Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

4939

Date

2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Psychology

Concentration

General Psychology

Committee Chair

Robert Neimeyer

Committee Member

Meghan McDevitt-Murphy

Committee Member

Robert Cohen

Committee Member

Jeffrey Berman

Abstract

The centrality of a loss to a bereaved individual's identity is associated with greater symptomatology, whereas meaning made of a loss is associated with positive outcomes. This paper examines meaning made as a moderator of the relationship between event centrality and symptomatology. Our sample consisted of 204 bereaved undergraduate university students. Centrality was assessed using the Centrality of Events Scale (CES), meaning made was assessed using the Integration of Stressful Life Experiences Scale (ISLES), and symptomatology was assessed using the PTSD Checklist-Civilian (PCL-C) and Inventory of Complicated Grief-Revised (ICG-R). Meaning made had a significant moderating effect on the relationship between centrality and both measures of symptomatology. At lower levels of meaning made, centrality had a strong and positive association with symptomatology; at high levels of meaning made, this association became weaker. These results suggest that meaning made is key to understanding how centrality affects bereavement outcomes.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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