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Attitudes towards emotional expression and post‐traumatic stress in survivors of the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster
Author(s) -
Joseph Stephen,
Dalgleish Tim,
Williams Ruth,
Yule William,
Thrasher Sian,
Hodgkinson Peter
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
british journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.479
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8260
pISSN - 0144-6657
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8260.1997.tb01236.x
Subject(s) - learned helplessness , psychology , emotional expression , intervention (counseling) , weakness , clinical psychology , expression (computer science) , emotional reaction , developmental psychology , psychiatry , social psychology , medicine , surgery , computer science , programming language
The relationship between self‐reported attitudes towards emotional expression, assessed at three years after the accident, and post‐traumatic symptoms, assessed at five years after the accident, was investigated in 37 survivors of the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster. It was found that lower scores on the attitudes towards emotional expression scale, indicating more negative attitudes (e.g. ‘I think getting emotional is a sign of weakness’) were associated with higher symptom scores. This association remained even when retrospectively assessed perceptions of helplessness during the disaster and symptoms assessed at three years were partialled out. Implications for therapeutic intervention are discussed.