Cognitive Complexity and Construct Extremity in Social and Life Event Construing in Persons with Varied Trauma History Page: 4

                                
Complexity
One important piece of information that repertory grids provide about an
individual is cognitive complexity. Cognitive complexity might best be described as how
multifaceted one sees the domain being construed (people, events, etc.). Cognitive
complexity refers to the degree of intricacy involved in making assumptions about the
world. For example, if one has high cognitive complexity, several different constructs
might be applied in several different contexts. Low cognitive complexity implies that one
uses few constructs, or several constructs that are similar in nature, to describe and
predict the world.
Sewell et al. (1996) examined complexity by assessing construct elaboration of
Vietnam combat veterans. Elaboration refers to how well a construct "fits" into the
person's overall construct system. For example, according to constructivist theory, an
individual feels anxiety when an experience or event does not fit into his or her construct
system (Kelly, 1955). The event that does not seem to have a place within the
individual's construct system might be construed via one or more constructs that are
isolated, or unelaborated, in relation to other constructs. The constructivist model of
PTSD (Sewell & Cromwell, 1990) posits that individuals with less elaborate construct
systems are more likely to experience anxiety symptoms related to past traumas. The
study included 60 Vietnam combat veterans, 30 of who were diagnosed with PTSD and
30 veterans who had combat experience but were not diagnosed with PTSD. Sewell et
al. (1996) compared life events repertory grids (LERGs) of the PTSD group and the
non-PTSD group, who served as the control group. It was hypothesized that the
construction of traumatic events would be less elaborated for the PTSD group than for

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