Peri-and posttraumatic emotional responses have been understudied, and furthermore, have rarely been compared among trauma types. The current study compared college students' retrospective self-reports of peri-and posttraumatic responses of fear, shame, guilt, anger, and sadness among four types of traumatic events: sexual assault, physical assault, transportation accident, and illness/injury. Overall emotional responding was generally high for all trauma types, and for those in the sexual assault group, emotion increased sharply from the peri-to posttraumatic time-point. Generally, fear was higher during the trauma compared to after the trauma, whereas the other emotions tended to remain stable or increase posttrauma. The sexual assault group tended to report higher levels of posttrauma emotion than the other trauma type groups.

We propose a taxonomy of emotional disturbances composed of (a) emotional valence disturbances, (b) emotional intensity/regulation disturbances, and (c) emotion disconnections. Our rationale for developing such a taxonomy is that it can draw additional attention to the importance of emotional disturbances and can provide a framework for organizing both what we already know and what we have yet to explore. We believe such an effort is important because emotional disturbances, which are ubiquitous among individuals with psychopatholog‐ical conditions, can provide incremental predictive power above and beyond traditional diagnostic categories. We discuss the potential clinical utility of our proposed taxonomy and provide recommendations for future research.

This study investigated relationships among proactive coping, positive emotions, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity for 182 undergraduate women with trauma histories. Participants were administered the Life Events Checklist (LEC), PTSD Checklist, Proactive Coping Inventory, Proactive Attitude Scale, General Perceived Self-Efficacy Scale, and measures of posttrauma gratitude and emotional growth. An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with proactive coping, proactive attitude, and self-efficacy items indicated a one-factor solution. The proactive coping style factor and posttrauma gratitude were independently negatively associated with current PTSD symptom level, above and beyond the effects of trauma severity, trauma history, and time elapsed since the trauma. The implications of these results for future research and understanding of the development of PTSD and its treatment are discussed.

We examined disgust and fear responses to spiders in spider-distressed and nondistressed individuals. Undergraduate participants (N = 134) completed questionnaires concerning responses to spiders and other potentially aversive stimuli, as well as measures of disgust sensitivity, anxious arousal, worry, and anhedonic depression. In addition, we obtained self-report and facial expressions of disgust and fear while participants were exposed to a live tarantula. Both spider distressed and nondistressed individuals reported disgust and exhibited disgust facial expressions in response to a tarantula. Disgust in response to spiders was not found to be part of a general disgust response to all negative stimuli, nor was it due to a general negative emotional response to spiders. Emotional responses to spiders were differentially associated with scores on personality and psychological functioning measures. The results of this study provide evidence that spiders have a specific disgust-evoking status in both distressed and nondistressed populations.

We tested the efficacy of the Equine Partnering Naturally(©) approach to equine-assisted therapy for treating anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Participants were 16 volunteers who had experienced a Criterion A traumatic event, such as a rape or serious accident, and had current PTSD symptoms above 31 on the PTSD Checklist (PCL-S; Weathers, Litz, Herman, Huska, & Keane, ). Participants engaged in tasks with horses for 6 weekly 2-hour sessions. Immediately following the final session, participants reported significantly reduced posttraumatic stress symptoms, d = 1.21, less severe emotional responses to trauma, d = 0.60, less generalized anxiety, d = 1.01, and fewer symptoms of depression, d = 0.54. As well, participants significantly increased mindfulness strategies, d = 1.28, and decreased alcohol use, d = 0.58. There was no significant effect of the treatment on physical health, proactive coping, self-efficacy, social support, or life satisfaction. Thus, we found evidence that the Equine Partnering Naturally(©) approach to equine-assisted therapy may be an effective treatment for anxiety and posttraumatic stress symptoms. Future research should include larger groups, random assignment, and longer term follow-up.

Treatment of phobias is sometimes followed by a return of fear. Animal and human research has shown that changes in external and internal contexts between the time of treatment and follow-up tests often enhance return of fear. The present study examined whether shifts in caffeine (C) state would enhance return of fear. Participants who were highly afraid of spiders (n = 43) were treated in 1-session exposure-based therapy and tested for follow-up 1 week later. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups and received either placebo (P) or C at treatment and follow-up sessions: CC, PP, CP, and PC. Results demonstrated state-dependent learning. Participants experiencing incongruent drug states during treatment and follow-up (CP and PC) exhibited greater return of fear than those experiencing congruent drug states (CC and PP).

Attempts to modulate negative emotional and cognitive symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) may be related to psychopathology. Trauma exposed undergraduates, 31 reporting severe PTSD symptoms (PTSD group) and 34 without PTSD symptoms (no-PTSD group), completed measures of PTSD, depression, anxiety, thought control, emotion regulation, and coping. The PTSD group had greater psychopathology and overall modulation strategy use than the no-PTSD group. Thought suppression, emotion suppression, and avoidant coping strategies were positively related to psychopathology, whereas emotion reappraisal and approach coping strategies were either not related or weakly negatively related. Hierarchical multiple regressions with psychopathologic variables as criteria and modulation strategies as predictors indicated significant models in all cases. Generally, thought suppression was the only significant independent predictor of psychopathology. Keywordstrauma; Posttraumatic Stress Disorder; thought suppression; emotion regulation; coping; psychopathology Individuals normally respond to unpleasant thoughts and emotions by attempting to control or modify them (Horowitz, 1976), particularly those related to traumatic events (e.g., Amir et al., 1997). Individual differences in use of several types of modulation strategies have been examined separately in traumatized populations: thought control, emotion regulation, and coping. Although such strategies have been distinguished theoretically, to our knowledge they have not been compared empirically. The present paper will refer to them broadly as modulation strategies. When examined alone, various forms of regulation and coping appear to be associated with psychopathology symptoms. As two of the defining symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are directly related to modulation attempts (i.e., cognitive and emotional avoidance, reexperiencing the traumatic event in the form of intrusive thoughts), an improved understanding of their relationships with psychopathology is crucial Address correspondence to Ananda B. Amstadter at the National Crime Victims Center of the Medical University of South Carolina, Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, 165 Cannon Street, 3 rd Floor, Charleston, SC 29425 (amstadt@musc.edu; 843.792-2945 phone; 843.792.3388 in trauma populations as it may provide key information for recovery. However, it is not clear whether such strategies would be independently related to PTSD, anxiety, and depression symptoms once the shared variance between them is removed. The present study sought to examine mental control (thought suppression), emotion regulation (emotion suppression, emotion reappraisal), and coping (approach, avoidance, emotion, problem) strategies in a trauma sample with and without PTSD. Thought ControlThought suppression is a thought control technique to try to keep unwanted thoughts at bay. In experimental paradigms, attempted thought suppression has often been paradoxically linked to an increase in unwanted thoughts bo...

Although Latinas/os report that conventional psychological treatments, such as outpatient and inpatient psychological interventions, are their preferred treatment option for psychological concerns, they also seek culturally relevant religious treatments (e.g., seeing a priest, using indigenous healers, seeking faith-based treatment). Previous research has demonstrated that higher acculturation was associated with preferences for conventional psychological treatment, whereas higher enculturation was associated with preferences for culturally relevant religious treatment strategies among Latinas/os. The strong negative views toward psychological disorders held by some minority groups seem likely to affect treatment preferences and treatment seeking behavior. Levels of stigma toward psychological disorders, however, may be mitigated by level of education. The current study investigated the roles of acculturation and enculturation levels and stigma toward psychological disorders in treatment-seeking preferences in a Mexican American student sample. The results indicated that higher levels of enculturation were associated with stronger preference for culturally relevant religious treatment and no treatment, respectively. Elevated negative beliefs toward psychological disorders mediated the relationship between enculturation levels and no-treatment preferences only among first and second year college students. Acculturation had no effect on any of the treatment preferences or stigma. These findings suggest the differential role of acculturation and enculturation in treatment preferences and stigma in Mexican Americans, and also suggest the importance of implementing efforts to reduce the stigma attached to psychological disorders through education.