Maledictology is highly influenced by American psychologist Timothy Jay (Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts), and professor Reinhold Aman (California).
[3][4] Aman was also the founder of Maledicta: The International Research Center for the Study of Verbal Aggression, which published articles about maledictology.
It is explained by the three interlocking systems that make up its name: the neurological, psychological, and socio-cultural aspects of human nature.
The cerebral cortex contains higher-level cognitive functions, including perception, decision making, motor planning, and language.
In his book, Jay cites two major pieces of evidence for neurology’s role in cursing: Jackon’s spectrum of propositional speech, and the right hemisphere theory.
[4][5] Reinhold Aman’s book, Opus Maledictum (1996), contains several of the articles published in his research journal Maleditca.
In book form, these articles address many different examples of cursing, describing slang, jargon, profanity, slurs, and offensive language in many cultural contexts.
As social media has created a new online setting, this environment developed its own norms and rules for the acceptability of swearing.
[18] In the present day, the previously unenthusiastic attitude towards swearing in both a conversational and research context has eased.
[19][20] Despite this progress, Jay identified several crucial points in psychological advancement where maledictology could have developed earlier.
Using the NPS theory, Jay suggests that Broca’s dismissal of swearing as actual speech was incorrect.