Resilience refers to positive adaptation despite significant adversity or risk. It involves maintaining healthy functioning or recovering quickly after a traumatic event. The document discusses resilience from developmental and clinical perspectives. Key aspects of resilience include external adaptation to social expectations and internal adaptation of well-being. Protective factors within individuals, families, and communities can promote resilience in children and adults facing hardships. Successful aging is defined as maintaining high functioning without disease in older adulthood through engagement and adaptation.

1. Resilience

2. Reference
• Baumgarder (57-67)
• Snyder (102- 109)

3. What is Resilience?
• Ability to bounce back to pre trauma level of
functioning
• According to Masten and Reed (2002) resilience refers
to a class of phenomena characterized by patterns of
positive adaptation in the context of significant
adversity or risk.
• People may not know until confronted with a trauma
• What is resilience, two perspectives
1. Developmental Perspective
2. Clinical Perspective

4. • Resilience is related to
1. External adaptation: meeting the social,
educational, and occupational expectations
of society
2. Internal adaptation: maintaining positive
psychological well being

5. Developmental Perspective
• Two definitions
1. Resilience refers to class of phenomenon characterized by
good outcomes in spite of serious threats to adaptation
or development (Masten, 2001)
2. Resilience refers to maintenance, recovery or
improvement in mental or physical health following
challenge (Ryff and Singer, 2001)
• According to Masten (2001) resilience can occur only
when
a. An individual experiences a ‘significant’ threat or risk that
can produce negative outcomes. Significant threats are
children growing up in abusive homes, who have parents
suffering from mental illness or alcoholism, who are
raised in poverty etc. WITHOUT A RISK, THERE IS NO
RESILIENCE

6. b. Absence of problem behaviour or
psychopathology following adversity. E.g.
children of alcoholic or mentally ill parents
are considered resilient of they don’t develop
substance abuse problems and suffer from
mental illness

7. Clinical Perspectives
• Developmental perspective explained that
children demonstrate resilience when they are
OK and show health outcomes despite of facing
adversity in the adulthood
• Clinical perspective has a different approach. It
investigates how people cope with a specific life
event within a shorter frame of time
• So developmental studies are long term
longitudinal studies of children facing multiple
risks. Clinical perspective focus on short term
reactions to specific events like loss, violence etc

8. • According to clinical perspective, Bonanno (2004) describes
resilience as an ability of adults in otherwise normal
circumstances who are exposed to an isolated and
potentially disruptive event to maintain relatively stable
healthy levels of psychological and physical functioning
• Recovery is different than resilience. Both are different
patterns to response. Recovery is judged by the mental
health criteria (depression or PTSD) for 6 months.
• And then the person is able to gradually return to the level
of mental health existed before the trauma or loss
• Resilience on the other hand involves short term
disturbances in a person’s normal functioning lasting only
for a period of weeks.
• This disturbance is followed by bouncing back from
negative experiences and returning to a health functioning.
This difference was highlighted by Bonanno (2004)

9. Resilience Research
• A lot of Studies are done from the point of
view of developmental perspective
• Resilient children managed to become
competent healthy adults

10. • Rutter (1985) identified several important features of
resilience.
• First, resilience results from exposure, rather than
avoidance, of adverse situations and risk. Resilience is
therefore regarded as an active process.
• Second, previous experiences are believed to play a
role in resilience. Even though resilience refers to
current functioning, previous experiences clearly play a
role as they enabled the development of necessary
skills and strategies.
• Third, resilience deals with risk and protective factors.
Depending on the context, certain factors can function
not only as risk but also as protective factors.

11. Factors relating to resilience (Adults)
• Flexibility: It includes the sense of adaptability, being
able to roll with change, being cooperative, sociable
and tolerant (Richardson, 2002).
• Sense of humour: It helps an individual to make light
of stressful life events, enhances coping mechanisms
and moderates intense emotions (Richardson, 2002).
• Social support: Maintaining meaningful relationships
with peers or family members are consistent with
resilient outcomes (Richardson, 2002).
• Problem solving skills: It includes an ability to think
abstractly, reflectively and flexibly and be able to
attempt alternate solutions for cognitive and social
problems.

12. • Self-determination: It is a feeling that regardless of the
challenges, resilient individuals overcome the
hardships and excel even after failures encountered in
their lives (Rutter, 1985).
• High cognitive level: A high intellectual capacity,
planning ability and an ability to foresee consequences
helps resilient individuals to endure hardships (Frankl,
1959).
• Spirituality: It tends to motivate resilient individuals
towards positive achievement, belief in oneself and
one's uniqueness (Gordon & Song, 1994).
• Internal locus of control: It is the perception of being
able to influence current environment and future
destiny which leads to resiliency (Luthar, 1991).

13. Sources of Resilience and Dangers of
blaming a victim
• Masten (2001) regarded resilience as ordinary magic.
This means resilience does not requires superhuman
abilities. Resilience in the face of challenge is quite
common
• It becomes important not to make the victim realize
that he/she is responsible for the adversity. Eg. Telling
a grieving husband that he needs to “get over” the
death of his wife is insensitive. Victim is not
responsible for the adversity happened with him
• Blaming the victim can increase on adding stress. It is
better that we make the victim understand the
availability of protective factors.

14. • It is not advisable to blame the victim for less
protective factors available
• Resilient Personality- toughness, self
enhancement, optimism, self confidence,
better cognitive skills etc
• Resilience does not only depends on the
inner strength but also the strength given by
the community

15. Sources of Resilience in Children
1. Protective factors within the child
• Good intellectual and problem solving abilities
• Easy going temperament
• Positive self image
• Optimistic outlook
• Ability to regulate emotions
• Talents valued by others
• Sense of humor

16. 2. Protective factors within the family
• Close relationships with family or caregivers
• Warm and supportive parenting
• Minimal conflicts between parents
• Parent’s involvement in child’s education
• Parents having adequate finances

17. 3. Protective factors within the community
• Going to a good school
• Involvement in social organizations
• Living in neighbourhood that involves caring
people
• Living in safe neighbourhood
• Easy availability of public health and social
services

18. • According to Masten (2001), it is important to
know the quality and quantity of protective
factors available to the victim. An individual may
not be able to recover from even the low level
of adversity with less protective factors.
• Also, it is not the nature of adversity that is
important but the availability of protective
factors
• So, according to Masten (2001)
1. Many people show resilience, so it is not a rare
phenomenon, it is actually very common
2. Resilience arises from everyday life and not
super human capabilities

19. Resilience in disadvantaged youth
• Poverty may create additional suffering. Poor
children may have parents suffering from
emotional disturbances, drug addiction, violence,
criminal behaviour
• These children may also have few resources in
form of supportive community agencies, good
quality schools and health care (McLoyd, 1998)
• Despite of this, children may show resilient
personality (Masten, 2001)
• Study by buckner and colleagues (2003)

20. Sources of Resilience in Adulthood and
later life
• Most childhood protective factors also
contribute to adults resilience
• Ryff and Colleagues (2003) stated a model of
wellbeing. These factors are predictors of
resilient responses in adversity and successful
aging
1. Self Acceptance: Person with positive attitude
towards himself
2. Personal Growth: person who has feelings of
continued development, is still excited about
life and learn new things

21. 3. Purpose in life: person who has goals and
beliefs that give direction in life. Life has
meaning
4. Environmental Mastery: feeling of
competence and ability to manage complex
environment. Able to manage family, work,
finances, health etc
5. Autonomy: take initiative, self directed, set
their own standards
6. Positive relations with others: have warm and
satisfying interactions with others

22. Successful Aging
• Factors that lead to strength and resilience in people who
enter the final stages of life
• Older people are happy as compared to people of other
ages
• successful ageing is defined as high physical, psychological,
and social functioning in old age without major diseases
• The term successful aging was made popular in 1987, when
the scientists John Wallis Rowe and Robert Kahn published
an influential book entitled Successful Aging.
• In 1998, Rowe and Kahn expanded their definition to
include three criteria: (a) absence of disease, disability, and
risk factors like high blood pressure, smoking, or obesity;
(b) maintaining physical and mental functioning; and (c)
active engagement with life.

24. • The authors go on to describe how this can be done in
a “preventive fashion” (e.g. anticipating a future or
impending age-related stressor) and then also in a
“corrective” way, which means making adaptations
once a stressor or problem has occurred.
• To adapt, an older person must marshal both internal
resources (attitude, optimism, coping with
challenges) and external resources (available social
support, finances, etc).
• Many studies have shown low rates of psychological
disorders among older adults (Regier etal,1988). But
older people may suffer from loss of loved one and
reduction in cognitive and physical abilities

25. • The main quality of life outcomes in this
model include:
1. Self-evaluation of success
2. Life satisfaction
3. Meaning in life
4. Positive affective state (which basically
means positive mood or emotions)
5. Valued activities

26. • SST is another lifespan theory that helps explain the shift of personal goals and
behaviors with age (Carstensen, 1991, 1995).
• This theory introduces the concept of future time perspective (FTP), which refers
to one’s perception of time and of how much time is left; FTP can be open-ended
or constrained (Rudolph, 2016).
• The pursuit of social goals changes as one ages; younger people view the future
as more distant than older people do.
• Therefore, according to this theory, younger people value future investments and
focus more on goals linked to knowledge acquisition, career planning, and the
development of new social relationships that can potentially pay off in the future.
• Older people, on the other hand, are more focused on current and emotionally
important relationships and goals concerning emotional regulation. Further, they
are less interested in new social contacts because such contacts are less likely to
provide novel knowledge.
• Instead, among older people, their focus shifts to goals that have emotional
meaning; for example, psychological well-being.
• Socio-emotional selective theory (pg 66) elaborate Baumgardner

27. Difference between Post Traumatic
Growth and Resilience
• Refer to Page 67 (first para baumgardner)
• Tedeschi and Calhoun (PTG, 1996)

28. Strategies for Promoting Resilience in
Children and Youth
• Risk-Focused Strategies: Preventing/Reducing Risk and
Stressors (prevent child abuse; reduce teenage
drinking/smoking, prevent homelessness etc)
• Asset-Focused Strategies: Improving Number or Quality of
Resources or Social Capital (parent educational classes,
recreational centers etc)
• Process-Focused Strategies: Mobilizing the Power of
Human Adaptational Systems (build self efficacy; teaching
effective coping strategies etc)
• Snyder (107)

29. Several key aspects of resilience
research (Conclusion)
1. There is no timeline, no set period, for finding strength,
resilient behaviors, and coping skills
2. About one-third of poor, neglected, abused children are
capably building better lives by the time they are
teenagers, according to all resilience studies.
3. Faith-be it in the future, the world at the end of the
power lines, or in a higher power-is an essential
ingredient
4. Most resilient people don't do it alone-in fact, they don't
even try.
5. Setting goals and planning for the future [are] strong
factor[s] in dealing with adversity
6. Believing in oneself and recognizing one's strengths is
important