- Title
- The ‘lived’ experience of career international aid personnel in complex humanitarian emergencies
- Creator
- Greenan, Kelly
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2018
- Description
- Masters Coursework - Master of Clinical Psychology (MClinPsych)
- Description
- Scope: This thesis is comprised of: 1) a literature review. ; and 2) a manuscript prepared for submission to a peer reviewed journal. The literature review provides an overview of the historical context of humanitarian aid personnel, the current context and changing world of aid work, and discusses various constructs and theories that are relevant to traumatic exposure often experienced in aid work, particularly the theories of trauma and posttraumatic growth. Furthermore, it considers a new construct specific to humanitarian aid personnel, altruistic identity/altruistic identity disruption and argues that responses to traumatic exposure may be complicated by how organisational support is perceived by personnel pre-deployment, during and post-deployment. The second part of the thesis, the manuscript, is an idiographic phenomenological study that explores the subjective interpretations of career aid personnel in complex environments. In exploring both the positive and negative interpretations of aid work experiences, this study is particularly interested in how individuals make sense of the adversities experienced during complex humanitarian emergencies and their ability to reintegrate within society following deployment. Purpose: This interpretative phenomenological exploration sought to further understand the lived experience of career humanitarian aid personnel who had been deployed to multiple complex international environments. It sought both positive and negative interpretations of their experiences pre-deployment, during and post-deployment. Research on the subjective experience of aid work in complex humanitarian emergencies is sparse and what does exist, tends to focus on the psychopathological. Methodology: Career international humanitarian personnel with multiple deployments were recruited through aid organisations. Using semi-structured interviews, data from nine participants who met selection criteria, was collected, transcribed and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). IPA seeks an idiographic and reiterative understanding of poorly researched phenomenon, allowing a more in-depth exploration of the unique subjective meaning of experiences. Results: One superordinate theme, Humanitarianism, complex trauma, and the authentic self; overarched five subordinate themes: Altruistic identity disruption; Moral injury and humanitarian trauma; Growth from forced change; Humanitarian spirit. These themes reveal that complex traumatic events experienced external to their work as humanitarians, brought unexpected professional, moral and altruistic identity challenges for these participants. A struggle with personal authenticity facilitated a ‘disconnect’ from others in their society of origin and in some cases family, who were critical about their benevolence to unfamiliar and dangerous humanitarian crises. That disconnect was reflected upon with tolerance and respect, but left them isolated and misunderstood in their culture of origin. However, it was pivotal in reaffirming an intrinsic altruistic identity that was neither fearful nor hesitant in committing to the needs of wider humanity. Conclusions: This study highlighted that for these international humanitarian personnel, a philosophical commitment to core values of altruism provided psychological protection. Psychological protection refers to being less vulnerable to the consequences of traumatic stress and pathology than those who did not have high altruism. Sensitivity to others’ needs, compassion, and generosity of giving without seeking return, were expressed as fundamental to their sense of nurturing their professional, moral, and altruistic identity. Conversely, it was the mismatch between these core humanitarian values and others’ scepticism at their willingness to commit to humanitarian need that left them isolated, self-protective against the judgement of others, and feeling invalidated post-deployment.
- Subject
- humanitarian spirit; complex trauma; altruistic identity; moral injury; wellbeing
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1385078
- Identifier
- uon:32164
- Rights
- Copyright 2018 Kelly Greenan
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 27 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |