What counts as positive growth following trauma? The conceptual difficulties of spiritual/religious change

Jayawickreme and Blackie refer frequently to 'positive' personality change following trauma, but avoid discussing ambiguities regarding what the word positive means in different domains, for example the area of spiritual/religious belief. Three of the most widely used post-traumatic growth measures specify that increased belief in God following trauma is indicative of positive change, and decreased theistic belief reflects negative change. Here I question this value judgement, propose conceptual clarification on what kinds of changes reflect growth, and suggest various criteria for evaluating post-traumatic change (or indeed any personality change) as positive

The example of adverse life experiences as unique situations

© 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology. There is a well-established tradition of assessing personality traits, and some of its principles may have parallels in assessment of situations. Trait measures are interpreted in terms of norms; situation assessments may require multiple judges to control perceiver effects. Internal consistency is monitored in trait research; inter-rater reliability should be reported in situation research. Personality scales typically assess traits rather than states; situational assessment might profitably concentrate on recurrent rather than one-time situations

The protective function of personal growth initiative among a genocide-affected population in Rwanda

The aim of the current study was to investigate the extent to which individual differences in personal growth initiative (PGI) were associated with lower reports of functional impairment of daily activities among a genocide-affected population in Rwanda. PGI measures an individual’s motivation to develop as a person and the extent to which he or she is active in setting goals that work toward achieving self-improvement. We found that PGI was negatively associated with functional impairment when controlling for depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and other demographic factors. Our results suggest that PGI may constitute an important mindset for facilitating adaptive functioning in the aftermath of adversity and in the midst of psychological distress, and as such they might have practical applications for the development of intervention programs

A philosophical approach to improving empirical research on posttraumatic growth

Post-traumatic growth (PTG) has been a key topic of research by psychologists over the last 25 years. But the idea that a person can benefit from adversity has been around for much longer, and is a stable in many mainstream cultures, and in theological and recent philosophical thinking. However, there has been, to date, little overlap between psychological research into PTG, and philosophical thinking about similar ideas. This is unfortunate, both because philosophers are not taking up potential sources of empirical support, and because psychological research into PTG is subject to a range of criticisms and concerns. In this paper, we aim to show how philosophical thinking can address some of these, and as a result put psychological research into PTG on a firmer theoretical footing

Wisdom gained?: assessing relationships between adversity, personality and well-being among a late adolescent sample

How do late adolescents make sense of stressful life events they have experienced in their lives? College students (N = 1225) reported the stressful events they had experienced in their lifetime up until the present survey, and indicated whether they considered each stressful event to be a turning point and/or an opportunity for wisdom. Students also completed measures of personality and well-being. We hypothesized that the tendency to interpret stressful events as turning points or opportunities for wisdom would explain the associations between three personality characteristics (Openness to Experience, Extraversion, and Emotionality) and well-being. We used a multi-step ESEM approach in which we first assessed the measurement structure of our items before testing partial and complete structural models. We tested partial and structural models according to extant guidelines associated with the evaluation of indirect effects models. We did not find support for the indirect effects model, but Openness was associated with the tendency to view stressful events as turning points, and Openness and Extraversion were associated with the tendency to view stressful events as leading to wisdom, as well as with increased well-being

Personality science, resilience, and posttraumatic growth

PASTOR represents an innovative development in the study of resilience. This commentary highlights how PASTOR can help both clarify critical questions in and benefit from engaging with new research in personality science on behavioral flexibility across situations in addition to stability over time, and also clarify the relationship between resilience and posttraumatic growth

Examining the functional utility of personal growth initiative in a war-affected Sri Lankan Tamil sample

The present study explored personal growth initiative (PGI;Robitschek, 1998)—the extent a person is motivated to and actively sets goals towards achieving self-improvement—and its relationship to functional impairment and life satisfaction among a war-affected Sri Lankan sample. 200 war-affected Tamil individuals in Sri Lanka completed measures of PGI, wartime experiences, functional impairment, and life satisfaction. Two hierarchical regressions were conducted examining current life satisfaction and degree of functional impairment. After controlling for depression and wartime experiences, PGI was positively associated with life satisfaction. However, no association was observed between PGI and reduced functional impairment. In contrast to other contexts of ethnopolitical violence, PGI was associated with subjective well-being, but not improved functioning. These results have implications for potential utilityof PGI across different contexts of ethnopolitical warfare

Psychopathology and languishing are distinct

Halls-Simmons and McGrath have proposed that character strengths can moderate the impact that clinical symptoms have on functioning. This notion is reasonable in light of existing evidence. Specifically, we provide secondary analyses from data first presented in Blackie, Jayawickreme, Forgeard, & Jayawickreme (2015) suggesting that character strengths can moderate the impact of psychopathology on functioning. We argue however that this conceptual work should only the first step in developing a comprehensive model of how flourishing can be promoted and languishing avoided

Personality science, resilience, and posttraumatic growth

PASTOR represents an innovative development in the study of resilience. This commentary highlights how PASTOR can help both clarify critical questions in and benefit from engaging with new research in personality science on behavioral flexibility across situations in addition to stability over time, and also clarify the relationship between resilience and posttraumatic growth

Examining within-person relationships between state assessments of affect and eudaimonic well-being using multi-level structural equation modeling

Prior research has highlighted the possibility that current affect may be interchangeable with state assessments of other dimensions of subjective well-being. In the present study, we conducted a systematic replication and extension by examining the relationship between state assessments of affect and eudaimonic well-being (meaning, core self-evaluation, authenticity, and gratitude) in a 14-day diary assessment (N = 207 with 2,147 assessments). We utilized multi-level structural equation modeling (ML-SEM) with affect as a time-varying covariate and found that the impact of affect for these outcomes was less consequential than for assessments of state satisfaction, and that the impact of positive affect on these dimensions was stronger than that of negative affect