Emotional Overtones of Behavior Analysis Terms in English and Five Other Languages
Behavior-analysis jargon feels unpleasant in every language tested, so speak plainly no matter whom you serve.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Critchfield and colleagues asked people who speak six languages how they feel about common behavior-analysis words.
They translated terms like "punishment" and "extinction" into Arabic, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Listeners rated each word for emotional unpleasantness; the team compared the scores to English ratings.
What they found
The jargon felt equally harsh in every language tested.
A word that sounded cold in English still sounded cold in Spanish, Arabic, and the rest.
The pattern was clear even though the sample in each country was small.
How this fits with other research
Neuman (2018) urged analysts to swap technical talk for everyday words; Critchfield now shows why—jargon feels bad everywhere.
Vassos et al. (2023) pushed the idea further, proving that culture shapes how parents hear autism language; Critchfield’s work says the same warning applies to basic behavior-talk.
Robison (2019) asked writers to center autistic voices when choosing words; Critchfield adds that foreign-speaking clients deserve the same respect.
Why it matters
If you serve multilingual families, drop the lingo. Say "we will ignore the yelling" instead of "we will place screaming on extinction." The study warns that the second choice sounds harsh in any tongue. Plain words build trust and buy-in across cultures.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Replace one technical term on your parent handout with an everyday word and note any change in parent questions or cooperation.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
It has been suggested that the language of behavior analysis is not always consumer-friendly, but the very limited empirical support for this claim comes from examining jargon in English. We consulted publicly available data sets to shed light on one specific aspect of the jargon problem: how non-English speakers may react emotionally to the technical vocabulary of behavior analysis. Previous research has suggested that English speakers may experience English technical terms as unpleasant. Here, we show that the same may apply when speakers of other languages (Egyptian Arabic, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish) encounter translated technical terms. Our results, although constrained by the availability of data for only a small sample of relevant terms, suggest that responses of English speakers to English terms may be a good predictor of emotional responding to translated terms. To our knowledge, this is the first empirical study to address international ramifications of a so-called marketing problem in behavior analysis. Our main purpose is to call attention to the need for cross-language and cross-cultural studies on factors that affect public perceptions and acceptance of behavior analysis.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2018 · doi:10.1007/s40617-018-0222-3