According to Luthar and Cicchetti (2000), resilience is defined as the process of exhibiting positive adaptation while experiencing significant adversities or traumas. Resilience has two components: adversity and positive adaptation. On the other hand, resilience is thought of as a trait where it expresses certain personal qualities that allows a person to adapt to demands in a positive light. 

When discussing military settings, the Transactional Theory of Stress defines resilience as the interaction between an individual and their environment that results in the achievement and maintenance of effective health and performance while being under stress. The effects of stress on cognitive functioning include cognitive resilience, which is the ability to overcome the negative effects of difficulties and stress on cognitive function or performance. This has been applied to military personnel as having a successful cognitive performance while being under stress can end up resulting and significant consequences.