Cognitive Complexity and Construct Extremity in Social and Life Event Construing in Persons with Varied Trauma History Page: 7
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Participants included 81 college students who completed Linville's measure of self-
complexity (1985), ratings of family vignettes, a measure of family functioning, and the
Child Abuse Trauma Scale (CATS; Sanders & Becker-Lausen, 1995). The authors
tested four hypotheses. First, it was hypothesized that cognitive complexity would be
higher in family domains in which participants had more experience. More specifically, it
was predicted that participants from abusive families would show more complexity when
describing an abusive family situation. Second, it was hypothesized that participants
who were recipients of abuse would have lower levels of self-complexity due to more
constricted experiences in their family. Third, participants were expected to show higher
levels of extremity in those domains in which they were hypothesized to have lower
levels of complexity. Finally, family characteristics associated with abuse were
hypothesized to be predictive of complexity. Results did not support the first, second, or
fourth hypotheses; abused and non-abused participants did not differ in their levels of
selfcomplexity and family characteristics associated with abuse did not predict
complexity. This contradicts the hypothesis that an abusive family experience would
lead to lower self-complexity. The authors warn that, due to their findings, assuming that
abusive experiences limit cognitive complexity may be a mistake. Erbes and Harter
(1999) attributed their results, in part, to their use of a college, and therefore, likely high-
functioning, sample.
Cason (2001) used social repertory grids to examine self-complexity and
posttraumatic stress disorder. Cason (2001) noted that higher self-complexity scores
have been associated with improved functioning after traumatic life events. Cason's
(2001) study examined the relation between self-complexity and posttraumatic
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Shafenberg, Stacey. Cognitive Complexity and Construct Extremity in Social and Life Event Construing in Persons with Varied Trauma History, thesis, December 2006; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc5433/m1/11/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .