Have the concepts of 'anxiety' and 'depression' been normalized or pathologized? A corpus study of historical semantic change
Overview
Paper Summary
Contrary to the hypothesis of concept creep where mental health terms dilute over time, the study found that the language around 'anxiety' and 'depression' became more emotionally intense over the past 50 years. This shift is attributed to the increased clinical framing of these concepts, with words like 'disorder' and 'symptom' becoming more frequently associated with them.
Explain Like I'm Five
Scientists found that words like "anxiety" and "depression" sound much more serious now than they used to. This is because people talk about them more like actual medical problems or disorders.
Possible Conflicts of Interest
The authors acknowledge funding from the Australian Research Council Discovery Projects awarded to Nick Haslam (DP170104948 and DP210103984). No other conflicts were disclosed. However, it could be argued that there may be a potential conflict in that some research in this area is funded by pharmaceutical companies that could profit from the expansion of mental health diagnoses, but there's no evidence this applies to this study.
Identified Limitations
Rating Explanation
The study uses a robust methodology and large datasets, demonstrating clear trends across both academic and general corpora. While the corpora composition and reliance on emotional meaning norms pose some limitations, the replicated findings and exploration of specific collocates strengthen the analysis. The rating is slightly lowered from 5 to 4 to reflect the potential conflict of interest related to pharmaceutical funding in the broader area, though no direct link is apparent to this study.
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