The appropriation of psychological terms

Hello everyone! After a hiatus, your favorite research blogger is back.

Appropriation is a hot word and has been for several years now, with cultural appropriation being perhaps the most common use of the term. It is not, however, the only place in which we as a society have witnessed it, and the one I would like to point out in this article is that of the appropriation of psychological terms, and the watering down of their meanings. As a word, appropriate has many meanings, but the one which is being focused on here is that it means "to take or make use of without authority or right" (1).

So, what is it that's being taken without authority? The biggest example I have is the term "trigger." A trigger can be thought of as any stimulus that brings to mind painful or traumatic memories (2) and yet it's often used as a joking term in general conversation. Definitionally speaking, this isn't inherently wrong, as a trigger can also mean just a stimulus that elicits a response, without the need for it to be a painful or traumatic one. However, when you remove all original or clinical meaning, it can make it more difficult for people with actual triggers to navigate life.

The term originated with early research into PTSD (3), meaning that the idea that there is no, nor has there ever been, inherent negative reaction within the use is simply inaccurate. The expansion of the term into simply another word for stimulus is a much more recent move. In (3), it discusses how use of the word revolved around the idea that someone being triggered was a psychologically intense thing, rather than just someone being upset at what you said.

Another example of this removal of meaning from a word is that of gaslighting. Gaslighting is a course of action which involves "gradually undermine the victim’s confidence in his own ability to distinguish truth from falsehood, right from wrong, or reality from appearance, thereby rendering him pathologically dependent on the gaslighter in his thinking or feelings" (4) Today, however, the term is used as more of a synonym for lying.

The question lies in what happens if this appropriation continues, and it's unclear at this point. When you strip a word of all of original meaning, it's no longer usable in the same form as before. It's true that language changes, especially as the context alters, with Trigger being a perfect example of this. While the original meaning may be one thing, it's not impossible for it to be used with a different meaning without removing the original. Adaption of language is vastly different than the complete alteration of it. In biology, for example, Trigger may mean a stimulus, but when pop culture pretends to use the word psychologically-- while doing so incorrectly-- the meaning is changed.

It's certainly true that we can simply create other terms to mean the same thing if the word has been torn apart, this comes with certain risks. Psychology as a field is still incredibly under-researched, as it's a relatively young field, and it can take years for a term to take root, especially if there was already a word in that place. One realistic fear is that past research will need to be updated to accommodate this change. It feels as though it would be much easier for people to remove those words from their vocabulary and respect the original meaning of the terms.

Works cited:

1. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/appropriate

2. https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/trigger

3. https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/triggered/#:~:text=Where%20does%20triggered%20come%20from%3F%20financialtribune.com%20The%20concept,or%20rape%2C%20that%20severely%20impairs%20their%20everyday%20functioning.

4. https://www.britannica.com/topic/gaslighting