Humans have been using language for millennia but have only just begun to scratch the surface of what natural language can reveal about the mind. Here we propose that language offers a unique window into psychology. After briefly summarizing the legacy of language analyses in psychological science, we show how methodological advances have made these analyses more feasible and insightful than ever before. In particular, we describe how two forms of language analysis—natural-language processing and comparative linguistics—are contributing to how we understand topics as diverse as emotion, creativity, and religion and overcoming obstacles related to statistical power and culturally diverse samples. We summarize resources for learning both of these methods and highlight the best way to combine language analysis with more traditional psychological paradigms. Applying language analysis to large-scale and cross-cultural datasets promises to provide major breakthroughs in psychological science.

几千年来，人类一直在使用语言，但才刚刚开始触及自然语言可以揭示大脑的表面。在这里，我们提出语言提供了一个了解心理学的独特窗口。在简要总结了心理科学中语言分析的遗产之后，我们展示了方法论的进步如何使这些分析比以往任何时候都更加可行和富有洞察力。特别是，我们描述了两种形式的语言分析——自然语言处理和比较语言学——如何帮助我们理解情感、创造力和宗教等多样化的主题，并克服与统计能力和文化多样性样本相关的障碍。我们总结了学习这两种方法的资源，并强调了将语言分析与更传统的心理学范式相结合的最佳方法。将语言分析应用于大规模和跨文化数据集有望为心理科学提供重大突破。