ABSTRACT
Because the dose-response data show poor support for the singular emphasis on the event that defines PTSD, the reasons behind the striking differences in the impact of risk experiences on different individuals are important. This question of individual differences in interaction with environmental factors is an enduring issue in several domains of applied psychology. Long ago it was strongly articulated by psychologist Lee Cronbach (1957) in his call for more Aptitude x Treatment interaction research to study both individual differences and events in interaction, rather than having them studied by separate clusters of researchers working in isolation. This interactional approach has also been stressed as important in trying to understand causes and consequences of pathologies during the developmental period (Rutter, 1994), where researchers of development are often heavily focused on environmental events as the major determinants of behavioral problems.
