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. 2020 Nov 26;11(1):1834179.
doi: 10.1080/20008198.2020.1834179.

How am I doing compared to different standards? Comparative thinking and well-being following exposure to a vehicle-ramming attack

Nexhmedin Morina  1
Affiliations

How am I doing compared to different standards? Comparative thinking and well-being following exposure to a vehicle-ramming attack

Nexhmedin Morina. Eur J Psychotraumatol. .

Abstract
in English, Spanish, Chinese

Background: Exposure to potentially adverse events might intensify thinking about different comparison standards in relation to one's own well-being. Objective: To examine how frequently survivors of a recent potentially traumatic event use different comparison standards to evaluate their current well-being. Method: A survey with 223 participants directly or indirectly exposed to a vehicle-ramming attack was conducted. Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, quality of life, and the sum score of the frequency of different types of comparison standards were assessed. The latter consisted of temporal, counterfactual, social, dimensional, and criteria-based comparisons. Results: In total, 98% of participants reported some form of comparative thinking during the last two weeks. The most frequent comparison types were temporal and dimensional comparisons, with 94 and 87% of participants reporting them, respectively. Notably, comparative thinking predicted unique variance in PTSD symptoms, over and above depressive symptoms. Conclusion: The results suggest that comparative thinking may be a significant factor in understanding psychological distress following exposure to aversive events. Replication of the results in larger samples and using longitudinal and experimental designs is clearly necessary.

Antecedentes: La exposición a eventos potencialmente adversos puede aumentar el pensar en distintos estándares valorativos en relación con el propio bienestar.Objetivos: Evaluar la frecuencia con la que los sobrevivientes de un evento potencialmente traumático emplean diferentes estándares valorativos para evaluar su propio bienestar.Métodos: Se realizó una encuesta de 223 participantes que estuvieron directa o indirectamente expuestos a algún ataque por atropello deliberado. Se evaluaron los síntomas del trastorno de estrés postraumático (TEPT) y de la depresión, la calidad de vida y el puntaje final de la frecuencia de diferentes estándares valorativos. Estas incluían a comparaciones basadas en criterios temporales, contrafácticos, sociales y dimensionales.Resultados: En total, el 98% de los participantes reportó algún tipo de pensamiento comparativo en las últimas dos semanas. Los tipos de comparación más frecuente fueron los temporales y los dimensionales, reportados en un 94% y en un 87%, respectivamente, por los participantes. El pensamiento comparativo predecía una varianza única en los síntomas del TEPT de una manera considerable y mucho mayor que los síntomas depresivos.Conclusiones: Los resultados sugieren que el pensamiento comparativo podría ser un factor significativo para comprender el distrés psicológico luego de la exposición a eventos aversivos. Resulta claramente necesario el replicar los resultados en muestras más amplias y empleando diseños longitudinales y experimentales.

背景: 暴露于潜在不良事件可能会加剧人们对自己身心健康相关的不同比较标准的思考。目的: 考查最近一次潜在创伤事件的幸存者使用不同比较标准评估他们目前身心健康状况的频率。方法: 对223名直接或间接遭受撞车袭击的参与者进行了调查。评估了创伤后应激障碍 (PTSD) 和抑郁症状, 生活质量以及不同类型比较标准频率总分。后者包括时间, 反事实, 社会, 维度和基于标准的比较。结果: 在过去的两周中, 总计98％的参与者报告了某种形式的比较思维。最频繁的比较类型是时间和维度比较, 分别有94％和87％的参与者报告。值得注意的是, 比较思维预测了除抑郁症状外, PTSD症状的独特变异。结论: 研究结果表明, 比较思维可能是理解暴露于厌恶事件后心理困扰的重要因素。在更大的样本中重复结果并使用纵向和实验设计显然是必要的。.

Keywords: Comparison standards; PTSD; comparative thinking; counterfactual; depression; well-being.

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Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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