Can people experience posttraumatic growth after committing violent acts?
Abstract
The concept of post-traumatic growth refers to the positive psychological changes that some people experience as a result of their struggle with highly stressful and often traumatic circumstances. Research into post-traumatic growth has typically focused on survivors of violent victimization or other uncontrollable and tragic circumstances. However, emerging research into service members in the armed forces has shown that post-traumatic growth can also occur in this population. We synthesize existing research to propose a preliminary model outlining the psychosocial processes that may facilitate post-traumatic growth among people who have perpetrated acts of violence. We end by discussing some of the important questions that future theoretical and empirical work will need to address.
Citation
Blackie , L E R , Roepke , A M , Hitchcott , N & Joseph , S 2016 , ' Can people experience posttraumatic growth after committing violent acts? ' , Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology , vol. 22 , no. 4 , pp. 409-412 . https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000218
Publication
Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1078-1919Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2016 American Psychological Association. This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record. The final published version of this work is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pac0000218
Description
This publication was made possible through the support of a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council UK (AH/M004155/1).Collections
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