Abstract

Disruption of basic assumptions or schemes have been identified by Janoff-Bulman and others as the reason individuals who experience a traumatic event frequently develop pervasive and sometimes chronic symptomology. Changes in an individual's "world view" is thought to be associated with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms. The present study investigates the impact of violent crime on the relationship between the survivor's world view, intrusive/avoidant symptology and orientation toward his/her social network. Thirty individuals who had survived or witnessed a violent crime were interviewed and asked to complete several self-report measures including the World Assumption Scale, Network Orientation Scale, and the Impact of Events Scale. A median split was used to divide the subject pool into high and low scoring groups along the dimensions of world view and symptomology. Two ANOVA's were performed to test for the existence of subgroups and both were found to be significant $.$ A multiple regression using world view and network orientation to predict symptomology was not found to be significant. Visual inspection and Chi Square were used to identify significant subgroup differences. Chi Square revealed no significant differences. Limitations of this study and future directions for research are discussed