The affective tone of narration and posttraumatic growth in organ transplant recipients

Abstract

The aim of the study was to verify the hypothesis that positive affective tone of narratives is connected to the experience of posttraumatic growth among transplant patients. Kidney transplant patients (N = 51) and liver transplant patients (N = 48) participated in the study. In the first stage, about 10 weeks after transplant, the participants told two stories about important, freely chosen events from their lives. During the second meeting 10-12 months later we measured posttraumatic growth. Results indicated that the affective tone of narratives about past events was associated with the level of post-traumatic growth measured 10-12 months later. This proves that the affective tone of narratives about life, understood as a relatively constant individual characteristic, promote posttraumatic growth.

The life story from age 26 to 32: Rank‐order stability and mean‐level change

“…Two independent coders rated overall positivity of emotional tone in the narrative on a 5‐point scale ranging from 1 ( very unhappy story, very negative emotional tone ) to 5 ( very happy story, very positive emotional tone ). This single‐dimension index has the limitation of not examining positive and negative tone separately, but it has been used in several narrative studies (i.e., McAdams et al, ; Zieba et al, ) and was significantly associated with life satisfaction and several dimensions of Ryff's () Psychological Well‐Being scales (McAdams et al, ). Moreover, the present study aimed to capture a more straightforward assessment of overall emotional feel of the life story rather than an in‐depth examination of specific affective tone themes.…”

“…narrative studies (i.e., McAdams et al, 2001McAdams et al, , 2004Zieba et al, 2015) and was significantly associated with life satisfaction and several dimensions of Ryff's (1989) Psychological Well-Being scales . Moreover, the present study aimed to capture a more straightforward assessment of overall emotional feel of the life story rather than an in-depth examination of specific affective tone themes.…”

“…Affective themes refer to the positive and/or negative valence of the narrative's emotional tone, which has important implications for well‐being (see Adler et al, ). There are different ways to assess emotional tone, including a Likert‐type scale measuring overall emotional tone on a single dimension, with higher scores reflecting greater positive tone (e.g., McAdams et al, ; Zieba et al, ), as well as presence or absence of specific emotions (e.g., Adler & Hershfield, ). The present study aimed to capture a broad array of different qualities of the life story within each of the four categories of narrative variables proposed by Adler and colleagues ().…”

Post-traumatic growth and its relationship to quality of life up to 9 years after liver transplantation: a cross-sectional study in Spain

“…The results showed that post-traumatic growth positively predicted identification with the family group and the transplantee group over time. The second study by Zięba et al 15 examined 48 liver transplant recipients about 10 weeks after surgery. Recipients told two stories about freely chosen important events in their lives.…”

Spanish Adaptation and Validation of the Transplant Effects Questionnaire (TxEQ-Spanish) in Liver Transplant Recipients and Its Relationship to Posttraumatic Growth and Quality of Life

“…There is growing evidence that recipients' quality of life is closely connected to their ability to adapt to the new situation after a traumatic experience [ 9 ]. This ability has been described by Tedeschi and Calhoun [ 10 , 11 ] as posttraumatic growth and several studies showed its relevance as a protective factor for psychological well-being after transplantation [ 12 – 15 ]. According to Tedeschi and Calhoun the experience of growth is often motivated by the experience of personal distress and worries and the inner need to find a new intra-psychic balance.…”