How can the study of physiological react

How can the study of physiological reactivity contribute to our understanding of adversity and resilience processes in development? Obradović, J. (2012). How can the study of physiological reactivity contribute to our understanding of adversity and resilience processes in development? Development and

Psychopathology, 24, 371‐ 387.

2 main systems: autonomic nervous system (ANS) -> Fight or flight      sympathetic, parasympathetic

Measures:  Empirical work reviewed in this article employs non- invasive, peripheral markers of these systems’ responses: typi- cally, preejection period and skin conductance level as measures of SNS, respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) as a measure of PNS, and salivary cortisol as a measure of HPAA.

hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPAA) -> glucocorticoid

early adversity -> heightened physiological reactivity -> psychopathology                                                                                      -> change in adaptive functioning?

stress inoculation

epigenetics      experience -> methylation of DNA (works like a software flag?)

“It is important to note that from an evolutionary perspective, both hyperresponsive and hyporesponsive physiological profiles in the context of adversity may be considered adaptive, as they secure better survival odds and a chance to pass on genes even if they reflect behavioral strategies that include higher levels of aggression, risk taking, and vigilant behavior”

allostatic load: long-term wear-and-tear from stress

diathesis–stress model / dual- risk model, which posits that dual or increased risk arises from an interaction between the child’s internal risk or diath- esis and exposure to environmental risk

“physiological reactivity” (assumed to always be associated with risk) superceded by “biological sensitivity to context”

What the systems do Parasympathetic Nervous System is “level 1 response,” better to deal with problems here rather than go fight-or-flight (SNS) PNS activity reflects one’s ability to engage with and adapt to environmental challenges without activating the metabolically costly flight or fight response, inhibits activation of SNS via vagal brake. (self-regulation—self-soothing behaviors, attention focusing, positive emotion regulation strategies, and higher levels of executive functioning)

HPAA also evolved to respond to direct threat to one’s well-being

Appraisal: Students who were taught to reappraise their arousal as a performance-enhancing experience had higher levels of SNS reactivity and better scores on both practice and actual GRE math tests than students who were not assigned to the reappraisal condition.

Higher cortisol -> more social competence

Thus, as we look forward to the fu- ture, I conclude with the words of the science philosopher Abraham Kaplan that Norm Garmezy frequently quoted to graduate students: “The dangers are not in working with mod- els, but working with too few, and those too much alike, and above all, in belittling any efforts to work with anything else” (Kaplan, 1964, p. 293).