A full understanding of psychological trauma requires an acknowledgment of the considerable differences that exist among individuals exposed to potentially traumatizing events. Although all are perhaps vulnerable to developing the now well-defined symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), it is also true that people who have endured calamity, violence, and deprivation differ from one another in myriad ways, such as in the likelihood of their exposure to such events and in their vulnerability to symptom development, in the nature and severity of their symptoms, and in the extent to which their early onset symptoms persist and do or do not develop into signs of severe psychopathology. Those who become symptomatic differ as well in their interpretations of both their experiences and their symptoms and in ...