The relative importance of needs among traumatizedand non-traumatized samples

摘要

Typically, people rate enhancement needs asmore important than security needs to their well-being. Twostudies tested whether event valence and prior traumamoderate relative need importance. Traumatized (hurricanesurvivors) and non-traumatized (control) participantsrecalled the most "distressing" (security-relevant) or "sat-isfying" (enhancement-relevant) event they had recentlyexperienced and rated the importance of 10 needs in definingthe event. In both studies, event valence moderated relativeneed importance on explicit (salience) and implicit (affect)measures as enhancement needs were more important forenhancement-relevant (satisfying) events whereas securityneeds were more important for security-relevant (distress-ing) events. However, results also suggest that differences intraumatic experience across samples moderated the effect ofevent valence on relative need importance. Unlike non-traumatized (control) participants, traumatized (hurricanesurvivors) participants did not reassign greater importanceto enhancement over security needs when event valenceshifted to enhancement-relevant (satisfying) memories. Weclose by discussing implications for human motivation.