Psychological Narrative Analysis

Psychological Narrative Analysis (PNA) is the study of word choices and grammar structures people choose when they communicate. PNA techniques identify specific words, speech patterns, and grammar structures that reveal a person’s behavioral characteristics and veracity. The eight parts of speech: verb, noun, pronoun, adverb, adjective, prepositions, conjunction, and interjection represent the building blocks for sentences. These building blocks, arranged in accordance with standardized grammar rules, form patterns that communicate information. Both truthful and deceptive people use the same grammar rules to construct sentences. When people obfuscate or omit the truth, they must use accepted grammar structures and speech patterns or their sentences would make no sense. The only difference between truthful statements and deceptive statements is the omission or obfuscation of the truth. PNA identifies and exploits these differences. PNA is a powerful tool to detect deception.