Assumptive World of Traumatized South African Adults

Abstract

One way of understanding the impact of traumatic events is through exploration of cognitive changes that confront a traumatized individual. The author investigated changes in individuals' basic assumptions after traumatic experiences. The participants were 65 people who had been traumatized by representatives of the South African apartheid government. From the total sample, 36 participants had witnessed the violent death of a close relative (sibling, mother, or father). The remaining 29 had been tortured and detained. The author administered the World Assumption Scale (R. Janoff-Bulman, 1989), a semistructured questionnaire on basic assumptions developed for the present study, and the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Clinical Checklist (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Traumatic events affected the participants' basic assumptions about the meaning and benevolence of the world. The tortured and detained group and the bereaved group showed differences in their assumptions of self-worth following the trauma. Cognitive approaches can yield invaluable therapeutic insights into strategies for coping with trauma.

La recherche de sens à la suite d’un événement traumatique

“…Toutefois, le principal problème de cette théorie concerne son faible soutien empirique. Quelques études montrent que les victimes d'événements traumatiques entretiennent des croyances plus négatives sur la bienveillance, leur valeur personnelle et le sens de la vie (Cook, 1998 ;Dekel et al, 2004 ;Magwaza, 1999 ;Prazer et Solomon, 1995 ;Schwartzberg et Janoff-Bulman, 1991). Toutefois, les études ne démontrent pas l'importance relative de ces trois croyances par rapport à d'autres cognitions.…”

Entrepreneurial Cognition

“…Studies on trauma (Janoff-Buhlman 1992;Magwaza 1999;Solomon et al 1997) have argued that recovering from traumatic events involves reconstructing shattered assumptions of the world and of the self to reestablish psychological balance (Janoff-Buhlman 1992). While my (Dean) colleague and I supported this idea, the findings also showed that the onset of this reconstruction process for each assumption is sequential.…”

Entrepreneurial Identity

“…Studies on trauma (Janoff-Buhlman 1992;Magwaza 1999;Solomon et al 1997) have argued that recovering from traumatic events involves reconstructing shattered assumptions of the world and of the self to reestablish psychological balance (Janoff-Buhlman 1992). While my (Dean) colleague and I (Haynie and Shepherd 2011) supported this idea, the findings also showed that the onset of this reconstruction process for each assumption is sequential.…”