title: Enhancing self-efficacy improves episodic future thinking and social-decision making in combat veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder.
abstract: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is associated with maladaptive changes in self-identity, including impoverished perceived self-efficacy. This study examined if enhancing perceptions of self-efficacy in combat veterans with and without symptoms of PTSD promotes cognitive strategies associated with positive mental health outcomes. Prior to completing a future thinking and social problem-solving task, sixty-two OEF/OIF veterans with and without symptoms of PTSD were randomized to either a high self-efficacy (HSE) induction in which they were asked to recall three autobiographical memories demonstrating self-efficacy or a control condition in which they recalled any three autobiographical events. An interaction between HSE and PTSD revealed that individuals with symptoms of PTSD in the HSE condition generated future events with more self-efficacious statements than those with PTSD in the control condition, whereas those without PTSD did not differ in self-efficacy content across the conditions. In addition, individuals in the HSE condition exhibited better social problem solving than those in the control condition. Increasing perceptions of self-efficacy may promote future thinking and problem solving in ways that are relevant to overcoming trauma and adversity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Sarah Lawrence College, 1 Mead Way, Bronxville, NY 10708, USA; Steven and Alexandra Cohen Veterans Center for Posttraumatic Stress and Traumatic Brain Injury, Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, NY, USA. Electronic address: abrown@sarahlawrence.edu.
authors.forename: Adam D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Steven and Alexandra Cohen Veterans Center for Posttraumatic Stress and Traumatic Brain Injury, Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Nicole A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Kouri
authors.affiliation: Steven and Alexandra Cohen Veterans Center for Posttraumatic Stress and Traumatic Brain Injury, Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Nadia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rahman
authors.affiliation: Bellevue Hospital Center, New York University School of Medicine, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Joscelyne
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Bryant
authors.affiliation: Steven and Alexandra Cohen Veterans Center for Posttraumatic Stress and Traumatic Brain Injury, Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Charles R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Marmar
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003130:Combat Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D054542:Iraq War, 2003-2011; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000523:psychology*; D011340:Problem Solving; D011897:Random Allocation; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012919:Social Behavior; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology*; D013850:Thinking; D014481:United States; D014728:Veterans / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Autobiographical memory; Combat; Future thinking; Posttraumatic stress disorder; Self-efficacy; Social problem-solving