Enhancing Emotional Safety in a Graduate School Setting

In the United States, racial disparities in education can be seen in rates of graduation from high school through doctoral programs, with People of Color reporting rates that are significantly lower than their White peers. Academic success has been significantly predicted in prior research by the support of teaching staff. Our Safety in the Classroom (SITC) program was developed to close the support gap for several different, often-marginalized groups within graduate school classes at a university in southern California. Students within racial, religious, and sexual orientation groups reported stronger perceptions of prejudice when compared to their peers. The SITC program provided all students an additional tool for resolving questions and concerns about any aspect of a particular course, including behaviors or statements of the instructor, and resulted in greater effect sizes on enhanced feelings of safety in the classroom for students of color. These results were achieved without undermining the students’ belief in their own ability to negotiate over or confront problems in the classroom. Expanded use and evaluation of the SITC program could contribute to the growing literature on academic success and achievement among underrepresented groups, providing one possible tool for helping to close the support gap

Adult attachment style, reported childhood violence history and types of dissociative experiences

p. 142-154Undergraduate and first-year graduate students (n = 410) were assessed for adult attachment, history of exposure to violence in childhood, and frequency of four types of dissociative experiences. Violence history was related to attachment style, as were four factors extracted from two dissociation measures. Each attachment style was predicted by distinct patterns of violence history and dissociation. Importantly, the four types of dissociation, despite their conceptual relationship, were empirically independent clinical phenomena, at times entering the regression equations in significant and opposite directions. The findings are discussed in the context of empirical and clinical issues in adult attachment, child maltreatment, and dissociation

APA Handbook of Trauma Psychology: Volume 2: Trauma Practice

The two volume APA Handbook of Trauma Psychology is the most comprehensive guide, text, and reference work on the subject to date. It provides a survey of all the major areas and subtopics of empirical knowledge and practical applications in the field of trauma psychology, written by top experts in the field. Volume 1 is divided into sections on the nature of trauma, its psychological impact, major conceptual frameworks for understanding traumatization, and trauma as viewed from the diverse perspective of various disciplines. Volume 2 covers various applications of trauma psychology, including various modalities of trauma assessment, major treatment approaches across the lifespan, and multi-client and organizational practice. The APA Handbook of Trauma Psychology will be an essential resource to specialists in trauma who need comprehensive information, to practitioners who seek to familiarize themselves with the range of approaches for trauma assessment and treatment, or for students as a graduate level or advanced undergraduate level textbook.https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cps_facbooks/1563/thumbnail.jp

APA Handbook of Trauma Psychology: Volume 1: Foundations in Knowledge

The two volume APA Handbook of Trauma Psychology is the most comprehensive guide, text, and reference work on the subject to date. It provides a survey of all the major areas and subtopics of empirical knowledge and practical applications in the field of trauma psychology, written by top experts in the field. Volume 1 is divided into sections on the nature of trauma, its psychological impact, major conceptual frameworks for understanding traumatization, and trauma as viewed from the diverse perspective of various disciplines. Volume 2 covers various applications of trauma psychology, including various modalities of trauma assessment, major treatment approaches across the lifespan, and multi-client and organizational practice. The APA Handbook of Trauma Psychology will be an essential resource to specialists in trauma who need comprehensive information, to practitioners who seek to familiarize themselves with the range of approaches for trauma assessment and treatment, or for students as a graduate level or advanced undergraduate level textbook.https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cps_facbooks/1562/thumbnail.jp

Looking Ahead: A Vision for the Future

The two volume APA Handbook of Trauma Psychology is the most comprehensive guide, text, and reference work on the subject to date. It provides a survey of all the major areas and subtopics of empirical knowledge and practical applications in the field of trauma psychology, written by top experts in the field. Volume 1 is divided into sections on the nature of trauma, its psychological impact, major conceptual frameworks for understanding traumatization, and trauma as viewed from the diverse perspective of various disciplines. Volume 2 covers various applications of trauma psychology, including various modalities of trauma assessment, major treatment approaches across the lifespan, and multi-client and organizational practice. The APA Handbook of Trauma Psychology will be an essential resource to specialists in trauma who need comprehensive information, to practitioners who seek to familiarize themselves with the range of approaches for trauma assessment and treatment, or for students as a graduate level or advanced undergraduate level textbook.https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cps_facbooks/1545/thumbnail.jp

Future Directions

The two volume APA Handbook of Trauma Psychology is the most comprehensive guide, text, and reference work on the subject to date. It provides a survey of all the major areas and subtopics of empirical knowledge and practical applications in the field of trauma psychology, written by top experts in the field. Volume 1 is divided into sections on the nature of trauma, its psychological impact, major conceptual frameworks for understanding traumatization, and trauma as viewed from the diverse perspective of various disciplines. Volume 2 covers various applications of trauma psychology, including various modalities of trauma assessment, major treatment approaches across the lifespan, and multi-client and organizational practice. The APA Handbook of Trauma Psychology will be an essential resource to specialists in trauma who need comprehensive information, to practitioners who seek to familiarize themselves with the range of approaches for trauma assessment and treatment, or for students as a graduate level or advanced undergraduate level textbook.https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cps_facbooks/1543/thumbnail.jp

Evaluation of the Evidence for the Trauma and Fantasy Models of Dissociation

The relationship between a reported history of trauma and dissociative symptoms has been explained in 2 conflicting ways. Pathological dissociation has been conceptualized as a response to antecedent traumatic stress and/or severe psychological adversity. Others have proposed that dissociation makes individuals prone to fantasy, thereby engendering confabulated memories of trauma. We examine data related to a series of 8 contrasting predictions based on the trauma model and the fantasy model of dissociation. In keeping with the trauma model, the relationship between trauma and dissociation was consistent and moderate in strength, and remained significant when objective measures of trauma were used. Dissociation was temporally related to trauma and trauma treatment, and was predictive of trauma history when fantasy proneness was controlled. Dissociation was not reliably associated with suggestibility, nor was there evidence for the fantasy model prediction of greater inaccuracy of recovered memory. Instead, dissociation was positively related to a history of trauma memory recovery and negatively related to the more general measures of narrative cohesion. Research also supports the trauma theory of dissociation as a regulatory response to fear or other extreme emotion with measurable biological correlates. We conclude, on the basis of evidence related to these 8 predictions, that there is strong empirical support for the hypothesis that trauma causes dissociation, and that dissociation remains related to trauma history when fantasy proneness is controlled. We find little support for the hypothesis that the dissociation trauma relationship is due to fantasy proneness or confabulated memories of trauma

Reality versus fantasy: Reply to Lynn et al. (2014).

We respond to Lynn et al.'s (2014) comments on our review (Dalenberg et al., 2012) demonstrating the superiority of the trauma model (TM) over the fantasy model (FM) in explaining the trauma-dissociation relationship. Lynn et al. conceded that our meta-analytic results support the TM hypothesis that trauma exposure is a causal risk factor for the development of dissociation. Although Lynn et al. suggested that our meta-analyses were selective, we respond that each omitted study failed to meet inclusion criteria; our meta-analyses thus reflect a balanced view of the predominant trauma-dissociation findings. In contrast, Lynn et al. were hypercritical of studies that supported the TM while ignoring methodological problems in studies presented as supportive of the FM. We clarify Lynn et al.'s misunderstandings of the TM and demonstrate consistent superiority in prediction of time course of dissociative symptoms, response to psychotherapy of dissociative patients, and pattern of relationships of trauma to dissociation. We defend our decision not to include studies using the Dissociative Experiences Scale-Comparison, a rarely used revision of the Dissociative Experiences Scale that shares less than 10% of the variance with the original scale. We highlight several areas of agreement: (a) Trauma plays a complex role in dissociation, involving indirect and direct paths; (b) dissociation-suggestibility relationships are small; and (c) controls and measurement issues should be addressed in future suggestibility and dissociation research. Considering the lack of evidence that dissociative individuals simply fantasize trauma, future researchers should examine more complex models of trauma and valid measures of dissociation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)