In keeping with the concept of resilience as the capacity to bounce back from stressful experiences, three studies using college students (Tugade and Fredrickson, 2004) provide empirical evidence for this theory.
They demonstrate the use of positive emotions to rebound from stress and to find positive meaning in stressful encounters. In the adult literature it has been demonstrated that positive emotions help to buffer against stress and that the use of positive reappraisal, problem-focused coping and the infusion of events with positive meaning are related to the occurrence and maintenance of positive affect (Folkman and Moskowitz, 2000); this predicts increases in psychological health and well-being (Affleck and Tennen, 1996).
