Symposia
Positive Psychology
Adam McGuire, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
Assistant Professor
University of Texas at Tyler
Chandler, Texas
Rachel Davies, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Doctoral candidate
Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology
Norfolk, Virginia
Adrian Bravo, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
College of William and Mary
Williamsburg, Virginia
Jeff Gabbleman, B.S.
Graduate student
Old Dominion University
Norfolk, Virginia
Michelle Kelley, Ph.D.
Professor
Old Dominion University
Norfolk, Virginia
Moral elevation is described as feeling inspired after witnessing someone engage in virtuous behavior; whereas, moral injury is the result of internal conflict that stems from exposure to morally injurious experiences (witnessing or perpetrating a transgressive act). Preliminary work suggests inducing moral elevation may be helpful for veterans with PTSD symptoms and may facilitate trauma recovery; however, the association with moral injury and related stressors is unclear despite theoretical links. This study aims to explore the relationship between eliciting elevation and daily motives and affective experiences for veterans experiencing moral injury distress.
Combat veterans who reported distress about a morally injurious event were invited to complete daily diary surveys for 12 consecutive days (n = 27). All surveys included brief measures assessing elevation, positive and negative affect, suicidal ideation, compassionate motives, self-improvement motives, and purpose in life. Using an ABA design, veterans completed 4 daily surveys that only included brief measures (A), then 4 days of measures combined with a daily elevation-eliciting exercise (B), then 4 days of surveys with measures only again (A). On days 5-8, elevation was elicited by presenting short video clips featuring moral exemplars performing virtuous acts, consistent with past work.
We examined repeated measures data across all 12 days for all participants using multilevel modeling. First, we fit a model to test the success of elevation-eliciting attempts and found veterans reported significantly higher elevation on days when they were presented with elevation video clips compared to days without any videos. Next, we fit models to assess if person-centered elevation was linked with daily experiences and found when veterans reported higher elevation than what is typical for themselves, they reported significantly greater self-improvement motives, compassionate motives, positive affect, and purpose in life. Lastly, we fit models to compare pre-post changes in daily experiences before and after days 5-8 of watching elevation videos. Results indicated veterans reported significantly lower negative affect, guilt, hostility, fear, sadness, and suicidal ideation in the last 4 days compared to the first 4 days before watching elevation videos. These results provide preliminary support for the potential benefits of eliciting elevation in veterans with moral injury distress and suggests elevation induction could be associated with desirable outcomes in daily life.