When we compare his lists of vulnerability and factors promoting resilience, we notice that the items in the latter list are similar to what Oshio (2002) indicated as the “psychological traits with positive influence to resilience” that we saw earlier. We also notice that Ahmed’s items in the former list are no just the “negative” or absence of those in the latter list. In other words, the profile of a resilient person possessing these “factors promoting resilience” cannot be gained by imagining those who do not have items listed as vulnerability.
There are also some physiological factors implicated in the issue of vulnerability and resilience. It is reported that sympathetic excitation upon trauma is considered a risk factor for PTSD, and capacity to inhibit this excitation is considered a show of resilience（True et al, 1993）. What is paired up with this sympathetic excitation is obviously the vagal tone, and some study suggests that early life episodes of diminished vagal tone may predict poor stress resilience in adults (Bracha, HS., 2004)
Bracha, HS (2004) Can premorbid episodes of diminished vagal tone be detected via histological markers in patients with PTSD? International Journal of Psychophysiology 51:127-133.
To put this in lay terms, if a person faces a serious experience without much emotional reaction and accompanying autonomic agitation, and his memory naturally fades away, he should have good resilience and he is likely to avoid developing PTSD later on.
By the way, this relationship between resilience and sympathetic excitation leads to the pharmacological intervention of PTSD. Pitman et al (2011) studied whether administration of β-blocker (medication which reduces the activity of sympathetic nervous system) can prevent future development of PTSD. His study in 2002 (Pirman, et al, 2002) was still on the stage of pilot study, and we could look forward to its final result in the future.
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