Assignment Instructions:
Write a 2 page, double spaced Lens analysis essay on "Trigger
Warnings and the Swaddled Generation."
For this assignment, you will write a summary introduction of
"Trigger Warnings and the Swaddled Generation." You will
develop a thesis for this article. The bodies will primarily
analyze the article.
To help provide analysis, you will use the second article to
provide context in the bodies. In other words, after analyzing
the Parker article, you will use contrasting evidence and
analysis using the the "Harvard" article. This article will
just be used to better "see" the Parker article. This is where
the lens analysis takes its name. It's analysis where one
article is used to see the other.
Provide at least 3 quotes or paraphrases from primary article.
Provide at least 2 quotes from "Harvard" article to provide
contrasting evidence./n 8/23/2010
Find a Therapist (City or Zip)
Pamela B. Paresky Ph.D.
Happiness and the Pursuit of Leadership
Honiard Study. Trinnar Warnings Might Caddle the Mind I Douchology Today
SHARE
Harvard Study: Trigger Warnings Might Coddle
the Mind
Trigger warnings may do more harm than good.
Posted Aug 03, 2018
Source: iStock Photo/Traitov
TWEET
A
WARNING
EMAIL
MORE
Verified by Psychology Today
A new study out of Harvard-the first randomized
controlled experiment designed to examine the
effects of trigger warnings on individual resilience-
may indicate that Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan
Haidt were right about trigger warnings.¹
In the fall of 2015, Greg Lukianoff, First Amendment
Lawyer and president of the Foundation for
Individual Rights in Education (for which I work), and
social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, the Thomas
Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at NYU's
Stern School of Business, published an article
in The Atlantic.2 In it, they detailed how college
campuses may inadvertently promote mental habits identical to the "cognitive distortions" that cognitive
behavioral therapists teach their clients to recognize and overcome. The pair argued that some campus
practices-presumably intended to protect students from being harmed by words and ideas deemed offensive
or distressing-seemed to be interfering with students' ability to get along with each other, and could even be
having a deleterious effect on their mental health. Among those practices: training students to
identify microaggressions (things people say or do, often unintentionally, that are interpreted as expressions of
bigotry), turning classrooms and lecture halls into intellectual safe spaces (where students are protected from
words and ideas they might find upsetting), and the issuing of trigger warnings: alerts about the potentially
"triggering" content of written work, films, lectures, and other presentations.
A "trigger" is something that affects those who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It viscerally
reminds them of a past traumatic experience, and provokes an extreme and maladaptive negative emotional
response. The trigger itself is not harmful, but is something in a person's environment that reminds that person
of past trauma. The thinking behind issuing trigger warnings is that for people who have experienced trauma,
distress will be reduced by warning them about possible ways in which they could be "triggered" by content
that could remind them of their traumatic experience. The warning ostensibly allows them to mentally prepare
for the challenge of confronting potentially triggering material, or to avoid the prospective trigger altogether.
US
Harvard psychology professor and PTSD expert, Dr. Richard McNally (an author of the recent study) explained in
2016 essay in the New York Times that "severe emotional reactions triggered by course material are a signal
that students need to prioritize their mental health and obtain evidence-based, cognitive-behavioral therapies
that will help them overcome PTSD." In other words, severe emotional reactions are not an indication that
professors or others should warn students in advance that material could be triggering for those with PTSD, nor
that potentially triggering material should be removed from the syllabi. Constantly warning people with PTSD
about possible triggers could potentially even interfere with their recovery. As Lukianoff and Haidt point out in
their newest book, The Coddling of the American Mind, the avoidance of triggers is not a treatment for PTSD; it
https://www.puyullvivÿylvay.com/us/vvy mappitives and the pursuit ouviripie
muy myyvi munnys my vovu
1/6 8/23/2010
Honiard Study Tringar Morning Might Coddle the Mind I Douchology Todou
ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER ADVERTISEMENT
The use of trigger warnings originated on the internet, and they are applied much more broadly than to actual
PTSD triggers-which are typically more about an individual's personal experience of trauma than
representations of similar kinds of trauma. A trigger can be something as simple as a smell, a sound, a certain
color shirt, or the place or type of place where the trauma occurred. A trigger can even be a language, an
accent, or the lilt of someone's voice. On campus, however, anything that trauma survivors find upsetting-
regardless of whether they suffer from PTSD, and regardless of whether it's an actual trigger-can be a
candidate for a trigger warning; as can any material about the mistreatment of people from marginalized groups,
and anything else that students or professors predict could be upsetting-even without trauma survivors.
For example, in 2014, Harvard Law professor Jeannie Suk Gersen published an essay in The New Yorker
outlining the effects of trigger warnings on pedagogy, and how the concept of "triggers" had come to mean
content that was generally upsetting, not just material that could trigger an emotional reaction from those with
PTSD. She reported that campus organizations were requesting trigger warnings for classes covering rape law,
and were advising students who believed they might be triggered not to "feel pressured" to be present at class
sessions in which rape law would be covered. "Some students," Gersen lamented, "have even suggested that
rape law should not be taught because of its potential to cause distress," and further, some professors
had stopped teaching rape law altogether because they feared that covering the potentially triggering material
could make the classroom "a potentially traumatic environment" and emotionally "injure" their students. In their
2015 article, Lukianoff and Haidt used examples of requests for trigger warnings for things like misogyny,
classism, and even privilege, and argued that "rather than trying to protect students from words and ideas that
they will inevitably encounter, colleges should do all they can to equip students to thrive in a world full of words
and ideas that they cannot control."7
6
ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER ADVERTISEMENT
It is essential for trauma survivors to learn how to go through life without constantly being warned about
potential reminders they will undoubtedly encounter, but as Lukianoff and Haidt worry, trigger warnings could
contribute to trauma survivors seeing themselves as constantly at risk of being triggered and perpetually unable
to tolerate reminders of trauma. They also contend that trigger warnings and other protective campus practices
could prompt even students who have not experienced trauma to perceive threat and harm where there is
https://www.puyullvivyyluuy.vuilluviivymappitives and the persone compresionantare slny myyvi mungu myn vuvu
US
2/6 8/23/2010
Honiard Stud... Trinnar Warnings Might addle the Mind I Douchology Today
Many people experience trauma, but PTSD is rare. While symptoms of acute post-traumatic stress in the
immediate aftermath of a traumatic event are common, more than 90% of people who have experienced trauma
are able to move forward without developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and the vast majority of those who
do suffer from PTSD eventually recover-all without the aid of trigger warnings. 10
The Harvard study's lead author, U.S. Army veteran Benjamin Bellet, told me how important it is to "dispel the
myth that trauma equals PTSD." But trigger warnings, the study indicates, not only contribute to the
misconception that trauma equals PTSD. They may serve to intensify rather than eliminate the stigma associated
with experiencing trauma, reinforcing the impression that trauma always leaves people emotionally
impaired. The whole premise of trigger warnings seems to be an outgrowth of that myth-that those who have
experienced trauma will necessarily be permanently scarred by it and must be protected from any potential
reminders.
ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER ADVERTISEMENT
But trigger warnings aren't just bad for trauma survivors and people who suffer from PTSD. According to the
Harvard study, for people who have not experienced trauma, trigger warnings seem to decrease the belief in
their own and others' resilience, and increase the belief in their own and others' post-traumatic vulnerability to
developing a mental disorder, being unable to effectively regulate emotions, and generally becoming unable to
function. This is of particular concern because beliefs about one's own post-traumatic vulnerability have a
meaningful impact on post-traumatic recovery. In other words, believing that suffering acute symptoms after a
traumatic experience (which is common) results in enduring impairment and PTSD (which is rare) can be a self-
fulfilling prophecy. And the researchers point out that trigger warnings may have the effect of encouraging
trauma to become central to the identity of those who have experienced trauma; and this is associated with
increased severity of PTSD symptoms.¹1
Employing trigger warnings may also inadvertently communicate to members of the school community that
ideas and material that students find upsetting or uncomfortable is harmful to them or to others. For people who
are predisposed to thinking that words have the capacity to do harm, trigger warnings serve as a threat-
confirmation. And the tendency to negatively interpret ambiguous situations-to see threats where no threats
exist-is associated with increased risk of developing PTSD in the event of trauma.¹2
Perhaps the most striking finding, however, is that trigger warnings appear to confirm that words can cause
harm for people who already believe that they do. The idea that words cause harm has begun to take hold on
campus. In an opinion essay in the New York Times, respected psychology professor Lisa Feldman Barrett even
claimed that "speech can be a form of violence."13 Lukianoff and Haidt responded with an essay in The Atlantic
explaining why it's a bad idea to tell students that words are violence. Citing "aggressive and even violent
protests [that] erupted at some of the country's most progressive schools, such as Berkeley, Middlebury College,
and Evergreen State College," they argued that encouraging students to believe that words are violence "tells
the members of a generation already beset by anxiety and depression that the world is a far more violent and
threatening place than it really is."
ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER ADVERTISEMENT
https://www.puyvilvivyylvuuy.vum/u/Nivy/uppinives and we pursuit ouveronipizu tuuuitarvuru sluvy liyyur munniyu myn vuuulu me
US
3/6 8/23/2010
In my own rejoinder to the Feldman-Barrett piece, I argued that telling people they will suffer can make it more
likely that they will.
Students who believe that hearing certain words or listening to certain speakers can harm them, may in
fact succumb to a self-fulfilling prophecy. ...it is the belief that words can do harm that causes the harm, not
the words, themselves.14
This seems to be borne out by the Harvard study: Subjects who believed that words caused harm
experienced increased anxiety when they were presented with material preceded by a trigger warning, whereas
subjects who did not already believe that words caused harm did not. In other words, as Bellet told me, "beliefs
regarding harm and trauma matter."
Howard Study Tringa Warnings Might Caddle the Mind I Douchology Today
At least for people who are not survivors of trauma, it appears that trigger warnings can be
remarkably disempowering.
Pamela Paresky's opinions are her own and should not be considered official positions of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) or
any other organization with which she is associated.
References
1. Bellet, B.W., Jones, P.J., McNally, R.J., Trigger warning: Empirical evidence ahead, Journal of Behavior Therapy and
Experimental Psychiatry (2018), doi: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2018.07.002
2. Lukianoff, G. & Haidt, J. (2015). The Coddling of the American Mind. The Atlantic.
3. McNally, R. (2016, September 13). If you need a trigger warning, you need PTSD. treatment. The New York Times.
SHARE
About the Author
More Posts
TWEET
View Author Profile
More
7 COMMENTS
ADVERTISEMENT
EMAIL
MORE
Pamela Paresky, Ph.D., is Senior Scholar in Human Development & Psychology at the Foundation for Individual
Rights in Education, Director of the Aspen Center for Human Development, and author of A Year of Kindness.
https://www.puyviivivyylvmay.vum/us/vg/uppitives and the person ivviviprev Tuuviniavaru vivy vigyvi wangu miym vovvIU
US
LIX
4/6/n 12/10/2010
The Washington Post
Trincoming collagen and the Sunddled Conoration' The Washington Dont
Opinions
Trigger warnings, colleges, and the 'Swaddled Generation'
By Kathleen Parker'
May 19, 2015
Trigger warning: This column will include discussion of ideas that may conflict with your own.
Those accustomed to reading or listening only to liberal commentators may not be aware of "trigger warnings"
and "safe zones" on college campuses.
It seems that mostly conservative sites and writers are concerned with the increasingly draconian suppression
of free speech on college campuses. But then, it is mostly conservative writers and speakers who are treated as
though they're bringing the Ebola virus rather than contrarian ideas to the sensitive ears of what we may as
well name the "Swaddled Generation."
A trigger warning is usually conveyed on a sign carried or posted near the auditorium where a speech is to be
given, alerting students to the possibility that the speaker may express an idea that could trigger an emotional
response. A discussion about campus rape statistics, for example, might cause a rape victim to suffer.
This was the case recently at Georgetown University when Christina Hoff Sommers, resident scholar at the
American Enterprise Institute and author of "Who Stole Feminism?," was greeted by sign-carriers warning:
"Anti-Feminism," with the room number of a "safe space."
Students elsewhere have taken their trigger-phobia a step further, urging professors to add warnings to
syllabuses alerting swaddlers to the possibility that a course might prompt uncomfortable thoughts. At Rutgers
University, a student proposed flagging F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" as potentially upsetting owing
to “a variety of scenes that reference gory, abusive and misogynistic violence."
Protections against unpleasant thoughts can be arranged only by managing unpleasant speech. Thus, anyone
who dares question any of the communally collected “understandings" of proper thought, presumably
embraced during share-time and group hugs, will not be celebrated as a curious mind but condemned as a
"hater."
Now there's a winning debate argument. If you're 5.
Such playground rhetoric is, nevertheless, effective, first by intimidating and ultimately by silencing. Hence the
title of Kirsten Powers's new book, "The Silencing: How the Left Is Killing Free Speech." Powers, a columnist,
self-proclaimed liberal and Fox News contributor, has opened one extra-large can of whompum with this book,
which is filled with examples of free-speech suppression, especially on college campuses and by the liberal
media.
www.wasiyompost.componitu-yhtiaLV20Ta ia-itua-L-UITVI Cuauty_sy.num: uuna.... 1/U 12/10/2010
Trincoming college and the 'Swaddled Concration! The Washington Doot
It is one thing for conservatives to condemn the narrow mind-set of some liberals. Less easy to ignore is when a
fellow liberal does it. There's nothing quite like discovering that the affections of one's "friends" were
conditional upon one's concurrence.
Too often in debates about free speech, we get hung up on exaggerated examples or scenarios, such as the
recent prophet Muhammad cartoon contest, which was provocation for its own sake, or pornography, the
purpose of which does not pertain to the loftiest of human realms.
What Powers and others are confronting is far more subtle and sinister - the suppression of ideas. Colleges
and universities often boast of their diversity in terms of race, sex, gender or sexual orientation, but too often
they fail to encourage diversity of thought.
This can be correctly seen as cowardice, manifested in the disinvitation of that relatively rare species, the
conservative commencement speaker, who this year is outnumbered by liberals 6 to 1 at the top 100
universities, according to one study. Former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice last year withdrew as
commencement speaker at Rutgers after students and faculty protested. And Brandeis University canceled its
plan to honor Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a fierce critic of Islam and a women's advocate, at its commencement following
protests.
Into this dark, narrow tunnel, a tiny light has begun to seep. Last week, Purdue University followed the
University of Chicago's lead in January by issuing a statement of principles of free expression. Both guarantee
“the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn.... It is not the proper role of the
university to attempt to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even
deeply offensive."
Praising Chicago's example, Purdue President Mitch Daniels laid out the stakes in a telephone interview: "If
universities want to embarrass themselves with their behavior, allowing people to be shouted down or
disinvited, that's their problem. But if they're spawning a bunch of little authoritarians with an inverted view of
our basic freedoms, that's everybody's problem."
Let's hope other colleges and universities follow suit and soon. Otherwise, someone will be forced to write
the obvious next book, “Dictators in Diapers." Would that it were instead: "The Unswaddling: How Universities
Fought Back to Restore Free Speech."
Read more from Kathleen Parker's archive, follow her on Twitter or find her on Facebook.
Read more about this topic:
Alyssa Rosenberg: How trigger warnings could really work
Kathleen Parker: Literature's job
Wendy Kaminer: progressive ideas behind the lack of free speech on campus
www.washingtonpost.com/opinioniu-yenicalium/2011 Uzta | A-ITUA-110--14V/ tuajty___dlı y.numı: um.... LIU
- 12/10/2010
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide
a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Trigger warnings colleges and the 'Swaddled Concration! The Woohington Dont
Kathleen Parker
Kathleen Parker writes a twice-weekly column on politics and culture. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in
2010. Follow
Listen 24:46
1669 Comments
18 hours ago
The story must be told.
Your subscription supports journalism that matters.
Podcasts
Why President Trump is shutting down his charity
President Trump's charity will shut down amid allegations that he used it for
personal and political gain. In the second part of our Murder With Impunity
series, the police perspective. And a retired school counselor has two and a
half minutes of fame.
Try 1 month for $1
www.waylonpost.com opinionsritu-yenciaLV/20A 1a-itua-U-UUTUI Quatty_sli y.num: uu ....
J/U
