ABSTRACT
The purpose of the present study was to compare post-traumatic stress syndrome among persons involved in nine different stressor events: combat in the Vietnam War; rape; life-threatening events; divorce; the death of a significant other; critical, near-fatal illness of a significant other; family violence; multiple traumatic events; and no stressful event. To assess the severity of the symptoms which define post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the Impact of Event Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory, the Stress Assessment Scale for PTSD from the Vietnam Era Stress Inventory, and the Sensation Seeking Scale were administered to the participants (N = 409). A person x situation conceptual model of PTSD was presented from which two major hypotheses were tested. As predicted from the model, the loss of a significant other and degree of life-threat were predictive of syndrome-specific symptoms of PTSD. The results of the study strongly support the heuristic value of an interactionist model of PTSD.
