Assimilation & Accommodation: Cognitive Processes Facilitating Posttraumatic Growth and Depreciation After Infidelity

Posttraumatic growth theory (PTG) posits that positive psychological changes can result from the struggle to resolve traumatic experiences (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 2004). According to PTG, growth develops through a specific process beginning with violated core beliefs, occurring when traumatic experiences shatter one’s conceptualization of the world as safe and trustworthy. Violated core beliefs lead to intrusive and then deliberate rumination. Failure to progress from intrusive to deliberate rumination leads to depreciation, or feeling stuck in the traumatic experience. However, empirical investigations of the pathways to growth and depreciation have led to mixed results regarding the extent to which violated core beliefs contribute to depreciation. This gap suggests that an additional route to depreciation exists that is not yet understood. Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT; Resick & Schnicke, 1993) may be able to fill this gap. CPT posits that two cognitive outcomes can occur after traumatic experiences: positive core beliefs can be violated or negative core beliefs can be confirmed. Confirmed, or assimilated, core beliefs may be the missing link that provides another pathway to depreciation. This dissertation proposes and investigates a model integrating PTG and CPT theories at the level of core beliefs. Results support that core beliefs are assimilated and accommodated by the trauma of infidelity. However, results indicate that more research is needed to fully understand the implied cyclical nature of rumination and specific elements that facilitate growth and depreciation.