WHAT IS RESILIENCE?
We have all noticed that individuals who are raised in the same dysfunctional environment will sometimes take very different paths. One may, as in the case of Winston Churchill, become Prime Minister of England, while another may end up with life in prison. Psychologist have studied this phenomenon for years and have found the answer: RESILIENCE. But what is Resilience? The dictionary defines "Resilience" as:
The ability to recover quickly from illness, change, or misfortune; buoyancy.
The property of a material that enables it to resume its original shape or position after being bent, stretched, or compressed; elasticity.
In 1984, Garmezy, Masten, and Tellegen operationalized psychological resilience in one of their earlier projects as, "manifestations of competence in children despite exposure to stressful events." In 1985, Rutter defined psychological resilience as facing ". . . stress at a time and in a way that allows self-confidence and social competence to increase through mastery and appropriate responsibility." In 1994, Masten defined psychological resilience in this manner: "Resilience in an individual refers to successful adaptation despite risk and adversity." She goes on to say, "resilience refers to a pattern over time, characterized by good eventual adaptation despite developmental risk, acute stressors, or chronic adversities." In 1995, Gordon defined resilience this way: "Resilience is the ability to thrive, mature, and increase competence in the face of adverse circumstances. These circumstances may include biological abnormalities or environmental obstacles. Further, the adverse circumstances may be chronic and consistent or severe and infrequent. To thrive, mature, and increase competence, a person must draw upon all of his or her resources: biological, psychological, and environmental."
We have seen that some individuals are naturally more resilient, bouncing back from adversity that can cause trauma and life long disability to others. We also know that Resilience can be learned, and strengthened and these learned strengths can help an individuals not only better cope with stressful events in life, but help them make better choices to avoid stress and improve adaptation to the many stressors that we face in everyday life.
Resilience Enhancement can be compared to fluoride treatment for you teeth. In the same sense, Resilience Enhancement can provide a stronger more adaptive skills at dealing with psychological stress and help the individual to be more functionally adaptive and therefore lessen the need for Mental Health interventions.
The P.R.E.P. program utilizes a strength base approach that emphasizes individual and family strengths in order to instill and strengthen Resilience, and improve the individuals overall ability "bounce back" and resume normal life when exposed to psychological stress.
For more information try the Links below:
Institute for Mental Health Initiatives on Resilience
What is Psychological Resilience
APA Helping Kids with Stress and Trauma