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Psychophysiology of Resilience to Stress 119

ways but are limited to the extent that identification of potentially relevant

pretrauma factors can only be done retrospectively, after the impact of trau-

matic experience itself. Many factors, such as anticipation in particular, may

be difficult or impossible to identify, recall, or quantify after the fact. Th us, it
is necessary to extend our consideration to include basic laboratory research
paradigms that allow direct manipulation and measurement of stress antici-
pation as a means to observe related changes in adaptation and recovery.
In this chapter, we argue that the manner in which people antici-

pate stressful events can exert a large influence on how they recover. Here,

we define recovery as an effective and efficient return to physiological

( cardiovascular, neuroendocrinological) and psychological (mental health
and well-being) homeostasis following a disruptive event (defi ned here as
anticipation of or exposure to a stressful event). We address individual dif-
ferences in key cognitive components of anticipation, such as perception and

tolerance of uncertainty, confidence in coping, making positive meaning,
and effi cient learning. We suggest that resilient people are less likely to per-
ceive uncertainty, high in their tolerance of uncertainty, confi dent in their
coping resources, more likely to make positive meaning of adversity, and

more efficient in their learning. Finally, we demonstrate how these resilient
characteristics and strategies might be applied in the context of military
training where anticipation may have significant consequences for subse-

quent resilience to the stress of deployment or combat.

Anticipation of Stress

In order to understand emotional or psychological response to an expected
or foreseen source of stress, it is important to consider the role of prior
expectancy. For example, it feels worse to fail a test that one expects to
pass than to fail a test that one expects to fail (Shepperd & McNulty, 2002).
In this section, we consider multiple factors that can reasonably be sup-
posed to play a determinant role in anticipation of stress. Th ese factors
include perceived certainty, controllability, and confidence in coping. We

further examine whether these factors are subject to individual diff erences
in resilience.

Certainty

There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that the anticipation of a
negative event leads to anticipative emotional responses, and further that
anticipatory emotional responses predict subsequent emotional responses
to the negative event itself. Grillon, Ameli, Merikangas, and Woods (1993)

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