Out of the Storm

Resources => General Resources => Web Sites, Support Groups & Organizations => Topic started by: BeHea1thy on July 09, 2019, 04:16:15 AM

Title: Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory (PTCI)
Post by: BeHea1thy on July 09, 2019, 04:16:15 AM
E.B. Foa, A. Ehlers, D.M. Clark, D.F. Tolin, S.M Orsillo (1999). The Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory (PTCI): Development and Validation. Psychological Assessment, Vol 11, No. 3, 303-314

This was posted on a site called Fort Refuge, which I thought was worth a look. I've taken the assessment and it appears accurate to me.

http://www.fortrefuge.com/quiz-PTCI.php (http://www.fortrefuge.com/quiz-PTCI.php)

Amended for additions August 5, 2019

For those who take this test, your overall score will be accompanied by various measures:
The first is "your score"
the second is "no trauma" Average scores of people who have not experienced trauma
the third is "trauma (without PTSD) average scores of people who have experienced trauma but did not develop persistent PTSD
the last is "PTSD" average scores of people who have experienced trauma and developed PTSD
These are interesting comparisons and may be helpful to you.

In my case, three areas were set out for review: Negative Cognitions About Self, Negative Cognitions About the World and Self Blame.

The assessment concludes with a theory summary.

Foa and colleagues discovered that people who don't develop PTSD when their views about the world and themselves are flexible; they are able to see trauma as a unique experience that does not have broad implications for the nature of the world and the nature of their ability to cope with it.

On the contrary, people who's views are rigid and black-and-white-either that the world is totally safe and they are totally competent at handling it, or that the world is totally dangerous and they are totally incapable of surviving in it-these people develop PTSD. Because if you think that the world is dangerous and you are incapable of managing it-trauma only reinforces this belief. And if you think that the world is extra safe and you are extra competent at navigating it-trauma shatters your views entirely and you rebuild them from scratch based on the traumatic experience alone. In both cases, you end up generalizing, assuming there is a single event (trauma) means that the whole world is unsafe and/or you are incapable of handling it. And this type of thinking makes you vulnerable to PTSD.

Additionally, persistence of PTSD depends on how you see the impact of trauma and its consequences on your future. People who recover quickly see trauma as a time-limited, terrible experience that does not necessarily mean that the future is ruined because of it and bad things will be happening from now on. They may also be able to find some element of personal growth in it.

While people who develop persistent PTSD are characterized excessively by an excessively negative view of the event, its consequences, or both. These views maintain PTSD by producing a sense of current threat, that is accompanied by intrusion, arousal and strong emotions such as anxiety, anger, shame or sadness. These negative views also prompt a series of dysfunctional cognitive and behavioral responses that have the short term aim of reducing distress, but have the long-term consequence of preventing cognitive change and therefore maintaining the disorder.

BeHea1thy's NOTE: This assessment is not specific to complex-PTSD, which typically begins in childhood when the means to form a world view is limited. This information may or may not be relevant or helpful to you specifically. As I continue to educate myself about professionals who have contributed to the field of trauma studies, each one offers something the previous researchers have not.