Investigating the mediational role of meaning making in the association between moral injury and well-being

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Publication Type honors thesis
School or College College of Social & Behavioral Science
Department Psychology
Faculty Mentor Patricia K. Kerig
Creator Willis, Brendan M.
Title Investigating the mediational role of meaning making in the association between moral injury and well-being
Year graduated 2014
Date 2014-05
Description Most people at some point in their lives will encounter a situation where they witness, perpetrate, or fail to stop an action that seriously violates their moral beliefs, events that have recently been termed moral injuries. Litz and colleagues (2009) proposed a theoretical framework that suggests such moral injuries may interact with various protective and risk factors in order to result in either positive or negative outcomes. A vital part of this framework is the concept of meaning making, the process by which individuals grapple with understanding and constructing meaning regarding their participation in events that violate their moral beliefs. The degree to which an individual is able to adaptively make meaning of a potentially morally injurious event is believed to serve as a mediator in the association between experiencing such an event and developing negative consequences. Specifically, the more adaptively an individual can make meaning of a morally injurious event, the less negative will be the outcomes. However, this mediational role of meaning making in the association between moral injury and psychological distress is a proposition of the theory that to date has not been empirically tested. Given its importance in the moral injury model, the purpose of this study is to empirically test whether or not this association exists. Understanding meaning making's role in the moral injury model will help form a foundation of empirical work on which future research can build.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject Ethics - Psychological aspects; Mental health - Moral and ethical aspects
Language eng
Rights Management (c) Brendan M. Willis
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 587,237 bytes
Permissions Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1315104
ARK ark:/87278/s6wx0szz
Setname ir_htoa
ID 205905
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6wx0szz