Trauma memories with and without moral conflict: characteristics, centrality, and associations with posttraumatic stress

Abstract

The significance of moral conflicts that emerge during traumatic events and their influence on posttraumatic stress (PTS) and related symptoms are increasingly recognised. However, characteristics of the memories of these conflicts and how central these memories are within autobiographical memory remain largely unclear. In this study, students recalling trauma memories with a moral conflict were compared to students whose trauma memories did not include a moral conflict, in terms of the event-centrality of the trauma memory, memory characteristics, current emotional distress, and PTS. Additionally, we examined to what extent event-centrality was associated with PTS and memory characteristics. Participants recalling trauma memories with a moral conflict referred to these memories as more central, self-defining, and were more often recalled from observer perspective with greater self-distance compared to participants recalling trauma memories without moral conflict. The former group experienced more shame, guilt, disgust, and horror during the traumatic event and reported more PTS and current emotional distress. Event-centrality was positively correlated with PTS. This study highlights that event-centrality and memory characteristics play an important role in trauma memories with moral conflict.