Exploring the Psychological Benefits of Hardship / SpringerBriefs in Psychology (PDF)

Eranda Jayawickreme is an assistant professor of psychology at Wake Forest University. He received his PhD in positive and political psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in October 2010 and is broadly interested in questions related to well-being, moral psychology, posttraumatic growth and political psychology. Trained in both psychology and moral philosophy, he graduated with summa cum laude honors from Franklin & Marshall College in 2005 and was awarded the Henry S. Williamson Medal, the college's highest student award presented annually to the outstanding senior of the graduating class. His awards include grants from the John Templeton Foundation, the Asia Foundation/USAID, the Penn Program on Democracy, Citizenship, and Constitutionalism, and the Positive Psychology Center, a Mellon Refugee Initiative Fund Fellowship, and numerous academic awards from Franklin & Marshall College. He currently serves on the executive committee of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology as well as the Advisory Board for the Character Virtue Development Department of the John Templeton Foundation.

Laura Blackie received her Ph.D. in experimental social psychology from the University of Essex in the U.K in January 2012. Currently, she is a research fellow position at the University of Nottingham working on a project examining the testimonies of survivors and perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide. Her research interests are in the area of existential psychology, broadly focusing on what can motivate an individual to engage in intrinsically meaningful and authentic behavior that is specific and relevant to their needs, values, and character. Her research on this topic led to a recent publication in Psychological Science that demonstrated increased prosocial behavior as a function of specific and individuated mortality awareness. Her research has recently been cited in the Huffington Post, and Scientific American.

“The book under review … consists of a thorough and critical review of the field that has become known as PTG within the newly developed Positive Psychology. … this brief volume is both concise and comprehensive; it is up-to-date and highly stimulating. … Finally, while the book is mainly addressed to researchers in the field, it should be of high interest to clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, and any other clinicians involved in dealing with victims of traumatic incidents.” (Victor A. Colotla, PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 62 (8), February, 2017)

“In Exploring the Psychological Benefits of Hardship: A Critical Reassessment of Posttraumatic Growth, Eranda Jayawickreme and Laura E.R. Blackie present a valuable inquiry into the evaluation of posttraumatic growth and the accuracy of posttraumatic growth tests, concluding a need to reexamine how to assess for such changes. … Exploring the Psychological Benefits of Hardship: A Critical Reassessment of Posttraumatic Growth provides a great evaluation of the current state of posttraumatic growth research … .” (Nicholas Minaudo, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Vol. 46, 2017)