ABSTRACT
The burgeoning literature on posttraumatic growth (PTG) might lead some to conclude that researchers have lost sight of the devastating impact of traumatic events in people's lives (see, e.g., Wortman, 2004). Surely survivors' pain and losses are all too evident to be ignored or discounted. Rather, in recognizing the depth and pervasiveness of victims' suffering, researchers have been all the more powerfully struck by the coexistence of a very different set of responses, a cluster of reactions that seem positive rather than negative, expansive rather than constrictive, indicative of growth and development rather than regression and decline. Against a backdrop of trauma, growth is not only unexpected and thus inherently interesting, but speaks to the multifaceted, inventive course of human coping and adaptation.
