CHARACTERISTICS OF POST-TRAUMATIC GROWTH AND RESILIENCE

Abstract

This work examines the peculiarities of the stress factors influence on the human psyche, describes the concept of distress according to H. Selye in the context of traumatic events, in particular war, as well as the possible negative consequences of the distress impact on the human psyche. Possible mechanisms of productive human interaction with stress are resilience and post-traumatic growth, the expediency of distinguishing these two concepts is substantiated, despite their common features. Resilience is considered as a characteristic of a person that helps him/her to act effectively in difficult conditions, and post-traumatic growth is a process that is activated afterwards and as a result of excessive stress and is subjectively experienced as a significant change in such areas of the life as the perception of oneself and life path, life philosophy, communication with others. As the empirical study shows, there is some difference between the manifestations of these phenomena within male and female. This issue needs further development.

Keywords

• adaptation
• war
• stress
• distress
• resilience
• post-traumatic growth