Medical Illness and Positive Life Change: Can Crisis Lead to Personal Transformation?

The idea that people experience positive change from struggling with adversity is very old it appears in the oldest literature, both written and oral. However, only recently has this idea generated widespread empirical research attention. People often claim to experience improved relationships with family and friends, a clearer sense of one's own strengths and resilience, changed priorities about what is important in life, or various other positive changes after struggling with stressful or traumatic events. What are we to make of these claims? Can we determine whether perceptions of change reflect real, verifiable change that is, is it possible for someone to believe that he or she has grown while still exhibiting the same old self-defeating behaviors? Or, is the perception of change itself an important meaning reconstruction process? What factors influence personal growth, and what effect does growth have on physical and mental health?