Introduction
In the psychological field, resilience can be defined as the ability of the individual to adapt positively to a negative and traumatic condition.
According to many experts, resilience is a capacity belonging to human nature but which is not always activated and, even when activated, does not always lead to positive results. Indeed, the resilience of an individual is influenced by different factors, individual, social and relational. This diversity can explain, for example, why in traumatic and high stress conditions some individuals manage to get out of it without having negative long-term effects, while others "succumb" under the pressure exerted by the traumatic event, in some cases coming to develop true and own psychopathologies.
What is that
What is Psychological Resilience?
Over the years, the definitions attributed to psychological resilience have been different. However, it is possible to describe psychological resilience as the human ability to successfully deal with a very stressful and / or traumatic event that arouses negative feelings and causes suffering, returning to the condition prior to the event in question and coming out reinforced or even transformed .
In other words, psychological resilience can be defined as the ability to face, resist and reorganize in a positive way one's life after having suffered particularly negative and traumatic events.
Please note
Resilience should NOT be confused with resistance, that is, with the ability of a person to resist - therefore to oppose, not to adapt - to particular factors, even though of a negative nature or in any case capable of disturbing normal conditions.
Types of Negative Events
The negative and traumatic events that can put a strain on the individual throughout life are many.
Among the negative events that can disturb the life of an adult, we remember: the death of a spouse or a close family member; divorce or separation; the onset of serious illnesses; job loss and imprisonment.
Among the traumatic events that can severely disturb the lives of young people and children, we find instead: the death of one or both parents; the death of a brother or sister; parents' divorce; the imprisonment of a parent; removal from one's family; the presence of serious pathologies or clearly visible congenital deformities.
Of course, the ones mentioned above are just some of the conditions that can create severe stress and negatively impact the lives of adults and children, as traumatic events capable of disturbing an individual's tranquility are many and can vary depending on the social context in question. which it lives.
However, resilient individuals are able to find the strength to deal with the above situations, coming out of winners and sometimes even improved.
Resilient Individuals
Who are the Resilient Individuals?
Resilient individuals are those who - faced with difficulties and traumatic events - do not give up, but on the contrary, find the strength to move forward and are even able to transform the negative event immediately into a source of learning that allows them to acquire useful skills to improve one's life.
Resilience mechanisms are present in every human being and can be implemented by anyone. Therefore, each person is potentially a resilient individual. However, not everyone is able to put into practice the resilience and, even if the latter should be activated, it is not said that the results obtained are positive and of improvement.
Factors Influencing the Resilient Response of an Individual
The ability to put into practice resilience is different from person to person because it is influenced by various factors. More precisely, the probability of developing a resilient response following a negative and traumatic event is closely related to the presence of the factors described below.
Individual factors
These are characteristics possessed by the individual that can be useful to successfully overcome a traumatic or stressful event. More in detail, a resilient person is generally equipped with:
- Optimism : an optimistic individual interprets the negative events and the problems that derive from it as something transitory which, however, inevitably make part of life. This attitude of the optimistic individual must not be confused with the attempt to diminish the problems.
- Self-esteem .
- Ability to solve problems .
- Communication skills .
- Sense of humor : humor should not be understood as an attempt to ridicule the traumatic events of life, but as the tendency to maintain a certain distance from negative events and the lucidity necessary to solve the problems arising from them. Humor also allows the emotion associated with the traumatic event to be reworked, facilitating communication and sharing of the negative event with others.
- Coping strategies : these are adaptive psychological mechanisms that are put into practice to deal with problems and stress.
- Empathy .
Social factors
Resilience depends not only on the individual and on the characteristics he possesses, but is also influenced by the social context to which he belongs. In particular, individuals well integrated into their social context and / or who receive adequate support from it have a greater chance of successfully overcoming adverse events.
Relational factors
In addition to being dependent on individual and social factors, the development of resilience is also related to the quality of relationships woven by the person, both before and after the negative or traumatic event. In addition to the quality of relationships established, support - practical and emotional - provided by family and friends is also important in the resilient response.
Curiosity
In the implementation of resilience mechanisms, children seem to be more advantaged. This is because, usually, they are able to implement deeper changes and adaptations than adults do, often hampered by their baggage of past experiences and the conception they have of the environment and the people around them.
In support of this, various psychological studies have shown that children victims of violent trauma are able to adapt and react, growing and structuring a healthy personality and a life characterized by stable relationships and also successes, both school and work.
How to put it into practice
How do you practice resilience?
As mentioned, the mechanisms of resilience are present in each individual, even though they can be influenced by different external factors (relationships and social context) evolving and developing throughout the person's life .
If in childhood resilience tends to be an instinctive behavior, in adulthood it should have evolved to become an integral part of the individual's attitude. However, the ability to implement resilience depends very much on the conception individuals have of themselves, of the world and of the people around them. Indeed, if for some people the resilient response to negative events is activated almost automatically, for other individuals the resilience mechanisms are not put into practice due to the low opinion one has of oneself ("I am a failure", "not I succeed ", etc.), due to the consideration one has of others (" the others succeed and I do not ", " the others are better ", etc.) and because of the conception that one has of the surrounding environment, often seen as a dangerous place, unpredictable and full of pitfalls and problems.
To implement resilience it is therefore necessary to change the conception of oneself, of others and of the world . This does not mean assuming an attitude that is excessively - and perhaps even naively - optimistic, but means maintaining a realistic attitude that allows us to adapt to reality in an informed way. This adaptation should be carried out in such a way as to consider negative and traumatic events as opportunities to be exploited and from which to draw useful hints for one's own growth and to improve one's life and not as threats under which to succumb.
Did you know that ...
Some specialists in the field advise the practice of Mindfulness to promote resilience. This practice consists in developing the ability to concentrate in the present and to "detach" oneself from one's thoughts, observing them without judging them, but considering them only for what they are, or products of one's mind. In this regard, it is very interesting to note that the practice of mindfulness derives from the meditation techniques used in Buddhism.
However, despite what has been said so far, it is necessary to point out that the interventions necessary for the development and implementation of resilience can vary from individual to individual, since they are closely related to the situation, the environment and the social context in which we live. The abilities and factors necessary to overcome a certain type of negative event, in fact, can be different from those necessary to overcome another type of negative event (for example, diagnosis of a tumor and natural catastrophe).
Other Types of Resilience
Resilience in Other Areas and Sectors
The term resilience is also used in sectors and fields other than psychology. In fact, we talk about resilience also in:
- Biology : in this context, the term is used to indicate the ability of living organisms to repair themselves after suffering damage.
- Ecology : in this field, with the concept of resilience we want to indicate the capacity of an ecological system to return to the initial state after having undergone modifications or perturbations.
- Computer science : in this case, resilience indicates the ability of a system to adapt to the conditions of use and to resist wear in such a way as to allow continuity in the services provided.
- Material technology : in this context, resilience indicates the ability possessed by a given material to withstand dynamic rupture, determined with a special impact test.
- Sociology : in the sociological field, the concept of resilience refers to the communities. In detail, we talk about resilient communities to indicate those communities that, as a result of traumatic events (for example, natural catastrophes, attacks, wars, etc.) survive by finding the strength and resources not only to recover, but also to start a new growth.
Those mentioned above are just some of the areas in which the concept of resilience is used. As can be seen, despite the diversity of the aforementioned sectors, resilience is still understood as the ability to react and face a perturbation or negative situation, depending on the case, to then return to the initial state prior to the same disturbance or, even, for reach a better state than the starting one.
