Are predictions and perceptions of post-traumatic growth a form of ultimate justice reasoning?

Annelie J Harvey,Laura Er Blackie

doi:10.1177/08902070211014030

Annelie J Harvey, Laura Er Blackie

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/08902070211014030

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Abstract

Researchers have questioned whether self-report questionnaires adequately assess post-traumatic growth as it was theorized (positive personality change after trauma), versus assessing a broader coping mechanism. Across four studies, we examine whether individuals report post-traumatic growth as a coping mechanism to restore a sense of justice. In Studies 1 and 2, participants predicted greater post-traumatic growth for a hypothetical victim after a severe accident that caused grave suffering (and disrupted one’s belief in a just world), compared to an accident that caused minimal suffering (and did not disrupt one’s belief in a just world). Both perceptions of deservingness of post-traumatic growth for the victim (a belief in a just world mechanism) and engagement in deliberative rumination (a post-traumatic growth mechanism) mediated the effect of suffering on the prediction of post-traumatic growth in Study 2. The same pattern of results held when participants considered their own imagined suffering (Study 3), and when participants reported post-traumatic growth from distressing events in their own lives (Study 4). As such, we conclude that following an episode of suffering, either occurring to another or to oneself, self-reports of post-traumatic growth on questionnaires can reflect two distinct motivations: (1) an attempt to cope with perceived injustices and (2) the will to search for meaning in one’s suffering.

Highlights

Researchers have questioned whether self-report questionnaires adequately assess post-traumatic growth as it was theorized, versus assessing a broader coping mechanism
Before examining whether perceived deservingness of ultimate justice mediated the relationship between condition and ultimate justice reasoning (UJR), we examined whether the data met the assumptions required for regression
We were interested here to see if principles of deservingness mediated the relationship between suffering condition and Predicted post-traumatic growth (PPTG), as they do for UJR

Summary

Introduction

Researchers have questioned whether self-report questionnaires adequately assess post-traumatic growth as it was theorized (positive personality change after trauma), versus assessing a broader coping mechanism. Post-traumatic growth (PTG) is defined as positive personality change that individuals may experience after they have endured distressing and traumatic life events (Jayawickreme & Blackie, 2014). PTG is assessed retrospectively, in reference to that trauma, by asking participants to complete a self-report questionnaire, such as the post-traumatic growth inventory (PTGI; Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996). The few prospective longitudinal studies considering PTG have shown that individuals are not able to undertake these steps accurately, thereby calling into question the suitability of the PTGI, and other designed retrospective self-report questionnaires, for assessing PTG as positive personality change over time. This measure of actual change removes the taxing task of participants calculating the personality change themselves, by producing a difference score on how people’s stance on the five domains of PTG has changed between time 1 (pre-trauma) and time 2 (post-trauma)

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