Are Our Words and Experiences Losing Their True Meaning?

Recently, I was talking with a friend and fellow Psychologist (I'm still provisional) about something we have loosely discussed over time, but didn't necessarily have a word or phrase for.

Concept Creeping.

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The research indicates the term concept creeping was first mentioned by Haslam (2016) who described a gradual expansion of the meaning of harm-related concepts through semantic inflation. What is semantics? Semantics has been described as "compositionally and the definition of meaning" (Montague, 1970) and therefore, is highly relevant in understanding concept creeping. The expansion was described to move both horizontally, to include new phenomena and vertically to include less extreme phenomena. What this means is, more and more words or experiences are being collected under a larger term and over time, these words or experiences are considered less significant to what the original meaning was.

You may be wondering, what's the relevance to psychology?

Haslam (2016) specifically highlighted concepting creeping to be moving through the discourse of psychology and into wider culture. Further, he also completed his case studies in six concepts he believed were likely to be creeping: mental disorders, abuse, bullying, addiction, trauma and prejudice, which are all studied in different areas of psychology.

For instance, Haslam (2021b) notes that bullying was initially a power imbalance enacted through repeated, intentional and dominating behaviour by one individual towards another. Whereas now it sometimes includes unrepeated, unintentional behaviour and also extends into behaviour that is omissive or is more passive. It is also suggested by Haslam (2016) that the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) has relaxed their criteria to be more inclusive, resulting in more people meeting diagnosis, which is also a form of concept creeping.

Why should we, or you, care?

We make sense of the world through language; our experiences are explained through language, and we understand others through language. Most importantly, words are just words without semantics. Eat yellow back road guitar speaking guillotine stars cutting board. That sentence had no meaning as whole, but each individual word has a description that we have learned over time, and because we know those words, we know it doesn't make sense. We take meaning from the larger whole (i.e. an entire sentence) and from individual words (i.e. guitar - a musical instrument with six strings shaped like a pear with a sound hole in the middle), but how will we make sense of each other and our experiences if word meanings expand and encompass too many terms?

What's the explanation behind concept creeping?

• A movement towards more objective comfort in Western societies - life has gotten a little easier (not for everyone by any means) and therefore, the threshold has lowered (Pinker, 2018). Experiences that were considered more moderate or subtle are now considered more harmful.

• Large population changes in values (empathy and nurture) resulting in sensitization of people to harms and reduced ability to tolerate suffering. These changes in moral values appear to be driven by political liberalism and an increase in female representation (Graham et al., 2009).

• Motivation within politics to more or less 'call out' those they object to and point out those responsible. For instance, people will label bullying, hate speech, racism or prejudice, even if the actions do not meet the definition or seriousness of the issue, to ruin the reputation of the alleged. This then leads to more individuals labelling this less serious action under the term therefore lowering the public's threshold.

In my day-to-day, I hear statements such as, "she's so ADHD" or "he's on the spectrum" or "trauma response." Most of the time, I disagree. There's usually an explanation for the experience that doesn't include pathologizing someone's experience and instead, it's usually a part of lifestyle or general development or something that a few supportive therapeutic sessions can assist with. I can even back this with the research on concept creeping...

People who seem to include more concepts to do with harm have been shown to have higher empathy and higher neuroticism (Haslam et al., 2021b). Most importantly, they appear to be sensitive towards the injustice committed towards others but not necessarily themselves (Haslam et al., 2021b). I don't know if you noticed but those statements, I hear day-to-day, are usually by someone talking about someone else. To comment that someone reaches the disorder level of functioning without having training in the area genuinely confuses me. Further, I hear the actual person start to use the language about themselves without first critically analysing if it's relevant or fits their experiences.

What's the risk vs. what's the argument for expansion?

Over-pathologizing people's experiences can lead to over-diagnosis and resource misallocation leading to wider societal issues. Further, whilst people are believing harm includes more experiences, how must it feel to believe typical human experiences are more serious than they are? Also, what happens if someone is wrong about someone's capacity or performance (i.e. "you have ADHD so you'll always have trouble focusing") and they fall into the self-fulfilling prophecy?

The self-fulfilling prophecy emphasises the power of belief. If you tell someone they can't do something or they have limits, they will also begin to believe and fall into behaviour that reflects this. Also, research suggests people are more prone to remember and be impacted by negative information so with this in mind: "If people are particularly sensitive to negative information...then negative beliefs may indeed create more powerful self-fulfilling prophecies than positive beliefs" (Madon et al., 2011).

Basically, if you're not sure, don't say anything at all.

Although it is evolutionary for research and concepts to change, the discourse in the wider public sphere reflects that concept creeping may be very real in our society. Further, the movement of information has exploded with the advances in technological communication meaning it's almost like a tsunami-like definition can capture an entire demographic. For instance, someone can make a very strong and unverified opinion known in a matter of seconds which can flow across multiple countries within minutes. AND people with no expertise in an area can make large, unbased suggestions. Another example I see most days is the comment sections on Instagram and Facebook littered with words like "bullying," "racism," "bigot" and other labels, although none of this has been committed according to the actual definition of the word. Almost like they are trying to taint the reputation of the other commentor which is suggested as an explanation for concept creeping by the research.

Whilst many experiences are ultimately subjective, it should be up to the individual to explore if they feel harm has been committed or if they want to pathologize their own experiences, whilst understanding the true definitions of concepts. They just might decide that their experiences will shape them into a stronger person; or that it's an expected part of life or that the semantic expansion just doesn't make that much sense. If you or someone is having a difficult time processing experiences or their place in the world, therapy is a great way to understand or unpack in a private space. Didn't see that suggestion coming? It's always a go-to to understand yourself better.

What do you think of concept creeping and is it positively or negatively impacting your life?

References and further reading:

Haslam, N. (2016). Concept creep: Psychology’s expanding concepts of harm and pathology. Psychological Inquiry, 27(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2016.1082418

Haslam, N., Tse, J. S., & De Deyne, S. (2021a). Concept creep and psychiatrization. Frontiers in Sociology, 6, 806147.

Haslam, N., Vylomova, E., Zyphur, M., & Kashima, Y. (2021b). The cultural dynamics of concept creep. The American Psychologist, 76(6), 1013–1026. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000847

Graham J., Haidt J., Nosek B. A. (2009). Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(5), 1029–1046.

Madon, S., Willard, J., Guyll, M., & Scherr, K. C. (2011). Self‐fulfilling prophecies: Mechanisms, power, and links to social problems. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 5(8), 578-590.

Montague, R. (1970). "Universal grammar." Theoria, 36(1), 373-398.

Pinker S. (2018). Enlightenment now: The case for reason, science, humanism, and progress. Penguin.