Shalev
Shalev (1995)
Stress responses to direct exposure to a terrorist attack in Israel
Aim:
To investigate PTSD after terrorist attacks in a sample of 12 hospitalized survivors of an attack on an Israeli bus.
Procedure:
- Victims were interviewed after the attack and after 10 months. The researchers used a specific questionnaire (Impact of Event Scale) to assess symptoms of PTSD.
- In the first interview the victims were extremely upset and had intrusive thoughts about the event but they showed no sign of avoidance coping (i.e. avoiding to think of or talk about the traumatic event).
- In the second interview intrusive thoughts had decreased but avoidance coping had increased. Overall, victims showed significant levels of PTSD in the last interview.
Evaluation:
The study was a case study with a small sample so it is not possible to generalize the findings.