Page 14 - Biobehavioral Resilence to Stress

Introduction

BARBARA PALMER AND VICTORIA TEPE
Survivability/Vulnerability Information Analysis Center (SURVIAC)

Mental health practitioners are frequently called upon to identify early signs
of stress-related disorder in individuals who experience potentially trau-
matic stress as part of their work. Unfortunately, it remains diffi cult to pre-
dict or prevent stress-related disorder. Stress-related psychological, social,
and behavioral problems are often subtle until they become extreme. Events

that cause trauma reactions in some individuals are more easily tolerated by
others. Individuals who withstand and overcome exposure to extreme stress

in one instance may find it debilitating in another situation. Th e eff ort to
understand resilience to stress is challenged by the variety and complexity of

an individual and circumstantial differences, which influence how stress is
perceived and processed by the human mind and body.

History of the Problem

Formal scientific research on the subject of resilience began in the 1970s
when researcher Norman Garmezy (Garmezy, 1971, 1974), in an eff ort to
better understand why some schizophrenic individuals were generally more
competent than others, turned his attention to the study of children who
were “manifestly competent” despite the stress of impoverishment (Garmezy
& Streitman, 1974):

What were the roots of their adaptation? The term “resilient” came in not as a
simile for competence, but as an extension of their competencies despite their
early background of very high stress experiences. … I think that resilience is
manifest competence despite exposure to signifi cant stressors.
(From “Resilience: An Interview with Norman Garmezy,”
Glantz and Johnson, 1999, p. 7)

The observations reported by Garmezy and others (Cicchetti & Walker,
2001; Garmezy, Masten & Tellegen, 1984; Garmezy & Rutter, 1983; Luthar,
Cicchetti & Becker, 2000; Luthar & Zigler, 1991; Masten, 2001; Masten, Best
& Garmezy, 1990; Rutter, 1985) have challenged traditional assumptions

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