Mental health officers' causal explanations of combat stress reaction

✍ Scribed by Dina Shalom; Rami Benbenishty; Zahava Solomon

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 562 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0894-9867
• DOI: 10.1002/jts.2490080207

✦ Synopsis

This study eramined causal attributions for combat stress reaction (CSR) among 117 Israel Defense Forces (IDF) mental health officers. The impact of case characteristics (the level of objective stress in the situation, reaction of others in the same situation, soldier's previous functioning, and type of symptomatology) and respondent characteristics (professional affiliation, therapeutic orientation) on these amibutions was also eramined Results show that mental health officers view CSR primarily as a response to external circumstances; it i~ not generally seen as resulting from personality traits or intrapsychic processes. Findings also indicate that causal attributions were influenced at least to some degree by the clinicians' professional affiliation, their therapeutic orientation, and their knowledge of the casualty's prior functioning.