PERSONALITY PROCESSES AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES What Good Are Positive Emotions in Crises? A Prospective Study of Resilience and Emotions Following the Terrorist Attacks

Extrapolating from B. L. Fredrickson’s (1998, 2001) broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, the authors hypothesized that positive emotions are active ingredients within trait resilience. U.S. college students (18 men and 28 women) were tested in early 2001 and again in the weeks following the September 11th terrorist attacks. Mediational analyses showed that positive emotions experienced in the wake of the attacks—gratitude, interest, love, and so forth—fully accounted for the relations between (a) precrisis resilience and later development of depressive symptoms and (b) precrisis resilience and postcrisis growth in psychological resources. Findings suggest that positive emotions in the aftermath of crises buffer resilient people against depression and fuel thriving, consistent with the broaden-and-build theory. Discussion touches on implications for coping. The following historical summary has become all too familiar. On September 11th, 2001, terrorists hijacked four U.S. passenger planes. Two crashed into New York City’s twin World Trade Center towers, a third crashed into U.S. military headquarters at the Pentagon, outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth crashed in Pennsylvania, missing its intended target. In addition to the hun