When a trauma becomes a key to identity: Enhanced integration of trauma memories predicts posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms
Open accessAbstract
The Centrality of Event Scale (CES) measures the extent to which a traumatic memory forms a central component of personal identity, a turning point in the life story and a reference point for everyday inferences. In two studies, we show that the CES is positively correlated with severity of PTSD symptoms, even when controlling for measures of anxiety, depression, dissociation and self‐consciousness. The findings contradict the widespread view that poor integration of the traumatic memory into one's life story is a main cause of PTSD symptoms. Instead, enhanced integration appears to be a key issue. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The degree to which past negative events are considered central to identity is implicated in why they may continue to be bothersome for individuals with anxiety disorders.
“One factor implicated in why past negative events may continue to be bothersome for individuals with anxiety disorders is the degree to which such events are considered central to identity.”
From Changes in perceived centrality of anxious events following cognitive behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder and panic disorder (2018) · cites this paper as Berntsen & Rubin, 2007
No citation lists for this paper
No citation lists for this paper yet — checked again daily.
References 52 · Cited by 424
- Authors
- Berntsen, D., & Rubin, D. C.
- Affiliations
- Aarhus University (DK)
- Duke University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Berntsen, Dorthe
- Venue
- Applied Cognitive Psychology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2007-04-11
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 417-431
- ISSN
- 0888-4080 (ISSN-L)
- 1099-0720
- OpenAlex
- W2002158815
- Cited by
- 424
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 39 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 33 · 2019: 28 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 38 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 23 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 32 · 2012: 24
- FWCI
- 9.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- Locations
- Applied Cognitive Psychology (publishedVersion)
- DukeSpace (Duke University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Mental Health
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Identity, Memory, and Therapy
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Memory, History, Trauma, Identity
- Keywords
- post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic memory, memory integration, identity, life stories, PTSD symptom severity, dissociation, self-consciousness
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
