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Psychophysiology of Resilience to Stress 129

emotion promotes recovery from the cardiovascular effects of negative

emotion (Fredrickson & Levenson, 1998; Fredrickson, Mancuso, Branigan &
Tugade, 2000). In each case, researchers recorded participants’ cardiovas-

cular activity before, during, and after speech preparation (stress anticipation
“recovery paradigm”). Aft er speech preparation, participants were signaled

that they would not have to give their speech. This signal was delivered by the
onset of a fi lm clip designed to induce positive emotion (contentment, joy),

neutral affect, or negative emotion (sadness). Physiological recovery was then
observed as a measure of time necessary for cardiovascular activity to return
to baseline (preanticipation) level. In each case during the experimental ses-
sion, it was observed that physiological recovery occurred more quickly in
study participants who had been induced to feel positive (versus neutral or
negative) emotion (Fredrickson & Levenson, 1998; Fredrickson et al., 2000).

Th e effects of positive emotion on recovery from stress can also be observed

in relation to personality diff erences, specifically introversion versus extra-

version. Extroversion is typically associated with positive affect (Watson &
Clark, 1992). In a study of recovery from negative aff ect, extroverts (versus
introverts) demonstrated quicker emotional recovery (Hemenover, 2003).
In another study, subjects who were shown to have greater asymmetry of left -
brain baseline activation—a characteristic which has been associated with
well-being (Urry et al., 2004) and positive affectivity (Davidson, 1992)—

demonstrated faster recovery as measured by reduced startle blink magni-

tude after exposure to an aversive picture ( Jackson et al., 2003).
The relationship among positive emotion, recovery, and resilience is

not yet well-defined but may reflect the tendency of resilient individuals to

engage in positive reappraisal during anticipation of stress. For example,
although resilient and nonresilient individuals demonstrated similar levels
of cardiovascular reactivity during a speech preparation task, resilient indi-
viduals experienced faster recovery of cardiovascular reactivity (return to
preanticipation baseline) (Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004). Whereas all study
participants reported similar levels of negative emotion during stress anticipa-
tion, only resilient participants also reported having positive emotion. Th us,
it appears that quicker physiological recovery is mediated by positive emo-
tion, which only resilient individuals are inclined to consider or experience
while anticipating a stressful event. Tugade and Fredrickson (2004) exam-
ined this relationship further by instructing all study participants to view
the upcoming stressor (speech) as a challenge rather than as a threat. Aft er
receiving this instruction, nonresilient participants who were induced to
view the task as a challenge (versus threat) reported experiencing more posi-
tive emotions while giving their speech and further demonstrated quicker
physiological recovery after the speech (Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004).

Positive reappraisal is an important coping strategy that has been found
to decrease the negative emotion and physiological reactivity that can be

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