Lasting Chains or Lingering Threads?: Examining the emotional and linguistic consistency of trauma narratives and self descriptions - Softcover

Brady, Loretta

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3838307399 ISBN 13: 9783838307398

Publisher: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, 2009

Synopsis

Schemas are cognitive structures that develop through experience and process information throughout the lifespan. This study proposed that linguistic and emotion properties were indicative of schema processing and would be correlated in trauma and self narratives. An archived data set of 21 life history interviews originally collected in the mid- 1980?s from 13 European American and 8 African American women prisoners was used to examine the question. Statements relating to childhood trauma and adult self descriptions were isolated within original narratives and used as the basic unit of analysis. Correlations of values were then calculated between trauma and self statements to test whether similar patterns of response would be detected across statement type. Comparisons of the individual profile of emotion themes within self and trauma statements revealed that some consistent patterns of emotion were detected. Further analyses comparing these profiles to the behavioral content of life narratives suggests that tracking emotional and behavioral patterns across the life narrative may be useful in expanding schema detection.

About this title

About the Author

Loretta L.C. Brady is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH USA. She received her undergraduate degree in Psychology from Saint Anselm College in 1999 and received her Masters and Doctorate degrees in Clinical Psychology from Fordham University in Bronx New York USA in 2001 and 2006.

Edition details

• Publisher: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 3838307399
• ISBN 13: 9783838307398
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 148