Assessing the Ongoing Psychological Impact of Terrorism

Abstract

(from the chapter) The terror attacks of 9/11/2001 dealt a serious blow to the sense of security, well-being, and economic stability of Americans, and altered the mental health landscape for those within the United States and other parts of the world. Paralleling this, new threats to emotional and psychological well-being have materialized in the form of anticipatory, prospective fears of future terrorist attacks. In light of this evolving environment, the present chapter seeks to augment the current science by presenting an assessment paradigm relevant to terrorist events specifically. This approach to psychological assessment expands on current models which focus on the impact of discrete events by also evaluating the impact of prospective fears of future attacks. Reflecting this paradigm shift, we introduce the Terrorism Catastrophizing Scale (TCS) as a means of evaluating the ongoing impact of terrorism on psychological functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).