Becoming Resilient and Overcoming Adversities

Resilience Research - 1998

I came across an article that I took a printout in 2003. The article is " Finding Strength: How to overcome anything" by Deborah Blum published in Psychology Today in May 1998. It is available at:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/199805/finding-strength-how-overcome-anything


The article gives an account of research works and researchers in the field of resilience.


Some interesting information from the article


David Miller, assistant professor of social work at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland

A national news magazine (okay, U.S. News and World Report) published a cover story about resilience research titled "Invincible Children."

Washington, D.C., psychologist Sybil Wolin, Ph.D., with husband and clinical psychiatrist, Steve Wolin, M.D., co-authored the popular book, The Resilient Self.
"We're talking about the capacity to rebound from experience, mixed with all the damage and problems that adversity can cause. It's not an either/or thing.

John DeFrain, Ph.D., a professor of family studies at the University of Nebraska.

* Faith -- be it in the future, the world at the end of the power lines, or in a higher power -- is an essential ingredient. Ability to perceive bad times as temporary times gets great emphasis from Seligman as an essential strength.

Most resilient people don't do it alone. They have or get some support. 


* Believing in oneself and recognizing one's strengths is important. University of Alabama psychologist Ernestine Brown, Ph.D., discovered that when children of depressed, barely functioning mothers took pride in helping take care of the family.

* Recognizing one's own strengths is important. Many people don't. Teaching them such self-recognition is a major part of the approach that the Wolins try when helping adults build a newly resilient approach to life. Resilience can be taught, perhaps by training counselors and psychologists to focus on building strengths in their clients.

Edith Grotberg,  Ph.D., from the University of Alabama, Birmingham.

Edith Grotberg tries to help people organize their strengths into three simple categories:
*I have (which includes strong relationships, structure and rules at home, role models);
* I am (a person who has hope and faith, cares about others, is proud of oneself); and
*I can (ability to communicate, solve problems, gauge the temperament of others, seek good relationships).

"All people have the capacity for resilience," says Grotberg,

Garmezy and Rutter refocused on the coping skills of people in troubled families. Their work laid the foundation for an entire generation of resilience researchers.

Garmezy gives credit to Emmy Werner for nurturing the field.

Ann S. Masten, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota,

The foremost element in transcending trouble is not having to do it alone.

Peg Heinzer, who holds joint nursing appointments at LaSalle University in Pennsylvania and Albert Einstein School of Medicine in New York, studied the ways in which children cope with the death of a parent.