Are predictions and perceptions of post-traumatic growth a form of ultimate justice reasoning?. Issue 4 (July 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Harvey, Annelie J; Blackie, Laura ER
• Other Names: ER Blackie Laura guest-editor.; Jayawickreme Eranda guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: European journal of personality. Volume 36:Issue 4(2022)
• Page Start: 443
• Page End: 465
• Publication Date: 2022-07
• Subjects: post-traumatic growth -- ultimate justice reasoning -- deservingness -- deliberative rumination -- belief in a just world; Personality -- Periodicals; 155.2
• DOI: 10.1177/08902070211014030
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0890-2070

Abstract

Researchers have questioned whether self-report questionnaires adequately assess post-traumatic growth as it was theorized (positive personality change after trauma), versus assessing a broader coping mechanism. Across four studies, we examine whether individuals report post-traumatic growth as a coping mechanism to restore a sense of justice. In Studies 1 and 2, participants predicted greater post-traumatic growth for a hypothetical victim after a severe accident that caused grave suffering (and disrupted one's belief in a just world), compared to an accident that caused minimal suffering (and did not disrupt one's belief in a just world). Both perceptions of deservingness of post-traumatic growth for the victim (a belief in a just world mechanism) and engagement in deliberative rumination (a post-traumatic growth mechanism) mediated the effect of suffering on the prediction of post-traumatic growth in Study 2. The same pattern of results held when participants considered their own imagined suffering (Study 3), and when participants reported post-traumatic growth from distressing events in their own lives (Study 4). As such, we conclude that following an episode of suffering, either occurring to another or to oneself, self-reports of post-traumatic growth on questionnaires can reflect two distinct motivations: (1) an attempt to cope with perceived injustices and (2) the will to search for meaning in one's suffering.