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The Undoing of Traumatic Life Events

University of British Columbia

Darrin R. Lehman

University of British Columbia

Camille B. Wortman

State University of New York at Stony Brook

Roxane Cohen Silver

University of California, Irvine

Suzanne C. Thompson

Pomona College and Claremont Graduate School

Counterfactuals generated by victims of traumatic events were examined to elucidate their significance for the coping process. In Study 1, respondents were interviewed 4-7 years after the loss of their spouse or child in a motor vehicle accident. In Study 2, respondents were interviewed at 3 weeks and 18 months following the death of their child from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Across both studies, (a) counterfactuals were commonly reported; (b) the focus of counterfactuals was typically on one's own (in)actions, rather than on the behavior of others; (c) the more frequently respondents were undoing the event, the more distress they reported; and (d) this relation held after controlling for more general ruminations. These field studies demonstrate that even in situations that lack the highly mutable circumstances described in scenario research, people coping with traumatic events appear unhindered in their ability to generate counterfactuals. Theoretical implications, with an emphasis on field studies of undoing, are discussed.

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