Trauma and Recovery: The Psychology of September 11
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What students do
- Sort survivors into rings of exposure based on physical and personal proximity to the event
- Compare a normal acute stress reaction against a diagnosed case of post-traumatic stress disorder
- Identify risk factors and protective factors that shift the odds of lasting harm
- Analyze a SAMHSA federal training manual excerpt on the mental health response to mass violence
What it covers
- The population exposure model and rings of exposure
- What separates a normal stress reaction from post-traumatic stress disorder
- Why resilience, not lasting harm, is the typical outcome
Learning targets
- Explain how experts found out who was affected.
- Explain the difference between acute stress and PTSD.
- Name things that raise or lower the risk of lasting harm.
- Explain why most people get better after a hard event.
- Describe how the government set up mental health help.
From one teacher to another
Most people who lived through September 11 ended up with PTSD - that's the claim I want my psychology students to test rather than swallow whole. They sort survivors into rings of exposure, pin down exactly where a normal stress reaction stops and a diagnosed disorder begins, and land on what a SAMHSA training manual actually backs up: recovery, not lasting harm, is the typical outcome. There's a built-in teacher-discretion note as well, because I know some of my students carry their own history with events like this.
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