Does Adversity Really Make Us Stronger?

Pedro_P

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Overcoming obstacles in life is supposed to make us stronger, right?
(Image: © Shutterstock)
▼ In our culture, there's this idea that enduring a tragedy can be good for  your personal growth. You'll have a newfound appreciation for life. You'll be grateful for your friends and family. You'll learn from the experience. You'll become more resilient.
This themeappears in media coverage, timeand again, in the wake of natural disasters and terrorist attacks.
But what does the science say?
Is there actually value in pain and suffering? Was philosopher Frederich Nietzsche onto something when he  said, "That which does not kill us, makes us stronger"?
A powerful narrative
As psychologists, we've been studying  this questionfor the better part of the last decade.
We're not the first to grapple with these questions. Psychologists Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun have written abouthow, after experiencing loss or trauma, people reported feeling a greater appreciation for life, closer to their friends and family, stronger, more spiritual and more inspired. They dubbed this phenomenon "post-traumatic growth."
The appeal of this finding is obvious. It shows there's a silver lining to tragedy. It's also consistent with the biblical theme of redemption, which says that all pain and suffering will ultimately lead to freedom.
The findings also help us make sense of our own lives. Psychologists have  demonstratedthat we like to narrate our lives in terms of the challenges we've confronted and the setbacks we've overcome. We like to believe good things can emerge from a bad turn of events because it's often a key element of the stories we tell about our own lives.
How can you predict a traumatic event?
The cultural narrative of "growth from adversity" might sound compelling.
But our own examination of the existing research on the topic identified some red flags.
For one, it's difficult to collect data on people before and after they've experienced trauma. For example, there's no way of knowing who's going to lose their home in a hurricane.
For this reason, most research on post-traumatic growth has asked people to estimate how much they've changed as a result of their trauma. While this might seem like a sensible way to assess personal growth — you might ask this question of a friend or even yourself — there are significant  problemswith this approach.
Studies have foundthat people  (▪ ▪ ▪)

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chanakyakripa

It's only when subjected to tremendous pressure that coal turns to diamond. So, adversity does strengthen us, because by fighting against the odds, we learn to cope up. At the same time, by too much sharpening of knife, ultimately the blade itself breaks, just as under too much pressure, people breakdown. Ultimately it varies man to man as to how much adversity he can handle successfully.

culsivaji

While it's certainly possible for adversity to lead to new insights and wisdom, science is still unclear about the "when" and "how."