ABSTRACT
Resilience in Children versus Adults .............................................................. 220 Resilience versus Recovery ........................................................................... 222 Resilience Is Common .................................................................................. 223
Flexible Adaptation and Pragmatic Coping ................................................... 225 Appraisal-Based Flexibility .......................................................................... 226 Optimism ....................................................................................................... 226 Hardiness ........................................................................................................ 227
Biological Correlates of Appraisal Flexibility ................................................ 229 Facilitation of Coping ........................................................................................ 231 Emotional Flexibility ......................................................................................... 232 A Dynamic Model of Aff ect ............................................................................. 235 Pragmatic Coping .............................................................................................. 239
Trait Self-Enhancement ................................................................................ 239 Repressive Coping and Emotional Dissociation ....................................... 241
Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 243 References ............................................................................................................ 244
Bad things happen. During the course of our lives, most of us will be confronted with at least one potentially traumatic event (PTE) (e.g., physical or sexual assault or a life-threatening accident). Virtually everyone must contend at some point with the death of close friends and relatives. In the aft ermath of such events, many people feel anxious and confused. Some may fi nd it diffi cult to concentrate or to stop thinking about the event. Th ey might experience loss of appetite or diffi culty in sleeping. Reactions of this sort are
usually temporary, lasting for just a few hours or days. However, for a small but important minority of individuals, trauma can have strong and enduring eff ects that interfere with normal function for a long period of time, perhaps even for many years aft er the event. Th ese individuals usually meet the diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).
