Date of Award

2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Graham, Steven

Keywords

Disclosure, Sexual Assault, Post-Tramatic Stress Disorder

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

Diverted disclosure, a common response to sexual assault disclosure, involves initially listening to the survivor confide that the assault occurred, but soon after distracting or discouraging the survivor from discussing the experience. The present study investigated the impact of diverted disclosure on cognitive processing about a distressing experience. It was predicted that disclosure would enhance cognitive processing, but that a diverting response from the listener would mitigate this effect. To induce negative affect, undergraduate students (n=24) initially viewed an art show dealing with personal experiences of sexual assault. Disclosure conditions were determined by a 2 X 2 design: participants either disclosed or spoke about an unrelated topic to a confederate, who either diverted the conversation or allowed full discussion. The extent of cognitive processing was determined by the overall proportion of words related to cognition in a written narrative of the art show experience. Scores on a standard measure of affect revealed a significant increase in negative emotion from baseline to post-show. Diverting disclosure did not impact the extent of cognitive processing. Applications to sexual assault and PTSD, and limitations of the experimental design are discussed.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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