Table 1.
Findings from prospective-longitudinal studies testing the negative predictive value of behavioral paradigms for stress-related dysfunctions
| Function | Behavioral Task Paradigm | Dysfunctions Negatively Predicted by the Paradigm |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Circumscribed pathological fears (as in less severe phobias, panic disorder, PTSD) | Generalized anxiety, despair, anhedonia/amotivation (as in major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, severe PTSD) | ||
| Threat-safety discrimination, learning, and memory | Differential fear conditioning/instructed fear, fear extinction learning | + | − |
| US deflation | 0 | 0 | |
| Controllability | 0 | 0 | |
| Physiological stress reactivity | 0 | + | |
| Affective and attentional stress reactivity (attentional bias) | ++ | ++ | |
| Affective stress recovery | 0 | (+) | |
| Episodic learning and short-term recall (valenced memory biases) | 0 | 0 | |
| Interpretive (appraisal) bias (ambiguous scenario task) | + | + | |
| Positive cognitive reappraisal ability | 0 | 0 | |
| Belief updating | 0 | 0 | |
| Strategy selection | Regulatory selection | 0 | 0 |
| Nonaversive (auxiliary) functions | Perceptual discrimination (pattern separation) | 0 | 0 |
| Reward (appetitive) processing and learning | 0 | 0 | |
| Cognitive control | ++ | − − | |
| Long-term episodic memory (autobiographical memory specificity) | (+) | + | |
Global functions considered useful for optimal stress response regulation (left) are tested with a variety of behavioral paradigms (center). Normal performances or responses in these paradigms (absence of over- or underperformance or over- or underreactions) are hypothesized to be resilience factors (RFs), that is, to show negative prediction of stress-related dysfunctions (right) in prospective-longitudinal studies. Dysfunctions are roughly ordered along a dimension from exaggerated fears (linked to more singular and eventlike stressors) to more generalized anxiety- and depression-type problems (linked to more chronic or repeated and severe stressors) (69, 138). Strength of RF evidence is coded as strong (++ for positive evidence, meaning confirmed presence of an effect; − − for negative evidence, meaning confirmed absence of an effect), weak (+; –), and preliminary [(+); (−)]; 0 designates absence of data. PTSD, posttraumatic stress disorder; US, unconditioned stimulus. See FIGURE 3 for overview of paradigms.