The concept of "trauma" was originally used by psychiatrists to describe horrific events such as rape and torture that characteristically provoke extreme emotional distress. Both colloquially and clinically, the concept of psychological trauma has broadened considerably. Although many clinical scientists have expressed concern about the broadening of the concept of trauma, it remains unclear how this concept expansion occurs. We present two experiments in which American adults (N = 276 and N = 267) sequentially classified descriptions of events (e.g., "broke a leg in a bicycle accident") as either "trauma" or "not trauma." In the first experiment, we manipulated the frequency of severe events (i.e., severe events became less and less common). In the second experiment, we manipulated the range of events (i.e., participants viewed only severe or only nonsevere events). Together, the findings suggest that an individual's frame of reference for the severity of events plays a role in narrowing or broadening the concept of trauma. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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接触创伤事件的描述会缩小一个人对创伤的概念。

“创伤”的概念最初被精神病学家用来描述可怕的事件，例如强奸和酷刑，这些事件的特征是会引起极度的情绪困扰。无论是口语上还是临床上，心理创伤的概念都大大扩展了。尽管许多临床科学家对创伤概念的扩展表示担忧，但尚不清楚这种概念扩展是如何发生的。我们展示了两个实验，其中美国成年人（N = 276 和 N = 267）按顺序将事件描述（例如，“在自行车事故中摔断了一条腿”）分类为“外伤”或“非外伤”。在第一个实验中，我们操纵了严重事件的频率（即，严重事件变得越来越不常见）。在第二个实验中，我们操纵了事件的范围（即，参与者仅查看严重或仅非严重事件）。总之，研究结果表明，个人对事件严重性的参考框架在缩小或扩大创伤概念方面发挥了作用。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2023 APA，保留所有权利）。