Keep Calm and Carry On: The Relations Between Narrative Coherence, Trauma, Social Support, Psychological Well-Being, and Cortisol Responses

In order to explain trauma resilience, previous research has been investigating possible risk and protective factors, both on an individual and a contextual level. In this experimental study, we examined narrative coherence and social support in relation to trauma resilience. Participants were asked to write about a turning point memory, after which they did the Maastricht Acute Stress Test, our lab analog of a traumatic event. Following, half of the participants received social support, whereas the other half did not. Afterwards, all participants wrote a narrative on the traumatic event. Moment-to-moment fluctuations in psychological and physiological well-being throughout the experiment were investigated with state anxiety questionnaires and cortisol measures. Results showed that narratives of traumatic experiences were less coherent than narratives of turning point memories. However, contrary to our predictions, coherence, and, in particular, thematic coherence, related positively to anxiety levels. Possibly, particular types of thematic coherence are a non-adaptive form of coping, which reflect unfinished attempts at meaning-making and are more similar to continuous rumination than to arriving at a resolution. Furthermore, coherence at baseline could not buffer against the impact of trauma on anxiety levels in this study. Contrary to our hypotheses, social support did not have the intended beneficial effects on coherence, neither on well-being. Multiple explanations as to why our support manipulation remained ineffective are suggested. Remarkably, lower cortisol levels at baseline and after writing about the turning point memory predicted higher coherence in the trauma narratives. This may suggest that the ability to remain calm in difficult situations does relate to the ability to cope adaptively with future difficult experiences. Clinical and social implications of the present findings are discussed, and future research recommendations on the relations between narrative coherence, social support, and trauma resilience are addressed.

A Configurational Approach to Mergers and Acquisitions

The processes involved with mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are many, varied and complex. M&A research and practice needs a toolset that can apprehend that complexity and suggest ways forward. This paper shows the complexity of the constituents of organizations at a strategic level by building on the natural-resource-based view (NRBV) and the resulting competences and capabilities. In M&As, these resources and capabilities are managed through a variety of forms of acquisition integration comprised of sets of integration mechanisms. M&As occur in a range of strategic contexts and consequently many forms of integration are possible. Accordingly, there is a need for a mode of inquiry examining acquisition integration that can encompass a wide variety of forms, is holistic across a range of possible integration mechanisms and can provide insights. A configurational mode of inquiry can accommodate the complexity of the mechanisms, capabilities and resources, including natural resources, which constitute acquisition integration. A configurational approach emphasizes a holistic synthesis of elements and highlights the importance of thinking of M&As in terms of patterns. A configurational approach offers tools for considering M&As such as analyzing the thematic coherence of integration and enables the inclusion of sustainability into the logic of organizations.

An Investigation of the Coherence of Oral Narratives: Associations With Mental Health, Social Support and the Coherence of Written Narratives

Research QuestionsIn a first research question, we examined whether the relations that are generally observed between the coherence of written autobiographical narratives and outcomes of mental health and social support, can be replicated for the coherence of oral narratives. Second, we studied whether the coherence of oral narratives is related to the coherence of written narratives.MethodsPearson correlations and t-tests were calculated on data of two separate studies to examine the research questions.ResultsFirst, only thematic coherence of oral narratives was significantly, although moderately, negatively associated to symptoms of depression, anxiety and negative social interactions. Second, the coherence of oral narratives was higher than the coherence of written narratives. Only the thematic coherence of oral narratives was positively associated with thematic and total coherence of written narratives. Furthermore, correlations between written and oral narratives were stronger for negative narratives as compared to positive narratives.DiscussionThe ability to elaborate emotionally and make meaning out of important life events in oral narratives is, to a certain extent, related to better mental health and more social support. Furthermore, thematic coherence may be a relatively stable feature of individuals’ narrative styles that is reflected in narratives of different modalities. Nonetheless, these topics need to be further researched to overcome present limitations.

Proverbs

Wisdom can be taught and learned, as the instructions in Proverbs 1–9 make clear, and when utilized as strategies for dealing with typical and recurring situations in life, such as those suggested in Proverbs 10–31, they ensure both moral integrity and material prosperity. The motivation for obedience to proverbial truth is the transcendent authority of God, who is the source and substance of the knowledge towards which wisdom aspires. The most important lesson to be learned is itself therefore reducible to a single certainty that informs all of the wisdom sayings in Proverbs: “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord; the knowledge of the holy one is understanding” (Prov 9:10; cf. 1:7). This essay addresses five major interpretive issues in Proverbs: (1) composition history, (2) literary forms, (3) socio-political context, (4) moral reasoning and ethical conduct, and (5) thematic coherence.

The Ocean (Seneca Suas. 1)

This chapter traces a single motif—that of the ‘Ocean’—within Seneca’s Suasoriae. This theme spans the declamations of Argentarius, Pompeius Silo, Moschus, Musa, Albucius Silus, and Papirius Fabianus, as well as verses by Albinovanus Pedo and excerpts from the History of Alexander by Quintus Curtius Rufus. By comparing how these declaimers and authors introduce variations around the idea of an ‘ocean’ while maintaining its overall characteristics (e.g. darkness, monstrousness, sluggishness), this chapter identifies two overarching concepts which governed declamatory improvisation. On the one hand, ‘scalability’ allowed declaimers to compose speeches of different lengths while maintaining thematic coherence through the use of similar core-structures; on the other, the principle of ‘sequence’ dictated that each declaimer spoke in response to another. These parallel concepts enabled declamatory themes to gain new meanings through an ongoing accumulation of arguments and contributed to declamation’s status as a dynamic, interactive process.

Destruction of Communicative Pragmatics in Contemporary Absurdist Dramaturgic Texts

The aim of the article is characteristics of mechanisms of pragmatics distraction in communication of active participants of modern Ukrainian plays with features of the theatre of the absurdity. Structural and contextual mechanisms of dialogic speech depragmatization are singled out on factual material. In a dramatic dialogue absurdity is explained as a purposeful instruction to convey the thought about illogicalness and chaotic nature of reality, the aimlessness of a human being. The main methods of the study are descriptive, context-interpreting and presuppositional. Study results. One of absurdity occurrence mechanisms is depragmatization – purposeful non-normative usage of language pragmatic resources. We identify structural and contextual violations within depragmatization. Structural violations are characteristic for an absurdist drama in which characters’ cues do not have illocutionary and thematic coherence. Another type of structural violations is conscious violations of formal structure of linguistic units. Role exchange, during which an active participant takes over someone else’s communicative role, is an example of contextual depragmatization. Within contextual violations we also identify the group of cognitive violations which is based on non-observance of causally consecutive and logical connections. Anomalies based on an arbitrary choice of language stylistic means, which are uncoordinated with general principles of stylistic formalization of the text, are considered the contextual variety of depragmatization. Conclusions. Structural and contextual communicative violations are used by playwrights to activate the sense of the situational absurdity depicted in a work. Active participants of drama of the absurdity communicate without communicative purpose and taking into account situational needs, which results in actualization of pragmatic potential of used linguistic units, falsification of meaningful speech.

Exploring Thematic Coherence in Fake News

The spread of fake news remains a serious global issue; understanding and curtailing it is paramount. One way of differentiating between deceptive and truthful stories is by analyzing their coherence. This study explores the use of topic models to analyze the coherence of cross-domain news shared online. Experimental results on seven cross-domain datasets demonstrate that fake news shows a greater thematic deviation between its opening sentences and its remainder.