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Emergency workers' cognitive appraisal and coping with traumatic events
Author(s) -
McCammon Susan,
Durham Thomas W.,
Jackson Allison E.,
Williamson Joseph E.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
journal of traumatic stress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.259
H-Index - 134
eISSN - 1573-6598
pISSN - 0894-9867
DOI - 10.1002/jts.2490010307
Subject(s) - coping (psychology) , cognitive appraisal , psychology , cognition , checklist , clinical psychology , interpersonal communication , poison control , social psychology , psychiatry , medicine , medical emergency , cognitive psychology
Police, fire, emergency medical and hospital personnel were surveyed following two disasters in the same county: An apartment building explosion followed 1 year later by a devastating tornado. They completed a symptom checklist, the Coping Inventory, and rated the extent of their support net‐works. Reported symptoms revealed clinically significant emotional effects postdisaster. More post‐traumatic symptoms were reported following the tornado. Coping theory emphasizing cognitive appraisal was used as the conceptual framework for studying reported adjustment strategies. Workers' comments illustrated the cognitive processes intervening between the emergency events and reactions to them. The most frequently endorsed coping strategies following both events involved attempts to reach cognitive mastery over the event and to ascertain meaning. Strategies of altering activities and finding new interests were not frequently endorsed. A greater number of coping responses were endorsed following the tornado along with strategies which involved seeking support from others. Factor analysis of Coping Inventory responses revealed four factors: seeking of meaning, regaining mastery through individual action, regaining mastery through interpersonal action, and philosophical self‐contemplation.