Stress-Related Growth: Building a More Resilient Brain

Abstract

FIGURE 3. An individual's ability to dismiss unwanted memories when they intrude into conscious awareness is an important aspect of healthy emotion regulation (16,17). This capacity is experimentally assessed by pairing items to be remembered with reminder cues and comparing results when participants are instructed to recall (Think) or instructed to not recall (NoThink) the paired items when cued. In healthy individuals, successful suppression of an intrusive memory weakens the memory trace (as indexed by decreased priming effects). Impaired ability to suppress intrusive memories on this task has been reported for multiple psychiatric disorders (16,17). fMRI studies of healthy individuals performing the Think/NoThink task have reported that memory suppression is associated with increased activation (NoThink .Think) in frontal and parietal cortices and decreased activation (NoThink ,Think) in memory-related areas (e.g., hippocampus, memory-associated domain-specific cortical areas). Approximate locations and extents of cortical activations and deactivations from two studies of healthy individuals are color-coded onto representative MRIs (18,19). One study compared trauma-exposed individuals with and without PTSD to unexposed individuals (19). The authors reported that the PTSD group did not have the decreases in memory strength for NoThink items or the increases in topdown inhibition during suppression of intrusive memories seen in the other groups. As discussed by the authors, these findings indicate an impairment in memory regulation in the PTSD group that may be the reason memory intrusions are so persistent.

Stress-Related Growth Scale-Short Form: A Portuguese validation for cancer patients

“…Relationships with other variables seems to evidence the scale validity. As expected ( Casellas et al, 2017 ; Lelorain et al, 2010 ; Linley & Joseph, 2004 ; Ochoa et al, 2019 ; Ord et al, 2020 ; Park, 2009 ; Park et al, 1996 ), a positive and significant association between SRG and positive affect and PPLC. Also, in line with literature ( Carver et al, 2009 ; Casellas et al, 2017 ; Holmaat et al, 2017 ; Lelorain et al, 2010 ; Marziliano et al, 2020 ; Ochoa et al, 2019 ), revealed no correlation, or very weak, between SRG and distress levels and negative affect.…”

“…Studies show that approximately 40% of the cancer patients had a psychiatric disorder ( Derogatis et al, 1983 ; Mitchell et al, 2011 ; Reilly et al, 2013 ). However, for its nature, cancer can be simultaneously conceptualized as a major chronic stressor that can be a seismic event, threatening balance, and an end of life awareness trigger, and an event with the potential to capitalize the imminent ability of human beings to self-actualize and grow in a suffering circumstance ( Casellas et al, 2017 ; Cordova et al, 2017 ; Marziliano et al, 2020 ; Ord et al, 2020 ; Rzeszutek et al, 2020 ; Tremolada et al, 2018 ).…”

“…The emergence of these positive transformations in a suffering scenario shows that distress and growth are not antagonistic realities – they coexist ( Carver et al, 2009 ; Casellas et al, 2017 ; Marziliano et al, 2020 ; Ord et al, 2020 ; Park, 2009 ). For Ochoa and colleagues (2019) stress and growth are not independent or dichotomic responses to cancer.…”

Strength‐based parenting and stress‐related growth in adolescents: Exploring the role of positive reappraisal, school belonging, and emotional processing during the pandemic

“…. However, compelling research suggests that stress is not always a negative influence and that people, including children and adolescents, can grow and thrive as a result of times of stress (Ord et al, 2020;Vaughn et al, 2009;Waters, Allen et al, 2021).…”

Ten ignored questions for stress psychology research

“…However, stress‐induced immune enhancement can also be negative/harmful if it exacerbates pathological immune responses that mediate pro‐inflammatory, allergic, or autoimmune responses (DiSabato et al, 2020). Considering coping outcomes, it is possible to distinguish whether the presence of stress promotes problem‐solving, brings about growth (Ord et al, 2020), or brings about negative effects and stress‐related disorders (Wu et al, 2019).…”