1. Culturally Congruent Conceptual Models of Military Psychological Trauma Ruth Stewart Graduate Centre for Applied Psychology
Introduction
Objectives
Methods
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an increasing and increasingly recognized problem among Canadian Forces members and veterans (Paré & Radford, 2013).
In designing intervention strategies for trauma, it is critical to understand the conceptual models of trauma that are culturally relevant to clients (e.g., Nichter, 2010).
Collectivist cultural identities may be particularly at odds with the dominant disease model that primarily locates post-traumatic suffering within the individual (e.g., Jobson, 2009).
The Canadian military represents a unique and deeply collectivist culture drawn from, and created to serve, the security needs of a predominantly individualist society (e.g., Irwin, 2002).
To investigate the cultural conceptual models of psychological trauma and recovery utilized by Canadian military and veterans.
To assist therapists working with military clients and veterans to alliance-building and intervention strategies to maximize the chance of therapeutic success and minimize dropout.
To assist civilian therapists to understand their position within the military discourse of trauma and recovery.
To expand current understanding of the complexities of psychological trauma.
Phase one is a grounded theory discourse analysis of minimal risk secondary data from publicly available social media sites created and frequented by military veterans recovering from PTSD.
Phase two will solicit and incorporate interview data and will effectively represent theoretical sampling guided by the first phase.
I have chosen situational analysis, a social constructionist version of grounded theory (Clarke, 2005). This approach is particularly well suited to the task of extracting cultural discourses that are easily overlooked alongside dominant narratives.
Clarke, A. E. (2005). Situational analysis: Grounded theory after the postmodern turn. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Irwin, A. (2002). The social organization of soldiering: A Canadian infantry company in the field [PhD Thesis]. Retrieved from
Jobson, L. (2009). Drawing current posttraumatic stress disorder models into the cultural sphere: The development of the 'threat to the conceptual self' model. Clinical Psychology Review, 29, doi: /j.cpr
Nichter, M. (2010). Idioms of distress revisited. Culture, Medicine & Psychiatry, 34, doi: /s
Paré, J.-R., & Radford, M. (2013, October 1). Current issues in mental health in Canada: Mental health in the Canadian Forces and among veterans [Publication No E]. Retrieved from