This chapter is premised on the assumption that the definition of trauma entails the cultural and ecological systems that mediate human experience and provide resources for coping and meaning making. Furthermore, the detection of traumatic stress disorder implies that the stressful event has overtaxed personal and, in some cases, community capacities. It follows that in considering cultural and ecological factors in the understanding of trauma and trauma recovery, both community resources for resilience and personal resources for coping that are appropriated from culture should be assessed. This emphasis on the cultural and the ecological is in response to the limitations of individually focused western conceptions of trauma and concerns about medicalized approaches to trauma intervention that insufficiently account for contextual factors in trauma recovery (Argenti-Pullen, 2000; Burstow, 2003; Summerfield, 2004).
Keywords
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
- Collective Efficacy
- Community Psychology
- Ecological Perspective
- Psychological Trauma
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hoshmand, L.T. (2007). Cultural–Ecological Perspectives on the Understanding and Assessment of Trauma. In: Wilson, J.P., Tang, C.Sk. (eds) Cross-Cultural Assessment of Psychological Trauma and PTSD. International and Cultural Psychology Series. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-70990-1_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-70990-1_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-70989-5
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-70990-1
eBook Packages: Behavioral ScienceBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)