Part 1 Pain and Thinking
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Part 1 Pain and Thinking Karisha George - 9781848883161 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 12:21:07PM via free access Karisha George - 9781848883161 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 12:21:07PM via free access It Is Not What Happens to You, But How You Think about It: Exploring the Cognitive Processes Underlying Resilience Following Adversity Karisha George Abstract This chapter seeks to present a model for exploring why individuals fail to adapt to adversity. Researchers link the failure to adapt to adversity to an inability to develop higher levels of resilience following the adverse experience.1 This research thus performed a series of studies to develop a model of the processes that generate an inability to develop higher levels of resilience. These studies assessed individuals with high levels of negative trait emotion, which refers to the dispositional tendency for individuals to experience intense, frequent and prolonged periods of negative emotion.2 Researchers describe negative trait emotion as an individual’s vulnerability toward pathology following adversity3 and thus that person’s inability to increase levels of resilience. This chapter assesses the impact of cognitive processes on generating the inability to develop higher levels of resilience among persons high on negative trait emotion. Cognitive processes are the various thinking patterns (both automatic and deliberate) through which individuals’ attitudes, beliefs, assumptions and personal life goals influence how they anticipate, monitor, reflect on and respond to their experiences.4 Beck5 claimed that these processes predispose individuals to experiencing psychological problems in response to triggering life events and also serve to maintain the problem behaviours long after the event has passed. Cantor6 further asserted that each personality trait is characterised by specific cognitive processes that in turn generate and maintain the personality trait. He put forth this relationship as the main determinant of individuals’ levels of resilience. The thesis in this chapter thus uses a mediation analysis to understand the cognitive processes that characterise individuals high on negative trait emotion and the extent to which these processes explain their inability to develop higher levels of resilience. Key Words: Resilience, negative trait emotion, cognition. ***** 1. Resilience Studies have explored the determinants of adaptation in response to positive life transitions such as career and religious change, entering university, getting married and having children. However, a great deal of research has examined adaptation following adverse life transitions, such as unemployment, recent illnesses or injuries, and long-term life difficulties including chronic health problems.7 In each Karisha George - 9781848883161 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 12:21:07PM via free access 4 It Is Not What Happens to You __________________________________________________________________ case, researchers claim that adaptation emerges when individuals have completed the resilience process, developing higher levels of resilience. Researchers describe the resilience process as ‘a cycle of disruption and reintegration.’8 ‘Disruption’ is a temporary phase of emotional and behavioural instability experienced in the immediate aftermath of life events.9 Over time, however, the majority of persons enter into the ‘reintegration’ phase where social and emotional functioning improves, higher levels of resilience develop, and positive adaptation emerges. In support of these arguments, studies have found that improvements in resilience over time are associated with increases in scores on emotional and behavioural functioning measures.10 However, some individuals fail to ‘reintegrate;’ they become ‘stuck’ in the ‘disruption’ phase and fail to develop higher levels of resilience. As a result, these persons remain unable to adapt to the life event. In addition, over time, their emotional and behavioural instability intensifies leading to diagnoses of mental illness and dysfunctional behavior, such as substance abuse and aggression.11 Research has corroborated these claims. Studies have linked affective disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), to being ‘stuck’ in ‘disruption’ triggered by a significant life experience.12 Therefore, it can be deduced that individuals who fail to adapt to adversity do so as a result of failing to develop higher levels of resilience, caused by becoming ‘stuck’ in ‘disruption.’ Flach13 described various factors that he believed made people unable to develop higher levels of resilience. However, he did not attempt to establish which of these factors were most pertinent and how they exerted their influence. Richardson14 attempted to fill this gap in Flach’s theory. He theorised that the personality traits an individual possesses determine the level of emotional and behavioural instability he or she would experience during ‘disruption,’ and his or her capacity to eventually ‘reintegrate’ following the ‘disruption’ phase. Richardson thus establishes the role played by personality and makes some assertions as to how it influences individuals’ levels of resilience. However, he performed no empirical work to assess his postulations. Researchers have since explored the impact of a variety of traits. Among these negative trait emotion has received some attention. 2. Negative Trait Emotion and Resilience Negative trait emotion refers to the tendency for individuals to experience intense, frequent and prolonged emotions, even in the absence of aversive stimuli.15 Research has mainly explored three main types of negative trait emotion – trait anger, trait anxiety and trait depression. Trait anger refers to the disposition to experience intense, frequent and prolonged anger.16 Individuals high on trait anxiety are described as possessing the relatively stable tendency to experience intense, frequent and prolonged anxiety. Trait depression is conceptualised as the inclination to experience intense, frequent and prolonged sadness or depression.17 Karisha George - 9781848883161 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 12:21:07PM via free access Karisha George 5 __________________________________________________________________ Each of these has been linked to emotional and behavioural malfunctioning indicative of an absence of higher levels of resilience. For instance, persons diagnosed with social anxiety disorder have reported significantly higher levels of trait anger.18 Trait anger has also been linked to juvenile delinquency, misuse of alcohol, aggressive and risky behaviour while driving and more ‘close calls’ on the road and minor accidents.19 Trait anxiety is described as ‘a vulnerability factor for…the development of anxious pathology.’20 In addition, high trait anxiety has been shown to negatively impact individuals’ levels of self-esteem – a personality trait described as fundamental to adaptive behaviour.21 Trait depression is referred to as a premorbid risk factor for persistent depression.22 Additionally, in response to victimisation, higher levels of trait depression have been found to promote delinquency.23 Research suggests that a high level of trait emotion exerts its influence by triggering prolonged disruptions. For instance, Tarfate, Kassinove and Dundin24 evaluated the anger experiences of individuals within the community. Participants high on trait anger reported that their angry feelings were generally extremely intense, triggering yelling, screaming, arguing, threatening, making sarcastic and abusive remarks, and physical aggression. This profile resembles the emotional and behavioural chaos described as characteristic of ‘disruption.’25 In addition, these persons described themselves as remaining in this disruptive state for more than a day. This parallels the delayed disruption phase described above. The findings thus suggest that high negative trait emotion generates an intense disruption phase that tends to extend for a prolonged period of time. However, the study’s researchers did not perform any direct analysis of the impact of this intense and delayed disruption on individuals’ wellbeing. Therefore, although the findings propose that individuals high on negative trait emotion may become stuck in ‘disruption,’ there is no evidence to support the impact of this on how they will adapt to adversity. Furthermore, the authors failed to explore how negative trait emotion actually generates this intense and prolonged disruption. Researchers describe the need to understand this relationship. In particular, they highlight the impact of these findings on developing treatments that will enable these individuals to better adjust: …by identifying these processes…(practitioners) may be able to predict which clients are at risk from succumbing to their circumstances, encourage those who have the potential to persevere, and promote development of skills useful in successfully negotiating variations in health.26 Therefore, the need still remains to understand the processes through which negative trait emotion causes individuals to become ‘stuck’ in disruption. Cognition has emerged as playing a lynchpin role. However, several models of Karisha George - 9781848883161 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 12:21:07PM via free access 6 It Is Not What Happens to You __________________________________________________________________ cognition exist in the literature. Although researchers have argued that these different cognitive models interact to