Brian Johnson breaks down Steven Joseph's research on post-traumatic growth: the idea that trauma can coexist with real personal development. Joseph identifies three key capacities that matter: tolerating uncertainty, psychological mindfulness, and a sense of personal agency.
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Steven Joseph
Tolerance of uncertainty; psychological mindfulness; acknowledgment of personal agency.
As an inverted U: too little stress yields little growth, too much causes PTSD; optimal middle stress fuels growth.
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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another optimize plus one. In our last couple 1s we talked about the fact that there are no eudaimonic treadmills and that a eudaimonic orientation is correlated with lower levels of depression. Eudaimonism for the win. We pulled that wisdom out of Steven Joseph's great book what Doesn't Kill Us. I got that book after I saw his testimonial in Positive Psychology and the Body by Kate Heffron. It was another one of those title subtitle combos that just jumped out at me. Of course, the title is a play on Nietzsche's famous dictum what doesn't kill me makes me stronger. While the subtitle perfectly captures the focus of the book the New Psychology of Post Traumatic Growth Stephen is one of the world's leading researchers on the science of post traumatic growth. He is also a professor and therapist. He started his career studying post traumatic stress. In the process, he saw that many people experienced significant growth as a result of the stress they endured. At which point he started developing his ideas on post traumatic growth. Fast forward a few decades and here we are. By the way, Martin Seligman followed a similar track. He started out studying learned health helplessness, discovered that some people, no matter how much stress they endured, maintained optimism, and then shifted his research to learned optimism to figure out what made those people tick. Today we're going to take a super quick look at the science of Post Traumatic Growth. Stephen tells us, I quote, many survivors of trauma have experiences that haunt them for the rest of their lives. Experiences they can never forget. They may struggle for many years with considerable psychological pain. The new psychology of post Traumatic growth does not deny this fact, but rather simply recognizes that there is another side to the coin, that in the midst of great psychological pain there can also be a new recognition of one's personal qualities and a deeper and more satisfying connection to others. He continues by saying three existential themes are at the core of post traumatic growth. The first is the recognition that life is uncertain and that things change. This amounts to a tolerance of uncertainty that in turn reflects the ability to embrace it as a fundamental tenet of human existence. The second is psychological mindfulness, which reflects self awareness and an understanding of how one's thoughts, emotions and behaviors are related to each other, as well as a flexible attitude toward personal change. The third is acknowledgment of personal agency, which entails a sense of responsibility for the choices one makes in life and an awareness that choices have consequences. So post Traumatic Growth. Very importantly, it doesn't deny the fact that trauma can create considerable psychological stress and pain. Steven tells us that the stress is is like an engine for growth. The challenge is to make sure the engine doesn't overheat, as he says. I quote again. But the diagnosis of PTSD does not describe a lifelong condition. It describes a set of problems that a person experiences at a specific point in his or her life. One that when understood properly, can be the engine of post traumatic growth. But this engine can overheat and when it does, we need to stop and check the radiator, thermostat, pump and antifreeze. The point I'm making metaphorically here is that when confronted by adversity, we need to actively search for new emotion regulation and self soothing strategies so as to get ourselves running smoothly again. Now, like so many other things we've discussed, stress following trauma tends to follow an inverted U. Too little stress and there isn't much growth. Too much stress and we run the risk of post traumatic stress disorder rather than post traumatic growth. It's in the middle of that inverted U where we find the optimal level of stress that leads to growth. Helping us understand this point theoretically and then implement the wisdom practically is of course what the book is all about. Let's take a quick look at the three existential themes at the core of post traumatic growth. First, we need to be willing to embrace the uncertainty that is inherently part of life. We run the risk of being unnecessarily fragile if we don't allow room for the inevitable obstacles and challenges and even traumas to be a part of a deeply meaningful life. As Abraham Maslow once said about the self actualizers he studied. The most important learning experiences, he said, were tragedies, deaths and trauma, which forced change in the life outlook of the person and consequently in everything they did. Of course, that doesn't mean that we are expected to enjoy those tragedies per se, but when we allow for the presence of these tough times, we are more likely to find that optimal growth point. Second, we need to practice psychological mindfulness. We want to cultivate self awareness and notice how our thoughts, emotions and behaviors are related to each other while we cultivate a flexible attitude toward change. And third, we need a sense of agency, a belief that we have what it takes to meet those inevitable challenges life throws our way. So here's to practicing our tolerance of uncertainty, psychological mindfulness and sense of agency with the little things today so we can more powerfully use stress as fuel for our growth. For the rest of our lives. One plus one plus one.
