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130 Biobehavioral Resilience to Stress

associated with stressful or aversive stimuli in the laboratory research setting
(Gross, 1998). Although positive reappraisal may not extinguish negative
emotion or physiological reactivity associated with the anticipation of stress,
it may instead serve to temper the physiological costs that would otherwise
occur in response to negative emotion. Hence, we conclude that positive
reappraisal promotes resilience by facilitating recovery of physiological sys-
tems to a viable state within normal limits of baseline. This recovery, in turn,

promotes adaptive physiological recovery from stress and helps to prevent
allostatic load (McEwen, 1998).

Recovery from Anticipation of Stress

The various psychological and physiological consequences of anticipating
stress have been addressed previously in this chapter. Many real-life situations
involve anticipation of stress that may or may not occur. Obvious examples

include waiting for significant medical test results, legal decisions, college
admissions, or job interview results. In each case, anticipation involves a
high level of uncertainty and provides opportunity to consider negative or
positive outcome, that is, the awaited information may be bad news (stressor)
or good news (no stressor). In this section, we examine how anticipatory

processes may affect emotional response and physiological recovery when
the resulting news is good news, that is, when the anticipated stressor does
not occur. For the purpose of discussion, we consider here a specifi c example
of real-life anticipated stress. If a woman discovers a suspicious lump in her
breast, she will likely report it to her physician, who will in turn order tests
to determine whether the lump is malignant (cancer) or benign (e.g., cyst).
While the woman waits for the results of these tests, she endures a high level
of uncertainty and naturally anticipates the possibility of bad news (stressor).
Her full recovery from this period of anticipated stress cannot occur until
she is given information (a safety signal) to assure her with certainty
that her lump is benign (i.e., the anticipated stressor will not occur). It is

important to differentiate this scenario and experience with that of vague,

free-floating anxiety for which there is no clear information to terminate
the stress of anticipation itself. For example, if the woman discovered her
breast lump and did not report it to her physician, she would be left to

endure indefinite anxiety with no clear resolution (no safety signal). It is
our contention here that true “recovery” cannot ensue unless triggered by
an apparently definitive (although potentially subjective) safety signal to

convey that the anticipated stressor will not occur.
In a review of neurobiological systems that can be mapped to stress
resilience versus vulnerability, Charney (2004) addressed the conditioning
system whereby resilient individuals appear better able to learn environ-
mental contingencies. Charney suggests that this enhanced ability makes

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