From Shattered Assumptions to Weakened Worldviews: Trauma Symptoms Signal Anxiety Buffer Disruption

Overview

Journal J Loss Trauma

Date 2013 Oct 1

PMID 24077677

Citations 21

Authors

Donald Edmondson

Stephenie R Chaudoir

Mary Alice Mills

Crystal L Park

Julie Holub

Jennifer M Bartkowiak

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The fundamental assertion of worldview-based models of posttraumatic stress disorder is that trauma symptoms result when traumatic experiences cannot be readily assimilated into previously held worldviews. In two studies, we test the anxiety buffer disruption hypothesis, which states that trauma symptoms result from the disruption of normal death anxiety-buffering functions of worldview. In Study 1, participants with trauma symptoms greater than the cutoff for PTSD evinced greater death-thought accessibility than those with sub-clinical or negligible symptoms after a reminder of death. In Study 2, participants with clinically significant trauma symptoms showed no evidence of worldview defense though death-thoughts were accessible. These results support the anxiety buffer disruption hypothesis, and suggest an entirely new approach to experimental PTSD research.

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