The vast majority of the research in stress has demonstrated negative consequences on physical and mental health. Stress is known to contribute to a variety of illnesses, and can exacerbate chronic illnesses. There is even some very exciting research suggesting that stress can hasten the aging of certain brain structures such as the hippocampus, with adverse effects on memory (see Sapolsky, 1992).
The relationship between stress and the aging process is highly complex. On the one hand, although late life is generally considered to be a time of extreme stress, due to bereavement, the loss of social roles, and the advent of chronic illness and subsequent limitations on daily activities, the elderly tend to report fewer life events on standard inventories. However, this may be due to the fact that these inventories tend to sample events which are more common to young adults (e.g., divorces, job loss). Measures which include events which are more common to older adults, such as institutionalization of spouse or divorce of a child) tend to demonstrate little age-related change in the occurrence of life events, although that are age-related differences in the types of stressors. However, older people consistently report fewer hassles, in part due to the loss of social roles such as work and parenting (see Aldwin, 1990).
It is true that the elderly tend to be more vulnerable to physical stressors. For example, the well-known decrease in the ability to regulate body temperature can make the elderly more susceptible to the effects of both cold and heat, as the recent epidemic of deaths among the elderly during last summer's heat wave sadly demonstrated. However, there is little evidence to suggest that the elderly are more vulnerable to psychosocial stressors. Further, in the absence of cognitive impairments, older adults tend to maintain their coping abilities. While they may report fewer coping strategies than younger adults, there is no evidence that the efficacy of their coping strategies decrease, suggesting either that they may become more efficient dopers and/or that they are simply expending their resources in a different manner than are younger adults (see Aldwin, Sutton, & Chiara, 1993). However, the old-old in particular may use more denial or distancing strategies (McCrae, 1989), especially vis-a-vis the impact of health problems (Johnson & Barer, 1993). Further, one study found that all of the relationship between age and mental health was indirect, mediated through stress, coping, and appraisal processes (Aldwin, 1991). Thus, the relationship between aging and stress in highly complex.
Even more complex, though, is the relationship between stress and adult development. Setting aside for the moment the debate over whether or not personality change even occurs in adulthood, a major limitation of theories of adult personality development is that they tend not to specify how it is that development occurs, although Erikson (1950) does specify (in somewhat vague terms) the resolution of developmental crises. I believe that the study of the long-term effects of stress can shed light into adult development.
There is a growing literature on the positive effects, or the perceived benefits, of stress. Simply put, people who have undergone extremely stressful circumstances often report that, in the long run, they have achieved certain benefits, including increases in mastery, coping skills, and self-knowledge, enhanced social ties, and changes in values and perspectives (for reviews see Aldwin, 1994; Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1995). While much of this research has been anecdotal or clinical, and may be due in part to "positive illusions" (Taylor & Brown, 1989), there are a handful of studies which suggest that this tendency to perceive benefits may have positive effects on both mental and physical health. For example, Elder and Clipp (1989), using the Terman data, found that veterans who perceived benefits fro their combat exposure during World War II had better mental health. This was supported by Aldwin, Levenson, and Spiro (1994), who found that the effects of combat exposure during World War II and Korea on current symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder were attenuated by the perception of benefits from military service. Purther, Affleck, Tennen, & Croog (1987) found that long-term survival rates were better in men who were able to perceive positive benefits from having had a myocardial infarction.
In a systematic study of this phenomenon, Aldwin, Sutton, & Lachman (in press) found that 80% of two desparate community samples reported positive and/or mixed long-term effects form having major low points in their lives. These people generally had used more problem-focused coping and less escapism in dealing with this low point, and reported higher mastery and lower depression levels. Although cross-sectional, these data suggest that, rather than the simple expenditure of resources, coping with highly stressful events may entail the development of resources which may be useful in averting or attenuating the effects of future events (see Pearlin, Lieberman, Menaghan, & Mullan, 1981).
There are clearly individual differences in this process; not everyone is changed through dealing with major stressors, and whatever may occur is not necessarily positive. Nonetheless, it is interesting to speculate that stress may form a context or opportunity for personality development in adulthood (See Aldwin, 1994). Stress may create uncertainties which force individuals to re-examine their assumption system (cf., Epstien, 1991); coping with major stressors may increase an individual's coping repertoire and thus, his or her sense of mastery. It is precisely this increase in knowledge base, coupled with uncertainty, the Meacham (1990) argued was the (dialectical) basis for the development of wisdom in later life.
In summary, while stress clearly has negative effects on individuals' lives, there is a growing interest in the positive, developmental effects of stress. For example, Virginia O'Leary and Jeannette Ickovicks recently organized a working conference on this topic, sponsored by SPSSI, which brought together a small but disparate group of researchers and clinicians who were investigating these effects in a variety of settings. While there was much disagreement as to the nature and extent of this phenomenon, as well as even which terms to use, there was a general consensus that the key to understanding positive adaptation over the lifespan may well lie in the ability to perceive and derive benefits from stressful situations; who does this, under what circumstances, and how this is accomplished, however, remain open questions.
References
Affleck, G., Tennen, H., & Croog, S. (1987). Causal attribution, perceived benefits and morbidity after a heart attack: An 8-year study. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55, 29-35.
Aldwin, C. (1990). The Elders Life Stress Inventory (ELSI): Egocentric and nonegocentric stress. In M. A. P. Stephens, S. E. Hobfoll, J. H. Crowther, & D. L. Tennenbaum (Eds.), Stress and coping in late life families (pp. 49-69). New York: Hemisphere.
Aldwin, C. (1991). Does age affect the stress and coping process? The implications of age differences in perceived locus of control. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 46, 174-180.
Aldwin, C. (1994). Stress, coping, and development: An integrative approach. New York: Guilford.
Aldwin, C., M. Levenson, M. R., & Spiro, A. III. (1994). Vulnerability and resilience to combat exposure: Can stress have lifelong effects? Psychology and Aging, 9, 33-44.
Aldwin, C., Chiara, G., & Sutton, K. (1993). Stress and coping in older men: Findings form the Normative Aging Study. The Gerontologist (abstract), 33, 248.
Aldwin, C. M., Sutton, K., & Lachman, M. (in press). The development of coping resources in adulthood. Journal of Personality.
Elder, G., & Clipp, E. (1989). Combat experience and emotional health: Impairment and resilience in later life. Journal of Personality, 57, 311-341.
Epstein, S. (1991). The self-concept, the traumatic neurosis, and the structure of personality. In D. Ozer, J. H. Healy, & A. J. Stewart (Eds.). Perspectives in Personality, 3, 63-98.
Erikson, E. (1950). Childhood & society. New Your: W. W. Norton.
Johnson, E. L., & Barer, B. M. (1993). Coping and a sense of control among the oldest old. Journal of Aging Studies, 7, 67-80.
McCrae, R. R. (1989). Age differences and changes in the use of coping mechanisms. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences ,44, 161-169.
Meacham, J. A. (1990). The loss of wisdom. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Wisdom (pp. 181-211). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pearlin, L. L., Leibermann, M. A., Menaghan, E. G, & Mullan, J. T. (1981). The stress process. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 22, 337-356.
Sapolsky, R. M. (1992). Stress, the aging brain, and the mechanisms of neuron death. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Taylor, S., & Brown, J. D. (1988). Illusion and well-being: A social psychological perspective on mental health. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 193-210.
Tedeschi, R. & Calhourn, L. (1995). Trauma and transformation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
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