Phd in DYNAMIC AND CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY

Thesis title: Moral Judgement in civilians with posttraumatic stress disorder related to intrastate and interstate war.

Background: The social-cognitive capabilities of individuals who have been exposed to trauma are important in implementing a treatment intervention and recovery from PTSD. These individuals often show alterations in their reaction to emotionally salient scenarios, in which moral judgement and reasoning are likely to function. Some individuals exposed to traumatic experiences develop a ‘Moral Injury’; a spiritual struggle in which sense and meaning of the trauma cannot be found through their religion and trust is lost in ones’ belief system. This moral Injury can cause greater PTSD symptoms and complications in recovery. It is not known how a persons moral decision making and conduct, as a factor of their social interactions, is influenced by exposure to trauma and PTSD. Objective: The purpose of this study was to understand the link between moral judgement and PTSD, in order to gain better insight into the role of morals in PTSD/Moral Injury clinical symptom expression and treatment strategies. Method: Moral judgement performance was assessed in 44 mixed gender participants; 24 with PTSD related to exposure to trauma from interstate or intrastate war, 20 served as a control group. Six dilemmas were administered to the participants. The dilemma set aimed to examine moral judgement across three themes; utilitarianism vs. deontology, self-interest vs altruism and compassion vs. social order. Also the Moral Foundations Questionnaire was administered. Results: The control group were consistently more willing to personably carry out the act in all dilemmas, than to approve of it being morally ok. On the ‘Utilitarianism vs. Deontology’ dilemmas the PTSD group were less willing to carry out the act in the dilemma, than approve of it being morally ok. PTSD participants were more willing to approve of the act in the Compassion vs. Social Order dilemma, than the control group. The PTSD participants had a higher score on the care/harm category, thus expressing a greater emphasis on the relevance and importance of the care/harm statements to moral decision making. Conclusions: Participants with PTSD show alterations in moral judgement demonstrated in increased utilitarian judgement and increased compassion.