How personalities, cultural identities can help process trauma
Alexa Brown is a senior psychology major whose research project is titled, “How Cultural Identity Moderates the Relationship Between Maladaptive Personality Traits and Post-Traumatic Growth Following Traumatic Experience.”
Brown conducts this research under the mentorship of Tyler Collette, assistant professor of psychology in the Radow College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Through the Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP), Brown investigates the connection between people’s personalities and their relationships with cultural identities to see if these variables influence their capability to overcome various types of traumas.
“I believe my research is important because as humans we will encounter adversity, difficulty, and varying levels of trauma,” Brown said. “There is evidence that shows that a strong sense of identity and community are crucial to being able to overcome any traumatic event.”
This project is building on the Anxiety Buffer Disruptions Theory (ABDT), which has shown that less of an ethnic identity can lead to worse PTSD symptoms as well as emotional avoidance.
“The methods that we use primarily consist of surveys," she said. "After we receive informed consent of the individuals, we administer these surveys which consist of demographic questions as well as socioeconomic questions and the PCL 5 which tests for their likelihood of having PTSD and the big five personality tests.”
The big five, as Brown refers to them, can be identified through the acronym OCEAN. O stands for openness, C stands for consciousness, E stands for extraversion, A stands for agreeableness, and N stands for neuroticism.
Brown has always been fascinated by the concept of personality and the impact it can have on different areas of a person’s life. She has found that by strengthening her relationship to her own cultural identity that facing difficulty has become easier.
Brown is planning to pursue her PhD in psychology following her graduation and hopes to further her research looking at the effects of social media on trauma.
