‘Concrete processing’ could protect individuals from PTSD symptoms
According to a study from King’s College London and Oxford University, people who are exposed to trauma can train themselves to think differently and potentially protect themselves from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms.
Clinical psychologists Rachel White and Jennifer wild wanted to find out whether intrusive memories, one of the core symptoms of PTSD, could be reduced by a new way of thinking about situations.
“Concrete processing is focusing on how a situation is unfolding, what is being experienced and what the next steps are. It differs from abstract processing, which is concerned with analyzing why something is happening, its implications, and asking ‘what if’ questions with no obvious answer,” White explained.
She also said that a previous research has shown that emergency workers who practiced the abstract processing approach showed poorer coping. In another study, they compared the abstract and concrete processing of negative events. The results showed that the abstract thinkers experienced a longer period of low mood.
“If we consider groups more at risk of PTSD, like military personnel, emergency workers or journalists in conflict zones, they are all groups known to be likely to experience traumatic events. This means they have the opportunity to train themselves in strategies that might protect them from the ill effects. For that reason, we wanted to test whether training people to adopt a concrete processing approach could be one such strategy,” according to Wild.
They split a group of 50 volunteers into two and asked them to rate their mood. A film with traumatic scenes was shown to them and they were asked to rate feelings, such as distress and horror. They were then asked to watch a set of six other films plus a final film. The first group was asked to consider abstract questions, such as why such situations happened. The second group was asked to consider concrete questions, such as what they could see and hear and what needed to be done from that point.
The volunteers were given a diary to record intrusive memories of anything they had seen in the films for the next week. The mood of both groups declined but those who practiced concrete thinking were less affected than those who practiced abstract thinking. They experienced less intense feelings of distress and horror while watching the film. The abstract thinkers also experienced nearly twice as many intrusive memories in the following week compared to the concrete thinkers.
“This study is the first to show empirically that the way we think about trauma could affect our memories of it. Further study is now needed, with people who have experienced real-life trauma and to confirm that this can be applied in groups who regularly experience trauma, like emergency workers. This could be the basis for training to improve people’s resilience in the face of expected traumatic experiences,” Wild said.
Source: University of Oxford
