From Shattered Assumptions to Weakened Worldviews: Trauma Symptoms Signal Anxiety Buffer Disruption

Abstract

The fundamental assertion of worldview-based models of posttraumatic stress disorder is that trauma symptoms result when traumatic experiences cannot be readily assimilated into previously held worldviews. In two studies, we test the anxiety buffer disruption hypothesis, which states that trauma symptoms result from the disruption of normal death anxiety-buffering functions of worldview. In Study 1, participants with trauma symptoms greater than the cutoff for PTSD evinced greater death-thought accessibility than those with sub-clinical or negligible symptoms after a reminder of death. In Study 2, participants with clinically significant trauma symptoms showed no evidence of worldview defense though death-thoughts were accessible. These results support the anxiety buffer disruption hypothesis, and suggest an entirely new approach to experimental PTSD research.

Keywords: PTSD; anxiety buffer; death; shattered assumptions; terror management; trauma.

Figure 1

Figure 1a-b. Mean number of death words completed in the delay and distraction (a) and no delay (b) conditions. Figure components that share a superscript do not significantly differ from one another. Those with different subscripts differ significantly from one another. Bracketed components with an equality sign do not differ significantly from one another.

Figure 2

Figure 2a-b. Mean number of death words completed in the neutral self-esteem (a) and self-esteem boost (b) conditions. Figure components that share a superscript do not significantly differ from one another. Those with different subscripts differ significantly from one another. Bracketed components with an equality sign do not differ significantly from one another.