Lee Min Hyung, Raitt Josh, Hong Barry A, Diduck Alexandra, Nguyen Anna Marie Thi Thanh, Villareal Ariel, Moden Michaela, Turner Brittany, North Carol S, Pollio David E
Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas at Southwestern.
The Altshuler Center for Education and Research, Metrocare Services.
Traumatology (Tallahass Fla). 2022 Jun;28(2):202-210. doi: 10.1037/trm0000326. Epub 2021 Oct 21.
Survivors of disasters can be expected to form meaningful perspectives on their experiences that shape their trajectories of recovery; thus, these perspectives are important to study. If humans are naturally compelled to create meaning from traumatic experiences, the creation of meaning should be evident in survivors' discussion of the effects of the disaster in their lives. Therefore, the purpose of this study of highly trauma-exposed disaster survivors was to identify meaningful aspects or outcomes of their disaster experiences in their perspectives. This study examined a random sample (N=182) of survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing six months after the disaster using open-ended questions. Text responses (N=650) were compiled, themes identified by multiple coders, responses coded into the themes, interrater reliability established, and the themes were then interpreted. Six themes were identified and grouped into three general categories: personal aspirations (reprioritizing life and altruism and self-improvement), connection with others (a freestanding category/theme), and making meaning (appreciation for life, religion and spirituality, and contemplating life, death, and humanity), which contained the majority of the responses. The findings from this study affirm the human need to make meaning from the experience of a traumatic disaster and suggest the potential relevance to survivors' recovery of therapies based on the creation of meaning and the promotion of positive growth.
可以预期，灾难幸存者会对自己的经历形成有意义的观点，这些观点会塑造他们的恢复轨迹；因此，研究这些观点很重要。如果人类天生就有从创伤经历中创造意义的倾向，那么在幸存者讨论灾难对他们生活的影响时，创造意义应该是显而易见的。因此，这项针对遭受高度创伤的灾难幸存者的研究目的是，从他们的观点中找出其灾难经历中有意义的方面或结果。本研究在灾难发生六个月后，使用开放式问题对俄克拉荷马城爆炸案的幸存者进行了随机抽样（N = 182）。收集了文本回复（N = 650），由多名编码员确定主题，将回复编码到主题中，建立了评分者间信度，然后对主题进行了解释。确定了六个主题，并分为三个一般类别：个人抱负（重新确定生活优先级、利他主义和自我提升）、与他人的联系（一个独立的类别/主题）以及赋予意义（对生活的感激、宗教和灵性，以及思考生命、死亡和人性），这些主题包含了大部分回复。本研究的结果证实了人类从创伤性灾难经历中创造意义的需求，并表明基于创造意义和促进积极成长的疗法对幸存者恢复可能具有相关性。
