Recovery capital highlights person and environmental resources associated with overcoming significant life challenges. This paper utilizes social cognitive theory as a framework for understanding how recovery capital functions in trauma adaptation. This theory outlines the bidirectional, dynamic interactions among person (e.g., cognitive and affective), behavioral (e.g., problem focused coping), and environmental variables (i.e., triadic reciprocal determinism). The value of this approach to understanding human adaptation to trauma is that it targets the self-regulatory processes that unfold for trauma survivors as they attempt to put their lives back together. Self-regulation shift theory (SRST), as an extension to social cognitive theory, is offered to explain how self-regulation is involved in both positive and negative adjustment. The theory uses a dynamical systems approach and highlights the mechanisms related to non-linear shifts in both positive and negative trauma recovery. According to SRST, trauma recovery may not be linear with threshold shifts (i.e., bifurcations) from one organized state (broken self) to another (empowered self). Coping self-efficacy perceptions are a critical factor influencing these threshold shifts. This paper concludes with a brief review of study designs and analytic procedures that can facilitate the application of non-linear dynamic research in this area.

ICD-11 PTSD criteria demonstrate neither greater diagnostic specificity nor reduced rates of comorbidity relative to DSM-5 criteria and, as such, do not perform as intended. Modifications to existing symptoms or new symptoms may improve differential diagnosis.

Worldwide exposure to explosive wildfires has become increasingly common. The psychological impact of these fires is substantial, demanding a deeper understanding of post-wildfire adaptation. This paper consists of two studies aiming to test self-regulation shift theory and its predicted non-linear shifts in distress using cusp catastrophe analyses. Study 1 tested a cusp catastrophe model on distress after the Waldo Canyon wildfire, Colorado (June, 2012). Results of study 1 showed that coping self-efficacy early after the wildfire was a significant bifurcation factor affecting when a shift in distress levels occurred from a lower state to an upper state. Perceived loss was a significant asymmetry controlling factor affecting the relative strength of each state. These findings indicate that a non-linear shift is more likely to occur at lower levels of coping self-efficacy and higher perceived loss. Study 2 tested the same model among survivors of several wildfires in California during 2017 and 2018. Results of study 2 confirmed the importance of coping self-efficacy again as a significant bifurcation factor. In this case, peritraumatic dissociation was found to be a significant asymmetry controlling factor instead of loss. These results indicate that an upward shift in distress occurs when coping self-efficacy is lower and peritraumatic dissociation is higher. Collectively, the combined findings suggest that coping self-efficacy is a pivotal variable consistent with self-regulation shift theory predictions. Intervention implications are discussed.