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Resilience and Personality 235

strategy to cope with stress. According to Fredrickson’s’ “broaden and build”
theory ( Fredrickson, 2001; Fredrickson & Levenson, 1998; Fredrickson,
Tugade, Waugh & Larkin, 2003; Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004), positive emo-
tional expressions (e.g., laughter) broaden cognitive resources, thus facilitat-
ing perception of a wider range of possibilities. Laughter and smiling may
also help to build resources such as stable interpersonal bonds, which in turn
may facilitate reciprocal and cooperative behavior in times of need (Isen,
1987; Oatley & Jenkins, 1996; Owren & Bachorowski, 2001).
Although emotions are often expressed spontaneously, people sometimes

express emotion in a deliberate or strategic manner as a means to attract interest
or goodwill (Bonanno, 2001; Gross, 1998b). Bonanno and colleagues have pro-

posed that the psychologically adaptive benefits of emotional expression or
suppression depend upon the extent to which self-regulatory processes can be
employed in a fl exible and goal-directed manner to meet situational demands
(Bonanno, Papa, Lalande, Westphal & Coifman, 2004). Bonanno et al. (2004)
tested this hypothesis in a study of New York City college students during the

aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001 and found that fl ex-
ibility (versus ability or frequency) of emotional expression and suppression
predicted better adaptation across a 2-year period. However, it remains to be

seen whether flexibility of emotional expression also predicts better adjustment
in populations that are directly exposed to high levels of stress such as combat.

A Dynamic Model of Affect

Flexibility is also evidenced in the subjective experience of emotion. Emo-

tion theorists have noted that affective experience can vary greatly between

individuals, in different situations, and over time (Green, Salovey & Truax,
1999; Rafaeli, Rogers & Revelle, 2007; Russell & Feldman-Barrett, 1999).

In an effort to address this issue, Zautra and colleagues proposed an inte-

grative model, the dynamic model of affect (DMA; Davis, Zautra & Smith,
2004; Pruchno & Meeks, 2004; Reich, Zautra & Davis, 2003; Zautra, 2003;
Zautra, Berkhof & Nicolsen, 2002). These authors argue that during periods

of stress, as cognitive resources become increasingly narrow and focused,

affective space becomes more limited. Under ordinary circumstances, most
people demonstrate a capacity for complex affect, including simultaneous

and contiguous awareness of positive and negative affects. Normally, positive

and negative affective states are only loosely correlated and tend to func-
tion independently. DMA predicts that stress will tend to limit the conscious
experience of affect such that individuals under stress might only be aware

of negative or positive emotions. Under stress, affective experiences should
become more highly correlated and polarized (for more detailed explication,
see Zautra, 2003; Reich et al., 2003).

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