Date of Completion

Spring 5-1-2022

Thesis Advisor(s)

Crystal Park

Honors Major

Psychological Sciences

Disciplines

Clinical Psychology | Health Psychology | Psychology | Social and Behavioral Sciences | Social Psychology

Abstract

Past research in the literature of the self has considered the influence of potentially traumatic or adverse events. In this study, we aim to explore this relationship among undergraduate students utilizing various measures of self-concept including global self-worth, self-concept clarity and domain specific measures of self-perception. Various measures were administered to 308 participants that aimed to determine the instances of potentially traumatic events experienced and the subjective level of distress, in addition to the self-concept measures of global self-worth, self-concept clarity and the domain specific measures of self-perception including self-fulfillment, autonomy, and emotional self-adjustment. The results reveal that global self-worth was related to both instances of potentially traumatic events and subjective level of distress, while self-concept clarity only predicted the instances of potentially traumatic events. In terms of domain specific self-perception, emotional self-adjustment, but not self-fulfillment nor autonomy predicted either conceptualization of trauma or adversity. The discussion centers on how individual appraisals of self-concept play a role in the experience of traumatic events and how clinical implications can result in increased psychological wellbeing and functioning.

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