Hope and the affective tone of narratives as correlates of posttraumatic growth in people who have lost motor ability

Mariusz Zięba

doi:10.18290/rpsych.2015.18.1-2en

Mariusz Zięba Institute of Psychology, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty in Poznań

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rpsych.2015.18.1-2en

Keywords: narratives; hope; posttraumatic growth

Abstract

In the article we present data collected from 50 people who lost their motor ability in accidents. Analyses of narrative interviews conducted with the accident victims suggest that a positive affective tone of narratives about the accident itself and the accident’s influence on later life is connected to higher levels of posttraumatic growth. Other factors facilitating the experience of posttraumatic growth were hope and basic trust, as well as the theme of agency present in the narratives.

References

Bakan, D. (1966). The duality of human existence: Isolation and communion in Western man. Boston: Beacon Press.
Bruner, J. S. (1991). The narrative construction of reality. Critical Inquiry, 18, 1-21.
Calhoun, L. G. i Tedeschi, R. G. (2006). The foundations of posttraumatic growth: An expended framework. W: L. G. Calhoun i R. G. Tedeshi (red.), Handbook of posttraumatic growth: Research and practice (s. 3-23). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Erikson, E. H. (1964). Childhood and society (wyd. 2). Oxford England: W. W. Norton.
Gum, A. i Snyder, C. R. (2002). Coping with terminal illness: The role of hopeful thinking. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 5(6), 883-894.
Linley, P. A. i Joseph, S. (2004). Positive change following the trauma and adversity: A review. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 17, 11-21.
Łaguna, M., Trzebiński, J. i Zięba, M. (2005). Kwestionariusz Nadziei na Sukces. Warszawa: Pracownia Testów Psychologicznych PTP.
McAdams, D. P. (1985). Power, intimacy, and the life story: Personological inquiries into identity. New York: Guilford Press.
McAdams, D. P. (1993). The stories we live by: Personal myths and the making of the self. New York, NY US: William Morrow & Co.
McAdams, D. P. (2013). How actors, agents, and authors find meaning in life. W: K. D. Markman, T. Proulx i M. J. Lindberg (red.), The psychology of meaning (s. 171-190). Washington, DC US: American Psychological Association.
McAdams, D. P., Hoffman, B. J., Mansfield, E. D. i Day, R. (1996). Themes of agency and communion in significant autobiographical scenes. Journal of Personality, 64, 339-378.
McAdams, D. P., Reynolds, J., Lewis, M., Patten, A. H. i Bowman, P. J. (2001). When bad things turn good and good things turn bad: Sequences of redemption and contamination in life narrative and their relation to psychosocial adaptation in midlife adults and in students. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27(4), 474-485.
Neimeyer, R. A. (2006). Re-storying loss: Fostering growth in the posttraumatic narrative. W: L. G. Calhoun i R. G. Tedeshi (red.), Handbook of posttraumatic growth: Research and practice (s. 68-80). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Pals, J. L. (2006). Narrative identity processing of difficult life experiences: Pathways of personality development and positive selftransformation in adulthood. Journal of Personality, 74, 1079-1110.
Pals, J. i McAdams, D. (2004). The transformed self: A narrative understanding of posttraumatic growth. Psychological Inquiry, 15(1), 65-69.
Sommer, K. L., Baumeister, R. F. i Stillman, T. F. (2012). The construction of meaning from life events: Empirical studies of personal narratives. W: P. P. Wong (red.), The human quest for meaning: Theories, research, and applications (wyd. 2) (s. 297-313). New York, NY US: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Tennem, H. i Affleck, G. (1998). Personality and transformation in face of adversity. W: R. G. Tedeshi, C. L. Park i L. G. Calhoun (red.), Posttraumatic growth: Positive changes in aftermath of crisis (s. 65-98). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Trzebiński, J. (2002). Narracyjne konstruowanie rzeczywistości. W: J. Trzebiński (red.), Narracja jako sposób rozumienia świata (s. 17-42). Gdańsk: Gdańskie Wydawnictwo Psychologiczne.
Trzebiński, J. i Zięba, M. (2003). Kwestionariusz Nadziei Podstawowej – BHI-12. Warszawa: Pracownia Testów Psychologicznych PTP.
Trzebiński, J. i Zięba, M. (2004). Basic hope as a world-view: An outline of a concept. Polish Psychological Bulletin, 2, 171-182.
Trzebiński, J. i Zięba, M. (2013). Basic trust and posttraumatic growth in oncological patients. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 18(3), 195-209.
Zięba, M., Czarnecka-van Luijken i Wawrzyniak, M. (2010). Nadzieja podstawowa i wzrost potraumatyczny. Studia Psychologiczne, 49(1), 109-121.
Zięba, M., Wawrzyniak, M. i Świrkula, M. (2010). Skala Zmian Życiowych – narzędzie do pomiaru skutków krytycznych zdarzeń. Psychologia Jakości Życia, 9(1), 143-167.