ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a pragmatic measurement method of content analysis of verbal communications based on a combination of behavioral and conditioning, psychoanalytic, and linguistic findings. It derives its measures from the grammatical clause and the agent and recipient of the meaning of the clause’s verb. The verbal content analysis method uses the psychiatric rating scale procedure in the form of having built-in systematic and objective criteria for inferring and assessing the magnitude of various psychological states and traits. A group of scales measuring psychobiological states and traits have been developed based on the Gottschalk-Gleser content analysis method. Scales derived from such self-reports may assess the magnitude of various psychological dimensions from direct reports of the occurrence of such mental events. The presence of psychological dimensions may be inferred indirectly from self-reports about somatic dysfunctions, general performance deficits, or more specific social or cognitive malfunctions.
