2020). Validation of two Short Personality Inventories using Self-descriptions in Natural Language and Quantitative Semantics Test Theory. Frontiers in Psychology, 11:16. https://10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00016.
3. Garcia, D., Jedel, I., Rapp Ricciardi, M., Lindskär, E., Molander-Söderholm, K., Fagerström, C., Sikström, S. (2019). Creative Utterances about Person-Centered Care among Future Health Care Professionals are Related to Reward Dependence rather than to a Creative Personality Profile. Heliyon, 4, e01389. https://10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e01389. 
4. Kjell, O. N. E., Kjell, K., Garcia, D., & Sikström, S. (2019). Semantic Measures: Using Natural Language Processing to Measure, Differentiate and Describe Psychological Constructs. Psychological Methods, 24, 92-115. https://10.1037/met0000191.
5. Garcia, D., Drejing, K., Amato, C., Kosinski, M., & Sikström, S. (2018). The Promotion of a Bright Future and the Prevention of a Dark Future: Time Anchored Incitements in News Articles and Facebook’s Status Updates. Frontiers in Psychology, 9: 1623. https://10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01623.
6. Garcia, D., Cloninger, K. M., Granjard, A., Molander-Söderholm, K., Amato, C., & Sikström, S. (2018). Self-descriptions on LinkedIn: Recruitment or Friendship Identity? PsyCh Journal, 7, 152-153. https://10.1002/pchj.210.
7. Garcia, D., Kjell, O. N. E., Sikström, S. & Archer, T. (2016). Using Language and Affective Profiles to Investigate Differences Between Individuals. Clinical and Experimental Psychology, 2, 123. https://10.4172/2471-2701.1000123.
8. Garcia, D., Anckarsäter, H., Kjell, O. N. E., Archer, T., Rosenberg, P., Cloninger, C. R., & Sikström, S. (2015). Agentic, Communal, and Spiritual Traits are Related to the Semantic Representation of Written Narratives of Positive and Negative Life Events. Psychology of Well-Being: Theory, Research and Practice, 5,1-20. https://10.1186/s13612-015-0035-x.
9. Garcia, D., & Sikström, S. (2014). The Dark Side of Facebook – Dark Triad of Personality Predicts Semantic Representation of Status Updates. Personality and Individual Differences, 67, 92–94  https://10.1016/j.paid.2013.10.001.
10. Garcia, D., & Sikström, S. (2013). Quantifying the Semantic Representations in Adolescents' Memories of Positive and Negative Life Events. Journal of Happiness Studies, 14, 1309–1323. https://10.1007/s10902-012-9385-8.
11. Garcia, D., & Sikström, S. (2013). A Collective Theory of Happiness: Words Related to the Word Happiness in Swedish Online Newspapers. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 16, 469–472. https://10.1089/cyber.2012.0535.
12. Rosenberg, P., Sikström, S., & Garcia, D. (2013). The difference between living biblically and just imagining it: A study on experiential-based learning among Swedish adolescents. School Psychology International, 34, 565-571. https://10.1177/0143034312471468.

Books

1. Sikström, S., & Garcia, D. (2020). Statistical Semantics – Methods and Applications. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://10.1007/978-3-030-37250-7.

Chapters

1. Garcia, D., & Sikström, S. (2023). Innovative Methods for Affectivity Profiling: Quantitative Semantics. In D. Garcia (Ed.), The Affective Profiles Model: 20 Years of Research and Beyond(pp. 67-88). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24220-5_4.
2. Sikström, S., & Garcia, D. (2020). Introduction to Statistical Semantics. In S. Sikström & D. Garcia (Eds.), Statistical Semantics: Methods and Applications (pp. 3-9). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37250-7_1.  
3. Kjell, O. N. E., Kjell, K., Garcia, D., & Sikström, S. (2020). Semantic Similarity Scales: Using Semantic Similarity Scale to Measure Depression and Worry. In S. Sikström & D. Garcia (Eds.), Statistical Semantics: Methods and Applications (pp. 53-72). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37250-7_4.
4. Kjell, O. N. E., Kjell, K., Garcia, D., & Sikström, S. (2020). Prediction and Semantic Trained Scales: Examining the Relationship Between Semantic Responses to Depression and Worry and the Corresponding Rating Scales. In S. Sikström & D. Garcia (Eds.), Statistical Semantics: Methods and Applications (pp. 73-86). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37250-7_5.
5. Garcia, D., Cloninger, K. M., Sikström, S., Anckarsäter, H., & Cloninger, C. R. (2020). A Ternary Model of Personality: Temperament, Character, and Identity. In S. Sikström & D. Garcia (Eds.), Statistical Semantics: Methods and Applications (pp. 125-142). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37250-7_8.
6. Garcia, D., Rosenberg, P., & Sikström, S. (2020). Dark Identity: Distinction between Malevolent Character Traits through Self-Descriptive Language. In S. Sikström & D. Garcia (Eds.), Statistical Semantics: Methods and Applications (pp. 143-164). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37250-7_9.
7. Garcia, D., Nima, A. A., Kjell, O. N. E., Granjard, A., & Sikström, S. (2020). The (Mis)measurement of Happiness: Words We Associate to Happiness (Semantic Memory) and Narratives of What Makes Us Happy (Episodic Memory). In S. Sikström & D. Garcia (Eds.), Statistical Semantics: Methods and Applications (pp. 165-189). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37250-7_10.
8. Lanbeck, N., Garcia, D., Amato, C., Olsson, A., & Sikström, S. (2020). Implicit Attitudes: Quantitative Semantic Misattribution Procedure. In S. Sikström & D. Garcia (Eds.), Statistical Semantics: Methods and Applications (pp. 219-236). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37250-7_13.
9. Garcia, D., Kjell, O. N. E., & Sikström, S. (2016). A Collective Picture of What Makes People Happy: Words Representing Social Relationships, not Money or Material Things, are Recurrent with the Word ‘Happiness’ in Online Newspapers. In G. Riva, B. K. Wiederhold, & P. Cipresso (Eds.), The Psychology of Social Networking. Identity and Relationships in Online Communities (Volume 2, pp. 4-16). Berlin: DeGruyter Open. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110473858-003.

Encyclopedia Entries

1. Garcia, D., & Sikström, S. (2024). The Ten Words Free Will Inventory (10WFWI). In T. Shackelford (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Religious Psychology and Behavior (pp. 1-6). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38971-9_1971-1.
2. Garcia, D., & Sikström, S. (2019). The Ten Words Personality Inventory (10WPI). In V. Zeigler-Hill & T. Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences (pp. 1-6). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2314-1.  

Conferences

1. Garcia, D., Cloninger, K. M., Granjard, A., Anckarsäter, H., Sikström, S., & Cloninger, C. R. (2024). Using AI to find identity clusters from people’s freely generated self-descriptions and investigating the cluster’s association to temperament, character, and health. 4th World Conference on Personality, Curaçao.
2. Garcia, D., Helin, T., Portland, A., & Sikström, S. (2024). Would you call me for a job interview? AI-methods for the analyses of recruiters’ own words and ratings of personal letters and pictures of attractive and unattractive job applicants. 4th World Conference on Personality, Curaçao.
3. Garcia, D., Rosenberg, P., & Sikström, S. (2017). Dark Identity: Distinction between malevolent character traits through self-descriptive language. 9^th Self Biennial International Conference. Melbourne, Australia.
4. Garcia, D., Rappe, C., & Sikström, S. (2017). Self-descriptions of LinkedIn Users in Different Social Situations. 9^th Self Biennial International Conference. Melbourne, Australia.
5. Garcia, D., Kjell, O. N. E., & Sikström, S. (2016). Happiness in Natural language: Words We Relate to Happiness and Descriptions of What Make Us Happy. 31^st International Congress of Psychology. Yokohama, Japan. Abstract published in International Journal of Psychology, 51, Supplement S1, 898. https://10.1002/ijop.12328.
6. Drejing, K., Garcia, D., & Sikström, S. (2016). Time Focused Incitements: Re-examining Previous Findings with Ecologically Valid Data. 3^rd International Conference on Time Perspective. Copenhagen, Denmark.
7. Garcia, D., Drejing, K., Kosinski, M., & Sikström, S. (2016). The Outlook on Time Dimensions in Facebook Users’ Status Updates. 3^rd International Conference on Time Perspective. Copenhagen, Denmark.
8. Garcia, D., Rosenberg, P., & Sikström, S. (2015). Personality Descriptions and Personality Measures. International Society for the Study of Individual Differences Meeting. London, Ontario, Canada. Abstract published in Personality and Individual Differences, 101, 480. https://10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.143.
9. Garcia, D., & Sikström, S. (2015). Friend or Worker? Descriptions of One’s Personality in LinkedIn. International Society for the Study of Individual Differences Meeting. London, Ontario, Canada. Abstract published in Personality and Individual Differences, 101, 480. https://10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.144.
10. Sikström, S., & Garcia, D. (2010). Studying Subjective Well-being by Quantifying the Semantic Content of Hedonic Autobiographical Memories. The 10^th ISQOLS International Conference on Quality of Life. Bangkok, Thailand.
11. Garcia, D., Amato, C., & Sikström, S. (2020). Aspiring Entrepreneurial Identity: AI Methodology on Self-descriptive Words. 32^nd Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention. Chicago, Illinois, USA.
12. Garcia, D., Amato, C., & Sikström, S. (2020). Changes in Identity Following a Leader Development Program: Application of AI Approaches on Self-Descriptive Words and Narratives. 32^nd Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention. Chicago, Illinois, USA.
13. Garcia, D., Kjell, O. N. E., & Sikström, S. (2020). Expressions of Malevolent Character are Triggered when Posting on Facebook. 32^nd Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention. Chicago, Illinois, USA.
14. Garcia, D., Rosenberg, P., Nima, A. A., Granjard, A., Cloninger, K. M., & Sikström, S. (2020). Quantitative Semantics Test Theory: Validation of two Short Personality Inventories. 32^nd Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention. Chicago, Illinois, USA.
15. Amato, C., Sikström, S., & Garcia, D. (2019). Tell Me Who You Are and I Will Tell You the Situation: Agentic Positively Valenced Self-presentations and Communal Negatively Valenced Self-presentations. 3rd Biennial International Convention of Psychological Science. Paris, France.
16. Amato, C., Sikström, S., & Garcia, D. (2019). LinkedIn Users' Identity Clusters in the Prediction of Affectivity and Regulatory Mode. 3rd Biennial International Convention of Psychological Science. Paris, France.
17. Garcia, D., Molander-Söderholm, K., Amato, C., Cloninger, M. K., & Sikström, S. (2018). Identity Clusters in LinkedIn: Competence and Warmth. 30^th Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention. San Francisco, California, USA.
18. Jedel, I., Rapp Ricciardi, M., Lindskär, E., Sikström, S., & Garcia, D. (2018). Natural Language Processing Analyses of Creative Utterances of Person-Centered Care. 30^th Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention. San Francisco, California, USA.
19. Schmer-Galunder, S. M., Garcia, D., Kjell, O. N. E., & Sikström, S. (2018). Are Dark Traits Behind Bright Facebook Posts? 30^th Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention. San Francisco, California, USA.
20. Garcia, D., Rappe, C., & Sikström, S. (2017). Self-descriptions of LinkedIn Users in Different Social Situations. International Convention of Psychological Science. Vienna, Austria.
21. Garcia, D., Ekberg, J., Rosenberg, P., Johansson, L., & Sikström, S. (2016). Describe Yourself, Know Yourself: Natural Language Descriptions of Personality and Dark Triad Traits. 28^th Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention. Chicago, Illinois, USA.
22. Garcia, D., Ambjörnsson, A., Rapp Ricciardi, M., & Sikström, S. (2016). Measuring UGL-Coaches Personality as Semantic Representations of Critical Incident Narratives. 28^th Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention. Chicago, Illinois, USA.
23. Rosenberg, P., Kjell, O. N. E., Sikström, S., & Garcia, D. (2015). A Natural-Language-Definition of (Lack of) Free Will: Character, Moral Identity, and Well-Being. 8^th Self Biennial International Conference. Kiel, Germany.
24. Rosenberg, P., Rapp Ricciardi, M., Kjell, O. N. E., Sikström, S., & Garcia, D. (2015). Swedish Priests’ Conceptualization and Sense of Free Will: Relationships to Psychometric Measures of Personality and Well-Being. 8^th Self Biennial International Conference. Kiel, Germany.
25. Garcia, D., Anckarsäter, H., Kjell, O. N. E., Rosenberg, P., Cloninger, C. R., Archer, T., & Sikström, S. (2014). A Quantification of Agentic and Communal Values in Adolescents’ Life Narratives. 167^th American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting. New York, New York, USA.
26. Garcia, D., Kjell, O. N. E., & Sikström, S. (2014). Happy but Dark: Using Quantitative Semantics to Investigate Facebook Status Updates. 26^th Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention. San Francisco, California, USA.
27. Kjell, O. N. E., Garcia, D., & Sikström, S. (2013). Semantic Quantifications of Word-Associations to ‘Happiness’ Predict Satisfaction — Not Emotional Well-Being. 3^rd World Congress on Positive Psychology. Los Angeles, California, USA.
28. Garcia, D., Kjell, O. N. E., & Sikström, S. (2013). The Dark Triad, Happiness and Words Related to Happiness. 3^rd World Congress on Positive Psychology. Los Angeles, California, USA.
29. Garcia, D., Kjell, O. N. E., & Sikström, S. (2013). The Happy Update: Self-reported Happiness linked to Semantic Representations of Status Updates in Facebook. 3^rd World Congress on Positive Psychology. Los Angeles, California, USA.
30. Garcia, D., Rosenberg, P., & Sikström, S. (2012). The Difference between Living Biblically and just Imagining It. 24^th Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention. Chicago, Illinois, USA.
31. Garcia, D., & Sikström, S. (2011). The Semantic Spaces in Adolescents' Memory of Positive and Negative Life Events. 2^nd World Congress on Positive Psychology. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.