Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Using Dynamic Systems Theory to Understand “Stress and Coping” and “Trauma and Resilience”

Abstract

Although research is beginning to capture the complex interactions of biopsychosocial variables operating within experiences of stressors and trauma, the bodies of research have remained largely separate and limited. This study describes a scaffold of factors and pathways based on principles from dynamic systems theories (DST) to organize the literatures on stress and coping and trauma and resilience. As a process model, DST provides the language to understand both impact and response to stressors and trauma: not as a list of symptoms but as interactive processes within persons and between persons and their surroundings.

KEYWORDS:

• Dynamic systems theory
• complexity theory
• stress and coping
• trauma and resilience