TITLE:
Multilingualism and Emotions—Are Associations with an Image More Emotional in Our First or Second Language?
AUTHORS:
Mojgan Vakili, Mohsen Edrisi
KEYWORDS:
Multilingualism, First Language, Emotions, Narratives, Thematic Apperception Test
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.17 No.11,
November
9,
2026
ABSTRACT: Background: In psychotherapy and psychodiagnostic assessments with multilingual individuals, our clinical experience is that there are differences in the quality of outcomes when using the first (L1) or later acquired language (L2). L1 is often closely intertwined with an individual’s cultural background, childhood experiences, and inner world and may therefore carry greater emotional resonance. The purpose was to investigate whether there were differences in the number of emotion-related words in L1 versus L2 narratives, produced by multilingual participants in a psychodiagnostic assessment setting. Method: In an experimental cross-over study, 40 participants who spoke Persian as L1 and English as L2 were asked to tell a story about one picture from the Thematic Apperception Test twice: first in L1 and then in L2 (n = 20), or first in L2 and then in L1 (n = 20). The number of emotion-related words used in the two narratives was compared. Results: The linear mixed model showed a significant difference in language, with 1.35 more emotion-related words in Persian than in English. There was also a significant order effect of assessment (the second time the participants used 0.8 more emotion-related words). Post hoc qualitative analysis may suggest that some narratives in L1 were more coherent and contained richer descriptions of emotional content than the corresponding L2 narratives. Discussion: Although there were several limitations (e.g., a carry-over effect because of a five-minute break), the findings suggest that language choice may influence the emotional content of narratives in multilingual psychodiagnostic assessment. High proficiency in L2 does not necessarily imply equivalent use of emotion-related language compared with L1. Clinicians should therefore be cautious when interpreting emotionally relevant verbal material in multilingual clients and consider the potential influence of language on its expression, both in psychotherapy and in psychodiagnostic assessment.