Traumatology

The association between attachment styles and emotional responses to traumatic memories was examined among 153 Palestinian former political prisoners. Self-report tools revealing adult attachment and intensity and valence of emotional responses were applied. As hypothesized, a high intensity of cognitive appraisal and a low intensity of affective responses characterized the emotional profile of insecure-dismissing men. By contrast, the emotional profile of insecure-preoccupied men was characterized by low cognitive and high affective responses, and intensive behavioral urge to act. Secure men in turn had a moderate and balanced emotional profile involving both cognitive and affective responses. In accordance with the activation hypothesis, when exposed to a high level of torture and ill-treatment, the insecure-preoccupied men showed especially intensive affective and behavioral responses. Contrary to the hypothesis, the insecure-dismissing men showed high-intensive cognitive and low-intensive affective responses independently of the severity of the trauma exposure.

Two Israeli samples were used to survey reactions to ongoing terror attacks in the country. One group lived in an area that had experienced terror attacks while another lived under the same threat of terror, but in an area that had not experienced any local attacks. While both groups were similar in stress symptoms among adults, the group that experienced more terror attacks in their city showed markedly higher levels of perceived stress in their children’s behavior. They also were less involved in proactive activities related to coping. The results may serve as models for further study related to the effects of ongoing terror threats.

Eye-movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) has been widely supported in the literature for its effectiveness in treating Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and a variety of other diagnoses and symptoms. The variable findings regarding whether its effects are for reasons unique to this treatment, however, have become the focus of extensive discussion and debate. The following article reviews the studies targeting this question, and proceeds to consider why these studies’ findings, and other findings in the EMDR literature, vary so vastly. Implications of the EMDR controversy for the process of psychological research at large are considered.