Moral Inferencing Patterns within Complex Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Populations

Abstract

The validity of Complex Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) as an independent diagnostic category has long since been under question, due to its similarities to both Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). While research has been able to distinguish CPTSD from PTSD, the line between it and BPD is much less clear. This study focuses on a shared symptom cluster between the two disorders: deficits in interpersonal relations. Specifically, it attempts to examine moral inferencing patterns within CPTSD populations as past research has already been conducted assessing the mechanism in BPD populations. Using an adapted version of Siegel et al. (2018)’s moral inferencing task, where participants are asked to observe, predict, and rate the actions of two agents, one bad and one good, the study attempts to gauge for abnormal patterns. It further adds an additional element to the task by alternating the moral preferences of the two agents, to assess participants’ abilities to respond to changing behaviors. Results found differences between the groups in their certainty ratings for the agents. In general, CPTSD group participants were more certain about their impression of the bad agent and less certain about the good agent. In contrast, the Control group was more certain about the good agent and less so about the bad agent. Interestingly, the trends observed in the moral inferencing patterns of the CPTSD group were more in line with that of individuals exposed to violence rather than that of BPD populations.