How military service members interpret their regretted actions and inactions

The present studies investigated regretted actions and inactions of military Veterans. Utilizing a mixed methods approach, the aim of these studies was: (a) to estimate the prevalence and characteristics of acts of commission (actions) and omission (inactions) resulting in either physical or emotional harm to others; (b) gather descriptions of the events that Service Members consider to be acts of commission and omission; and (c) to explore Veterans’ interpretations of these (in)actions. Samples of 505 (19% female) and 14 (7% female) Iraq/Afghanistan military Veterans participated in our questionnaire and interview studies respectively. Questionnaire participants completed measures of the prevalence and interpretation of (in)actions (e.g., altered worldviews), psychological problems (e.g., PTSD) and combat/post-combat experience. Interview participants described wartime events and how they interpreted their (in)actions over time. We recruited our sample from local Veterans’ organizations and a crowdsourcing website (MTurk). We found that (in)actions were fairly common (49.3% reported at least one). Service Members’ descriptions, interpretations, and endorsement of psychological problems differed based on the type of (in)action they reported. When compared to other types of (in)actions, acts of commission resulting in physical harm to others (Commission-Physical) had distinct characteristics with regards to context (e.g., most likely to occur during combat), outcome (e.g., only depicted harm to non-Service Members), interpretation (e.g., least likely to be regretted) and psychological outcomes (e.g., when regretted, Commission-Physical actions were most-strongly associated with PTSD). Different types of (in)actions also appear to be associated with alterations to Service Members’ worldviews in different ways (e.g., whether changes occur to one’s conceptualization of oneself vs. others/the world). Altered worldviews was also the only interpretation variable that predicted psychological problems independently of other interpretation variables (e.g., guilt/shame) when other factors were accounted for (e.g., age, combat experience).

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2019

Author dc:creator

• Williams, Christian Lewis

Contributors dc:contributor

• Berenbaum, Howard
• Greene, Jennifer
• Aber, Mark
• Cohen, Joseph
• Osborne, Nicholas
• McCracken, Stanley

• PTSD
• veterans
• moral injury
• trauma

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2019 Christian Williams

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105564

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/105564