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Unbelieving Wisdom: Does Critiquing Reports of Perceived Growth Following Adversity Constitute an Epistemic Injustice?

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Post-Traumatic Growth to Psychological Well-Being

Part of the book series: Lifelong Learning Book Series ((LLLB,volume 30))

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Abstract

What do we know about how adversity promotes positive personality change? In this think-piece we outline four prominent conceptualizations of positive personality change after adversity and provide an overview of the main criticisms of extant research: Specifically, an overt focus on self-perceived retrospective reports of growth in the assessment of PTG has compromised our ability to accurately examine the phenomenon. We then consider one possible critique of this methodological challenge—that in discounting these reports, we undermine both the ability of people to convey knowledge to others themselves, and their ability to make sense of their social experience (Fricker M, Epistemic injustice: Power and the ethics of knowing. Oxford University Press, 2007). In other words, do methodological critiques of PTG research constitute an epistemic injustice? We argue that, contrary to the claims of PTG researchers, the limited validity of PTG assessments may themselves constitute a form of injustice.

This publication was supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation (grant #60699 to Frank J. Infurna and Eranda Jayawickreme). The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation. This publication includes ideas first discussed in Jayawickreme and Blackie (2014), Jayawickreme and Zachry (2018) and Jayawickreme, Rivers, and Rauthmann (2018).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

    Corinne E. Zachry & Eranda Jayawickreme

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  1. Corinne E. Zachry
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  2. Eranda Jayawickreme
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Correspondence to Eranda Jayawickreme .

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  1. Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Melanie Munroe

  2. Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Michel Ferrari

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Zachry, C.E., Jayawickreme, E. (2022). Unbelieving Wisdom: Does Critiquing Reports of Perceived Growth Following Adversity Constitute an Epistemic Injustice?. In: Munroe, M., Ferrari, M. (eds) Post-Traumatic Growth to Psychological Well-Being . Lifelong Learning Book Series, vol 30. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15290-0_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15290-0_4

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