Context

 

 A colleague was recently in a workshop on learning. One of the exercises they did was to explore the meaning of an unknown word without using a dictionary. She chose the word "resilience" and asked the participants what they thought she wanted to say. Some thought it was "saying yes twice" or ¨silencing people¨ or having something to do with chairs.

Do you know what resilience is?

In this section of the course you will learn about this capacity of human beings, what promotes it and how we can develop it.

 


Explanation

9.1 What is resilience?

Resilience is the ability to recover after adversity, to recover after experiencing difficult, painful or traumatic experiences. For some, resilience implies not only getting ahead after a very hard situation, but even growing or being better as a result of this experience (Tarragona, 2012).

To better understand the concept of resilience, click on each question.

What would be an example of resilience?

Imagine a spring: if you squeeze it with a lot of force and then release it, what happens? It returns to its original form. Resilience refers to that: the possibility of returning to the original state after having undergone very strong pressures.

Where does the word come from?

The word comes from the Latin resilire, which means bounce or return. The concept has been used in physics to describe the characteristic of materials that can withstand very large forces and recover their original state; in that case it is called "elasticity" or "resistance".

Why use the word resilience?

Since the word "resistance" had already been used in psychology to refer to something else ("resistance" is often spoken of as the difficulty or opposition a patient has to the treatment of the therapist) the word has been chosen to use the word resilience (Tarragona, 2012).

Positive psychology studies what works well in people's lives, what strengthens us and what helps us to live fully, which is why resilience is an important issue in this area.

Hear more about this interesting topic in the following podcast. You can also check out the text version.


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Risk factors

The risk factors that endanger a person’s good development can be of many types and are usually combined in complex ways.

These include situations such as poverty, premature birth, intrafamily violence, social violence, war, natural disasters, traumatic experiences in general.

In Hawaii, an investigation was conducted in which nearly 700 children were followed up from birth until they were 40 years old.

Most came from very poor families and in many cases from conflicting families. At the age of 18, two thirds of these children had developed problems, but a third of them were adults who worked very well in different areas of their lives and practically all the young people of this last group continued to be successful when they reached 40 (Werner & Smith, 1982).

9.2 Factors that predict Resilience

What helps us to resist the impact of these risk factors?

Yates and Masten (2004) offer a compilation of research findings on factors that promote resilience. These range from the largest, such as the economic and social issues of a country; the "intermediaries" such as communities, schools and families; up to the individual or the characteristics of the person.

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  • Preventive medicine programs
  • Nutrition programs
  • Safe and affordable houses
  • Protection against violence and political persecution
  • Environmental Protection
  • Equal access to opportunities 
  • Safe neighborhoods, with little violence and without the presence of organized crime
  • "Pro-social" organizations such as boy scouts, youth groups and libraries
  • Well-prepared and well-paid teachers
  • Teachers who care about students
  • Co-curricular activities such as music and sports
  • Having had a bond or safe relationship in childhood
  • Have positive relationships with classmates and friends
  • Be able to self-regulate emotions and behavior
  • Self-confidence
  • Self esteem
  • Hope for the future
  • Have talents valued by the group
  • An attractive personality
  • Good intellectual skills
  • Ability to solve problems 
  • A stable and organized environment
  • Good relations between siblings
  • Support of the extended family
  • A close and reliable relationship between the child and an adult person
  • Faith or religiosity
  • Economic possibilities  

 

Types of Resilience

Some authors speak of resilience with a capital "R" and resilience with a lowercase "r".

With a capital "R": Resilience to really serious and traumatic events

With a lowercase "r": Resilience to pressures, stress and small problems of daily life.

  • Reivich and Shatté (2003) say that resilience is not only for those who have suffered traumas, but rather, that it is necessary for all people and that is one of the keys for success and satisfaction in life.

9.3 Strategies for promoting Resilience

There are programs designed to learn to be more resilient: The Mayo Clinic, one of the most important medical centers in the world, has created a resilience program that focuses on training mindfulness, focusing on the present moment and thus diminishing negative thoughts (Resilience Training).

This ability to pay full attention is at the basis of many processes of meditation and stress management, and one of the conditions that facilitate flow experiences.

Among the most recognized resilience training programs are those developed by Dr. Seligman and his team at the University of Pennsylvania. Seligman (2011a) proposes that the key to resilience lies in optimism.

They have studied the "explanatory style" of people and have found that optimistic people tend to explain difficulties as temporary, local and changeable (while pessimists interpret adversity as permanent, generalized and immutable).

Karen Reivich and Jane Gillham lead the Penn Resilience Program, which is a program in which they teach children, youth and teachers in schools to be more optimistic and have found that it reduces their levels of anxiety and depression.

Reivich and Shatté (2003), based on cognitive-behavioral psychology, propose 7 strategies or exercises to be more resilient.

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Ann Masten (2001) says that the most surprising thing about resilience is how frequent it is and what comes from resources that most people have, such as their minds, their families and their communities. And the most important thing: understanding resilience will allow us to cultivate and promote it.


Closure

As you have seen, resilience or the ability to recover is a characteristic that is possessed by many from physical materials, to living beings and people, at a physical and psychological level.

Today, there is a lot of evidence that most people can succeed despite facing traumatic situations, this capacity called resilience may have an innate component, but today we know that it also depends on contextual elements at the social, family, school level, work and personal characteristics that can be cultivated and developed.

For many years, psychology focused on the traumas that affected the lives of people, but in recent times it has become important to study the elements that allow people to overcome these adverse situations and even grow.

Review the following Checkpoint:

Make sure you understand:

  • What resilience is.
  • The socio-economic factors associated with resilience.
  • Family and individual aspects associated with resilience.

References

  • Masten, A. S. (2001). Ordinary Magic. Resilience Processes in Development. The American Psychologist, 56 (3), 227-238.
  • Mayo Clinic (s.f.). Resilience Training (Website). Retrieved from: http://www.mayoclinic.org/resilience-training/
  • Reivich, K., & Shatté, A. (2003). The Resilience Factor: 7 Keys to Finding Your Inner Strength and Overcoming Life's Hurdles. New York, NY, USA: Three Rivers Press.
  • Seligman, M. (2011ª, april). Building Resilience. Harvard Business Review. Recuperado de: http://hbr.org/2011/04/building-resilience
  • Seligman, M.E.P. (2011b). Flourish. New York, NY, USA: Free Press.
  • Palomar J. & J. Gaxiola (Coords), Estudios de Resiliencia en América Latina. Volumen 1. México: Universidad Iberoamericana.
  • Werner, E.E. & Smith, R. E. (1982). Vulnerable but Invincible. A longitudinal study of resilient children and youth. USA: McGraw Hill.
  • Yates, J. & Masten, A. (2004). Fostering the future: Resilience theory and the practice of positive psychology. In P.A. Linley & S. Joseph (Eds.), Positive Psychology in Practice (pp. 521-539). Hoboken, NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons.