Undivided trauma in a divided Cyprus: Modified emotional Stroop study

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Trauma Studies

Background:

• Cypriots, irrespective of ethnicity, experience psychological distress, including anxiety and trauma symptoms, stemming from the wars in Cyprus (1963, 1974).
• The Emotional Stroop Task is a validated method for assessing Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and its effects on executive functions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the presence of subliminal war-related trauma in Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities.
• To determine if traumatic stress from the Cyprus wars influences information processing, specifically through attentional bias towards war-related stimuli.

Main Methods:

• Development of two versions of the modified emotional Stroop task for Cyprus (MEST-CY) in Greek and Turkish.
• Inclusion of neutral and war-specific words relevant to each community.
• Administration of the MEST-CY to 111 participants (56 Turkish Cypriots, 55 Greek Cypriots).

Main Results:

• Participants from both ethnic groups demonstrated significantly longer response latencies (indicating interference) when processing war-related words compared to neutral words.
• This interference pattern suggests an attentional bias towards trauma-specific stimuli.

Conclusions:

• This research provides the first empirical evidence of war-specific emotional trauma and cognitive alterations in both Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities.
• The MEST-CY is proposed as a valuable tool for assessing war-related PTSD and for use in intervention studies.
• The findings highlight the enduring psychological impact of the Cyprus conflicts on its population.