Second semester undergraduate member, Emilee, recently gave her presentation on the article titled Crushing Hope: Short Term Responses to Tragedy Vary by Hopefulness published by Jason Fletcher in 2018. The article examines the relationship between optimism or hopefulness and experiences of trauma using a previous study’s sample of students from 1995. The study, ADD health, was administered through surveys in different waves from 1995 up until 2008. Given that the study coincided with the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001, Fletcher determined if participants experienced a traumatic event based on whether or not they took their survey before or after 9/11/2001. Fletcher hypothesized that individuals with high levels of hopefulness will: 1.) be less likely to cope with trauma and 2.) experience higher levels of depressive symptoms after a traumatic event. Results showed a large impact on participants exposed to 9/11 only for those who reported “a lot” and “always” levels of hopefulness, supporting the hypothesis.
In addition to her analysis of the article, Emilee’s presentation covered a set of hypotheses she prepared for her Honors College Thesis regarding a similar idea on the topic of resilience and the possible detrimental effects it may have on individuals. In her future analysis, Emilee predicts that participants who are highly resilient will report a lower probability of negative life events happening to themselves – the reverse being true when evaluating a hypothetical other person experiencing the same event. Great work Emilee, we are looking forward to your future findings!
FF-PTG LAB 