Meaning Making and Growth: New Directions for Research on Survivors of Trauma

Abstract

The meaning-making framework of trauma and recovery is presented. The following specific topics are discussed: (a) the meaning-making coping framework and the processes of meaning that typically occur following traumatic encounters; (b) empirical support for the meaning-making model; (c) the possibility that growth may result from this making of meaning; (d) methodologies for examining meaning making, including both quantitative and qualitative research; and (e) clinical implications of the meaning-making framework.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Crystal L. Park

Crystal L. Park is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut. She has published articles on the roles of religious beliefs and religious coping in response to stressful life events, the phenomenon of stress-related growth, and people's attempts to find meaning in or create meaning out of negative life events. Dr. Park has developed a comprehensive model of meaning and meaning making, and is applying this model to a variety of health-related problems, including cancer and heart disease. She is co-editor, with Raymond Paloutzian, of the recently published Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality (Guilford Press, 2005), and is currently editing a book on positive life changes following serious medical illness.

Amy L. AI

Amy L. Ai, PhD is an associate professor at the University of Washington Health Sciences and an affiliated interdisciplinary researcher at the Division of Cardiac Surgery, University of Michigan Health System. Funded by the NIH and foundations, her research focuses on an integrative perspective concerning spirituality, positive psychology, gerontology, and mind-body medicine. Her major research on patients undergoing open-heart surgery suggests the nuanced and complicated faith effects on health-related outcomes and underlying mechanisms. Her other areas include the role of faith factors in coping with major life crises such as war, terrorism, and disasters. She is currently an international advisor of a major cardiac study in Germany, funded by the German Scientific Research Foundation.