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126 Biobehavioral Resilience to Stress

trying to reckon more directly with the underlying cause of those eff ects by
taking action to thwart or control the stressor itself (Lazarus, 1993).
When stress is uncertain, individual differences play a signifi cant role in

emotional and physiological response to the anticipation of stress. Optimistic
individuals (Scheier & Carver, 1985) tend to expect best possible outcome,
while those who are defensively pessimistic (Norem & Cantor, 1986) tend to
expect the worst. If an individual is wary that stress may occur but is willing
to embrace the possibility that it may not, that individual may have less of
a preemptive emotional response to the anticipation of stress. By contrast,
if an individual expects stress and does not consider a positive alternative,
that individual may experience a larger preemptive emotional response to
the anticipation of its occurrence (Waugh, Wager et al., 2007).
Different expectations may stem from different levels of perceived control

and confidence in coping. It is reasonable to consider that a high degree of per-
ceived control tends to encourage focus upon action (i.e., prevention or manip-
ulation of the anticipated stressor), as we would expect to see represented by
physiological patterns that are associated with high levels of eff ort (Manuck
et al., 1978). When task effort is controlled as an experimental variable, indi-

viduals who have a high level of perceived control tend to produce less car-
diovascular reactivity (Manuck et al., 1978). Consistent with this point is the

finding that resilient individuals—who are also characterized by high levels of
perceived control and confidence—have less of an emotional response to the

anticipation of an uncertain aversive stimulus. Thus, it may be that resilience
to stress promotes conservation of physiological and emotional resources in
situations where stress is possible but uncertain and uncontrollable. Over
time, resource conservation may also enable resilient individuals to endure
and cope with chronic or repeated uncontrollable stressors more eff ectively
and at less physiological cost (Block & Kremen, 1996; McEwen, 2003).

Recovery

In this section, we consider how the anticipation of stress may aff ect recovery

from stress. First, we address the question of how to define recovery with respect
to physiology, resilience, and psychopathology. We then review available evi-
dence with respect to a coping strategy termed “positive reappraisal,” and we
consider its implications for recovery from stress. Finally, we discuss how antici-
pation may influence recovery when an anticipated stressor fails to occur.

Defi ning Recovery
It is important to distinguish between resilience and recovery (e.g., Bonanno,
2004). Recovery can be understood as the process by which individuals

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