The Role of Social Support Seeking and Social Constraints on Psychological Outcomes After Trauma: A Social Cognitive Theory Perspective

dc.contributor.authorDonlon, Katharineen
dc.contributor.committeechairJones, Russell T.en
dc.contributor.committeememberAxsom, Danny K.en
dc.contributor.committeememberHughes, Michael D.en
dc.contributor.departmentPsychologyen
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-14T21:36:16Zen
dc.date.adate2012-07-11en
dc.date.available2014-03-14T21:36:16Zen
dc.date.issued2012-05-02en
dc.date.rdate2012-07-11en
dc.date.sdate2012-05-16en
dc.description.abstractSocial Cognitive Theory (SCT) posits that survivors of a traumatic event have the ability to influence their own outcomes and do so most aptly when they perceive they can exert control over their outcomes. Posttraumatic growth outcomes are associated with a greater perception of controllability, while posttraumatic stress outcomes can be related to the lack of perceived control. In the context of the Virginia Tech shootings, several social factors were examined three months after the trauma (T1) and one year later (T2) to further explore the dynamic interplay between these factors and psychological outcomes. Social support seeking was conceptualized as both a coping strategy (situational) and as a coping style (dispositional) and was hypothesized to predict greater growth outcomes, while social constraints were hypothesized to predict higher levels of posttraumatic stress outcomes. These variables were also examined as moderators of the relationship between perceived threat and psychological outcomes at both time points. As expected, dispositional social support seeking was negatively related to posttraumatic stress at T1, and positively related to posttraumatic growth at T1 and T2. Social constraints were positively related to posttraumatic stress at T1 and negatively related to posttraumatic growth at T1 and T2. Situational social support seeking served as a moderator for the relationship between perceived threat and posttraumatic stress at T1. Lower levels of situational social support seeking lessened the relationship between perceived threat and posttraumatic stress, while high levels of situational social support seeking exacerbated this relationship.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Scienceen
dc.identifier.otheretd-05162012-152923en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-05162012-152923/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/42688en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.haspartDonlon_K_A_2012_6.pdfen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectsocial constraintsen
dc.subjectsocial support seekingen
dc.subjectmass shootingsen
dc.subjectposttraumatic stressen
dc.subjectposttraumatic growthen
dc.titleThe Role of Social Support Seeking and Social Constraints on Psychological Outcomes After Trauma: A Social Cognitive Theory Perspectiveen
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplinePsychologyen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Donlon_K_A_2012_6.pdf
Size:
530.3 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format

Collections