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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 1, 2025

Use of a Psychophysiological Script-driven Imagery Experiment to Study Trauma-related Dissociation in Borderline Personality Disorder
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Trauma exposure and short-term volitional personality trait change.

Laura E R Blackie1, Nathan W Hudson2

  • 1School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.

Journal of Personality
|August 12, 2022
PubMed
Summary

Post-traumatic growth (PTG) was operationalized as positive personality change. Recent trauma exposure did not consistently lead to PTG, with some traits declining, and social support benefits limited to controls.

Keywords:
personality changepositive trait changeposttraumatic growthtraumavolitional personality change

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Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Trauma Studies
  • Personality Science

Background:

  • Post-traumatic growth (PTG) is characterized by positive changes in identity, relationships, and worldviews following trauma.
  • PTG is increasingly conceptualized as positive personality change.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To test an operationalization of PTG as positive personality change.
  • To examine the influence of intrapersonal (motivation to change traits) and social factors (perceived social support, event centrality) on trait change after trauma.

Main Methods:

  • A pre-registered, 16-week longitudinal study with 1004 participants reporting on recent trauma exposure, event centrality, and social support.
  • A subset of 146 participants with trauma exposure and a matched control group reported on personality traits across 8 waves and motivation to change traits across 3 waves.

Main Results:

  • Trait change was observed but not consistently indicative of PTG.
  • Agreeableness declined in the trauma group compared to controls, particularly when participants did not desire change.
  • Conscientiousness declined for individuals with highly central traumas; social support predicted trait increases only in the control group.

Conclusions:

  • Defining PTG solely as positive trait change may be insufficient.
  • Future research should explore facet-level trait changes and employ ideographic methods to better understand individual differences in post-traumatic adaptation.