The term traumatic stress refers to a combination of physiological and psychological reactions that include muscle tension and unpleasant emotions in response to challenging events or situations. The most common sources of stress are conflicts, failures, changes, situational or interpersonal demands, threats, or danger. CHAPTER II METHODOLOGY The focus of this paper is a critical evaluation of SIV literature mainly produced within the framework of Euro American and Western culture.
The findings of SIV studies reviewed in this paper are reported in order to analyze and integrate the research of individual studies and books. This paper aims to accomplish the goal of an integrative research review, which is a type of literature review where the goal is “to summarize the accumulated state of knowledge concerning the relation(s) of interest and to highlight important issues that research has left unresolved” (Cooper, 1984, p. 11). Search Strategy
This critical review focuses on American, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, and British literature of SIV behavior, and includes published reports and studies in conjunction with seminal books as the sources of data. Reports and studies for this paper were located using several electronic databases: PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, SocINDEX, LIRN, OCLC FirstSearch, and Proquest. A wide range of keywords was used to locate and assemble existing literature of SIV and related subjects (see Appendix A).
The literature was organized and coded based on the population group participating in the study (see Appendix B) and by the type of behavior studied such as SIV, suicide, and/or SIV and suicide combined (see Appendix C). The literature was organized by type of study (i. e. qualitative vs. quantitative) and assembled in the appendix section (see Appendices D-H). Research books for this review were obtained through purchases from Amazon. com and from Internet subject searches through the Argosy University library, University of Washington library, and Jones e-global library (see Appendix H).
Some reports were gathered through the following Internet Web sites: Prevent Child Abuse (http://www. preventchildabuse. org), and Journal for Indian Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (http://openmed. nic. in). Literature was also located by referencing the bibliography of peer-reviewed articles. Procedures Literature was reviewed if it directly addressed trauma-related SIV or synonyms of SIV as described in chapter 1: Definition of Terms. Literature searches were conducted using the term self-harm and its synonyms.
Further searches used the Boolean ‘and’ command with the term self-harm and the various synonyms of self-harm. Studies exploring characteristics that may have preceded SIV such as childhood maltreatment or rape, and consequences resulting from SIV, were included for review and analysis. Articles about and studies of SIV that were quantitative, qualitative, case study, meta-analysis, and review were further examined using the following steps: 1. Examined article titles that contained the term SIV or a synonym of SIV. 2.
Reviewed the abstract to assure relevancy to the topic of SIV. 3. Scanned the article to further assess the applicability to a critical review and analysis. 4. Thoroughly read and outlined selected articles for possible use in the final written analysis. Books were reviewed if the topic of SIV was suggested by the title. The following steps were implemented for possible book inclusion in the final written analysis: 1. Checked title for specific SIV terminology. 2. Assessed table of contents for relevancy to topic. 3. Reviewed and outlined selected books.
Literature was excluded from further review and use in the final analysis if it addressed SIV that was only intended for cultural, non-symbolic, or body enhancement expression and did not address trauma-related SIV. Literature was organized and outlined in table form based on the type of study, author(s) of study, date of study, location of study, and description of study (See Appendixes D-H). Selected literature was further organized and coded based upon the study’s participant population and participant behavior studied (e. g.
SIV behavior, suicide behavior, or SIV and suicide behavior combined). This review provides not only a summary of studies but also an actual critique of the strengths and weaknesses of the methods used in selected studies, which is then integrated into the process of analysis. The author’s analysis is influenced by a hermeneutic approach wherein the author’s biases are openly acknowledged as forming part of the final analysis. This approach allows the author to place more emphasis on the description of the literature and signifies an ongoing process of understanding.