In a recent study, MICCN PhD student Jessica Bernardi and team discovered that culture has an impact on the cognitive appraisals that are central to the development, maintenance, and treatment of PTSD.
Full Answer
How do cultural differences affect PTSD?
In particular, the cultural differences related to self-understanding influence how individuals appraise experiences in terms of agency, control, mental defeat, and negative independent appraisals of self – appraisals all central to PTSD.
How does PTSD affect the family?
Because PTSD and other trauma reactions change how a trauma survivor feels and acts, traumatic experiences that happen to one member of a family can affect everyone else in the family. When trauma reactions are severe and go on for some time without treatment, they can cause major problems in a family.
Can a child be affected by post traumatic stress disorder?
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder in Children. However, sometimes children who experience severe stress, such as from an injury, from the death or threatened death of a close family member or friend, or from violence, will be affected long-term. The child could experience this trauma directly or could witness it happening to someone else.
Does culture influence appraisals in posttraumatic stress disorder?
Appraisals play a central role in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Accumulating cross-cultural psychology research has demonstrated that culture affects the way in which individuals appraise an experience. However, there is little empirical work considering the influence of culture on appraisals in PTSD.
What are the implications of cultural variation on the treatment of PTSD?
Studies have indicated that cultural variability plays a role in the consolidation and retrieval of trauma memories in PTSD (Jobson, 2009). For example, Jobson and Dalgleish (2014) found that the more the trauma memory reflected culturally appropriate remembering, the fewer the number of intrusions.
What are the cultural and social issues of PTSD?
1. Culture, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and disability are potential sources of resilience, but they also may lead to chronic stressors such as social stigma, discrimination and oppression which increase psychological trauma and PTSD. 2. 3.
How does trauma affect culture?
The effects of the traumas inflicted on groups of people because of their race, creed, and ethnicity linger on the souls of their descendants. As a result, many people in these same communities experience higher rates of mental and physical illness, substance abuse, and erosion in families and community structures.
How does culture affect childhood trauma?
Culture shapes the way individuals experience childhood and how they raise their children. Behaviors that are considered abusive in one culture, such as corporal punishment or harsh verbal discipline, may be considered acceptable in another.
What are some examples of cultural trauma?
include hostages, prisoners of war, concentration- camp survivors, and survivors of some religious cults. Examples also include those subjected to totalitarian systems in sexual and domestic life, including survivors of domestic battering, childhood physical or sexual abuse, and organized sexual exploitation.
What is meant by cultural trauma?
Abstract. Cultural trauma occurs when members of a collectivity feel they have been subjected to a horrendous event that leaves indelible marks upon their group consciousness, marking their memories forever and changing their future identity in fundamental and irrevocable ways.
How might cultural practices help an individual overcome trauma?
The people are readily able to identify and speak to their traumas as a personal and cultural experience—they can sit peacefully with a non-judgmental common understanding. This ability to feel a sense of belonging assists greatly in healing from these traumas.
How does culture affect healing?
Cultural practices and traditions serve many purposes. Often these traditions not only help define a community, they help create a community. They also have healing qualities in that they help us make connections within ourselves, to feel a sense of belonging and to strengthen a sense of identity and purpose.
How does diversity affect the experience of trauma?
Culture, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and disability are potential sources of resilience, but they also may lead to chronic stressors such as social stigma, discrimination, and oppression, which can increase psychological trauma and PTSD.
What is culturally responsiveness?
Cultural responsiveness requires individuals be cultural competent. This competency is having an awareness of one's own cultural identity and views about difference, and the ability to learn and build on the varying cultural and community norms of students and their families.
What is culturally informed therapy?
Culturally sensitive therapy emphasizes the therapist's understanding of a client's background, ethnicity, and belief system. Therapists can incorporate cultural sensitivity into their work to accommodate and respect differences in opinions, values, and attitudes of various cultures and different types of people.