Although posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is characterized by negative affect (NA), much less is known about daily fluctuations in positive affect (PA) and its association with NA in PTSD. In the present study, participants with sexual assault-related PTSD (n = 19), a sexual assault experience without PTSD (n = 20), and healthy controls (n = 21) completed an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) where they reported positive and negative affect in the morning, afternoon, and evening for one week. The results showed that those with PTSD reported less daily positive affect independent of momentary negative affect and more daily negative affect independent of momentary positive affect than controls. Examination of directional affective valence (positive affect minus negative affect) also indicated overall more negative affect among those with PTSD compared to controls. However, those who experienced sexual assault without PTSD did not differ from controls in daily positive affect, daily negative affect, or directional affective valence. Although there was no evidence of differences in daily levels of positive and negative affect as a function of time of day among those with PTSD, decreased positive affect was observed in the evening among those who experienced sexual assault without PTSD. These findings suggest that PTSD is characterized by independent momentary increases in negative affect as well as independent momentary decreases in positive affect, both of which should be addressed during the course of evidence-based treatment.

尽管创伤后应激障碍 (PTSD) 的特点是负面情绪 (NA)，但人们对正面情绪 (PA) 的日常波动及其与 PTSD 中 NA 的关系知之甚少。在本研究中，患有性侵犯相关 PTSD 的参与者（n  = 19）、没有 PTSD 的性侵犯经历的参与者（n  = 20）和健康对照者（n  = 21）完成了生态瞬时评估（EMA），他们报告了积极的结果并在一周的早上、下午和晚上产生负面影响。结果表明，与对照组相比，患有 PTSD 的人报告的每日积极情绪较少，独立于短暂的负面情绪，而每日负面情绪则较多，独立于短暂的积极情绪。对定向情感效价（积极情感减去消极情感）的检查也表明，与对照组相比，创伤后应激障碍患者总体上具有更多的消极情感。然而，那些在没有创伤后应激障碍的情况下经历过性侵犯的人在日常积极情感、日常消极情感或定向情感效价方面与对照组没有差异。尽管没有证据表明患有 PTSD 的人每天的积极和消极情绪水平随时间的变化而存在差异，但在那些经历过性侵犯但没有 PTSD 的人中，晚上观察到积极情绪下降。这些研究结果表明，创伤后应激障碍的特点是消极情绪的独立瞬时增加和积极情绪的独立瞬时减少，这两个问题都应该在循证治疗过程中得到解决。