Article

Understanding Post-Traumatic Growth by Attending to Contextual Influences and Developing Wise Interventions to Promote It

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Abstract

Jayawickreme and Blackie offered recommendations on how the conceptual framework of post-traumatic growth can benefit from greater attention to measurement and methodology. We offer two additional considerations. Emerging research suggests that brief and specific psychological interventions produce lasting changes in how people view themselves and their environment. In the early post-trauma phase, these interventions are worthy of exploration. Additionally, a focus on who is experiencing what type of trauma offers a contextual lens missing from the hunt for universal, silver-bullet approaches to mental health promotion. Copyright (C) 2014 European Association of Personality Psychology

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... However, there are few studies that appropriately address how to promote PTG in people, especially in the case of refugees. To quote Blalock, Calton, and Kashdan (2014): "greater attention to post-trauma interventions, particularly those that are both effective and efficient, is necessary to make research practically useful" (p. 333). ...
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Although writing about traumatic events has been shown to produce a variety of health benefits, little is known about how writing produces benefits. The degree to which individuals form narrative structure when writing may predict health improvements. This study manipulated narrative formation during writing to test if narrative structure is necessary for writing to be beneficial. A total of 116 healthy students were randomly assigned to write about control topics or about their thoughts and feelings regarding the most traumatic event of their life in one of two ways: list in an fragmented format or construct a narrative. Individuals asked to form a narrative reported less restriction of activity because of illness and showed higher avoidant thinking than the other groups. The fragmented writing group did not differ from controls on any measure. These data (a) demonstrate that instructions to form a narrative produce a different response to writing than instructions to form fragmented and control writing and (b) suggest narrative formation may be required to achieve health benefits.
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This study examined the effects of disclosure about a highly stressful event and perceived social reactions to the disclosure on posttraumatic growth (PTG) and distress. Participants (395 Japanese university students) reported on their most traumatic life event that had occurred less than 10 years previously. Those who had disclosed about their events provided open-ended descriptions of the perceived social reactions they received. The reactions were coded using two different classifications: a global categorization (Positive, Negative, and Other), and then a more precise assignment to 7 categories (Sympathizing, Encouraging, Listening, Mutual disclosing, Being confused, Not taking it seriously, and Other). PTG was higher in those who disclosed about the event. In addition, those who perceived their recipients' reactions as involving mutual disclosure reported higher PTG than those who reported reactions of being confused, and higher distress than those who reported reactions of listening, encouraging, and sympathizing. These findings point to the importance of disclosure and of perceived recipients’ reactions to disclosure in the PTG and distress processes.
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Posttraumatic growth is a concept that has been established within a Western cultural framework. This review examines whether there is a Western cultural bias in this concept, and related processes and outcomes, and whether any cultural bias has been incorporated into associated psychometric tools. It is concluded that, although at an abstract level the concept of posttraumatic growth appears cross-culturally valid, the operationalization of the concept may serve to impose assumptions of a Western individualistic society. The impact of this for the emerging cross-cultural literature on posttraumatic growth is discussed, alongside recommendations for future research.
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For the past decade, an increasing number of studies have demonstrated that when individuals write about emotional experiences, significant physical and mental health improvements follow. The basic paradigm and findings are summarized along with some boundary conditions. Although a reduction in inhibition may contribute to the disclosure phenomenon, changes in basic cognitive and linguistic processes during writing predict better health. Implications for theory and treatment are discussed.
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There are good reasons to be skeptical about any efforts to bring together two fields of inquiry that have historically had little to do with each other - that is, personality psychology and the study of human development. Personality psychologists are by training, and maybe even temperament, suspicious of the idea of development, for to them it means change (i.s. instability, inconsistency), and personality is nothing if it is not at least somewhat enduring. Developmentalists, on the other hand, specialize in a certain kind of change - meaningful and orderly change over time.
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Hedonic adaptation refers to the process by which individuals return to baseline levels of happiness following a change in life circumstances. Dominant models of subjective well-being (SWB) suggest that people can adapt to almost any life event and that happiness levels fluctuate around a biologically determined set point that rarely changes. Recent evidence from large-scale panel studies challenges aspects of this conclusion. Although inborn factors certainly matter and some adaptation does occur, events such as divorce, death of a spouse, unemployment, and disability are associated with lasting changes in SWB. These recent studies also show that there are considerable individual differences in the extent to which people adapt. Thus, happiness levels do change, and adaptation is not inevitable.