IMPLICATIONS OF WELL-BEING

PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS
RESILIENCE
• Ann Masten (2001) defines resilience as “a class of phenomenon characterized by good outcomes in
spite of serious threats to adaptation or development”.
• Ryff and Singer (2003) define resilience as “maintenance, recovery, or improvement in mental or
physical health following challenge”.
Resilient responses to challenge are quite common across the life span – a phenomenon Ann Masten calls
“ordinary magic”. The foundations of resilience include psychological resources such as a flexible self-
concept, a sense of autonomy and self direction, and environmental mastery and competence. Social resources
are also important to resilience.
Sources of Resilience: Ann Masten review of relevant research suggests that resilience is best characterized
as ordinary magic. She concludes that resilience in the face of challenge is quite common and does not arise
from superhuman effort or abilities.
People low in resilience may suffer significant symptoms of emotional and physical distress and need
help and support during a long period of recovery while resilient individuals are able to regain their composure
and confidence, and mover forward with their lives.
Sources of Resilience in Children
Based on studies of children and youths, Masten and Reed (2002) have described three general categories of
protective factors.
1. Protective factors within the child
• Good intellectual and problem-solving abilities.
• An easy-going temperament and a personality that can adapt to change.
• A positive self-image and personal effectiveness.
• An optimistic outlook.
• Ability to regulate and control emotions and impulses.
• Individual talents that are valued by the individual and by his or her culture.
• A healthy sense of humor.
2. Protective factors within the family
• Close relationships with parents or other primary caregivers.
• Warm and supportive parenting that provides clear expectations and rules.
• An emotionally positive family with minimal conflict between parents.
• A structured and organized home environment.
• Parents who are involved in their child’s education.
• Parents who have adequate financial resources.
3. Protective factors within the community
• Going to a good school.
• Involvement in social organizations within the school and community.
• Living in a neighborhood of involved and caring people who address problems and promote
community spirit.
• Living in a safe neighborhood.
• Easy availability of competent and responsive emergency, public health, and social services.

Resilience, according to Masten, has more to do with the health of these protective systems than with
the specific nature of the adversity faced. That is, an individual with few protective resources may suffer

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significant negative outcomes in the face of even a low level of adversity. An individual who has most or all
of these protective resources may be able to deal with significant adversity with a minimum of disturbance.
Although a long list of protective factors has been identified, there are notable differences in the extent
to which these factors “protect” along with variability in how and when people call upon particular resources
when facing risks and disadvantages (Harvey & Delfabbro, 2004). One major consideration that may be
ignored in the conceptualization of resilience outcomes is culture. Cultural forces dictate whether researchers
examine positive educational outcomes, healthy within-family functioning, or psychological well-being or
perhaps all three. Secondly, it may be that having “positive feelings about the self, one’s culture, and one’s
ethnic group promote resiliency and are linked to positive behaviors”. Regarding “good adaptation” resilience
researchers agree that external adaptation is necessary in order to determine who is resilient.
Research by Dr. Emmy Werner on resilience of high-risk children (deficits in family-poverty, parental
alcoholism and domestic violence) shows that outgoing disposition and the physical and social resources
maybe important for resilience.
HOPE
• Hope is defined as goal-directed thinking in which the person utilizes pathways thinking (the
perceived capacity to find routes to desired goals) and agency thinking (the requisite motivations to
use those routes).
Snyder’s Theory of Hope
According to Snyder’s Hope Theory, hope is a life-sustaining human strength comprised of three distinct but
related components:
Goals: Only those goals with considerable value to the individual are considered applicable to hope. Goals
can vary from short-term to long-term, approach-oriented or preventive and in relation to the difficulty
of attainment.
Pathways thinking: Pathways thinking and positive self- talk relate to the production of alternate routes
when original ones are blocked.
Agency thinking: Greater capacity for agency thinking endorse energetic personal self-talk statements,
whcih produce perseverance when encountering impediments.
High hopers have positive emotional sets and a sense of zest whereas low hopers have negative
emotional sets that stems from the histories of goal pursuits. Lastly, high- or low-hope people bring these
overriding emotional sets with them as they undertake specific goal-related activities.
The various components of hope theory can be viewed with the iterative relationship of pathways and
agency thoughts. From the developmental agency-pathways thoughts, emotional sets are taken to specific goal
pursuit activities. Next, the values associated with specific goal pursuits. Sufficient value must be attached to
a goal pursuit before the individual will continue the hoping process. At this point, the pathways and agency
thoughts are applied to the desired goal. Here, the feedback loop entails positive emotions that positively
reinforce the goal pursuit process, or negative emotions to curtail this process.
Along the route to the goal, the person may encounter a stressor that potentially blocks the actual goal
pursuit. Hope theory proposes that the successful pursuit of desired goals, especially when circumventing
stressful impediments, results in positive emotions and continued goal pursuit efforts (i.e., positive
reinforcement). On the other hand, if a person’s goal pursuit is not successful (often because that person cannot
navigate around blockages), then negative emotions should result, and the goal pursuit process should be
undermined (i.e., punishment).
Furthermore, such a stressor is interpreted differently depending on the person’s overall level of hope.
That is, high hopers construe such barriers as challenges and will explore alternate routes and apply their
motivations to those routes. Typically having experienced successes in working around such blockages, the
high hopers are propelled onward by their positive emotions. The low hopers, however, become stuck because
they cannot find alternate routes; in turn, their negative emotions and ruminations stymie their goal pursuits.
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Childhood Antecedents of Hope: In brief, Snyder (1994) proposes that hope has no hereditary contributions
but rather is entirely a learned cognitive set about goal-directed thinking. The teaching of pathways and agency
goal-directed thinking is an inherent part of parenting, and the components of hopeful thought are in place by
age two. Pathways thinking reflects basic cause-and-effect learning that the child acquires from caregivers
and others. Such pathways thought is acquired before agency thinking, with the latter being posited to begin
around age one. Agency thought reflects the baby’s increasing insights as to the fact that she is the causal
force in many of the cause-and-effect sequences in her surrounding environment.
Snyder proposed that strong attachment to caregivers is crucial for imparting hope. Traumatic events
across the course of childhood also have been linked to the lessening of hope, and there is research support
for the negative impacts of some of these traumas (e.g., the loss of parents; Westburg, 2001).

Neurobiology of Hope: Although Snyder and colleagues have held that hope is a learned mental set, this does
not preclude the idea that the operations of hopeful thinking have neurobiological underpinnings,
especially as related to goal-directed behaviors.
One exciting new idea is that goal-directed actions are guided by opposing control processes in the
central nervous system. According to Pickering and Gray (1999), these processes are regulated by the
behavioral inhibition system (BIS) and the behavioral activation system (BAS). The BIS is thought to be
responsive to punishment, and it signals the organism to stop, whereas the BAS is governed by rewards, and
it sends the message to go forward. A related body of research suggests a behavioral facilitation system (BFS)
that drives incentive-seeking actions of organisms. The BFS is thought to include the dopamine pathways of
the midbrain that connect to the limbic system and the amygdala.

Scales: Measures of Hope: Using Hope Theory, snyder and colleagues developed several self-report scales.
1. Hope Scale: The Hope Scale was developed by Snyder, Harris and colleagues, it is a 12 item trait
measure for adult ages 16 and older in which 4 items reflect pathways, 4 items reflect agency, and 4
items are distracters. It is an 8-point likert scale (1=definitely false to 8=definitely true).
2. Children’s Hope Scale: Snyder and colleauges developed CHS, a 6 item self-report trait measure
appropriate for children age 8 to 15. Three of the six items reflect agency thinking, and three reflect
pathways thinking. It is a 6-point likert scale (1=None of the time to 6=All of the time).
3. State Hope Scale: Snyder and colleagues developed the SHS, a 6-items self report scale that taps here-
and-now goal-directed thinking. Three items reflect pathways thinking and three items reflect agency
thinking. The response range is 1 = Definitely false to 8 = Definitely true.

What Hope Predicts: Hope Scale scores results related to the predictions is statistically significant and these
findings typically remain, even after mathematical correction for the influences of a variety of other self-report
psychological measures, such as optimism, self-efficacy, and self-esteem. In general, Hope Scale scores have
predicted outcomes in academics, sports, physical health, adjustment, and psychotherapy.
• In the area of academics, higher Hope Scale scores taken at the beginning of college have predicted
better cumulative grade point averages and whether students remain in school (Snyder, Shorey, et al.,
2002).
• In the area of sports, higher Hope Scale scores taken at the beginning of college track season have
predicted the superior performances of male athletes and have done so beyond the coach's rating of
natural athletic abilities (Curry, Snyder, Cook, Ruby, & Rehm, 1997).
• In the area of adjustment, higher satisfaction, positive emotions, getting along with others, etc.
(Snyder, Harris, et al., 1991).
• Additionally, hope has been advanced as the common factor underlying the positive changes that
happen in psychological treatments (Snyder, lardi, Cheavens, et al, 2000).

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 • Recently, the basic premise that Shyder’s hope predicts goal attainment was tested by Feldman, Rand,
and Kahle-Wrobleski (2009). In this research, the agency portion of Snyder’s Hope Scale was found
to most successfully predict goal attainment in college students.

Collective Hope: Collective hope reflects the level of goal-directed thinking of a large group of people. Often,
such collective hope is operative when several people join together to tackle a goal that would be impossible
for any one person. Snyder and Feldman (2000) have applied the notion of collective hope more generally to
the topics of disarmament, preservation of environmental resources, health insurance, and government.
Hope in Current Times: With the election of President Barack Obama, first non White president, Americans
of all ages and races have reported feelings of hope that opportunities that have long been
prevented by racism and discrimination are now opening to a larger group.
Though, hope has often been touted as false, or foolish, it is an interesting change to use hope as a tool
to move forward and to work to solve problems within the United States. This points to an expansion of the
understanding of positive characteristics such as hope, optimism, and self-efficacy and their use in current era
as traits that should be cultivated and used regularly and may represent a paradigm shift in current world.

OPTIMISM
Psychologists have viewed optimism/ pessimism primarily as an individual difference variable describing
people’s general positive or negative expectations about the future. People vary in their degree of
optimism/pessimism and these differences are potentially important to a wide assortment of life activities and
choices. There are two major approaches to Optimism: Dispositional Oprtmism and Optimism as Explanatory
Style.
I. Dispositional Optimism: Scheier and Carver (1992) define dispositional optimism as a global expectation
that the future will bring a bounty of good things and a scarcity of bad things. Pessimism is an opposite
expectation – that the future will have more bad than good outcomes.
Scheier and Carver view optimism in the context of self-regulated actions aimed at the achievement
of personal goals. In the self-regulation model, expectations and confidence become important when people
face challenges and obstacles to goal achievement. Faced with difficulties, optimists believe they can
overcome them and therefore persevere in their efforts. Pessimists, on the other hand, have less confidence
and positive expectations and are likely to become passive or give up their efforts.
Optimism is related to other positive traits. Specifically, dispositional optimism as measured by the
LOT shows moderate positive correlations with traits such as self-mastery and self-esteem, and negative
associations with traits that detract from well-being, such as neuroticism, anxiety, and depression. Scheier and
his colleagues has shown that when the effects of other traits are statistically controlled, optimism remains a
significant and independent predictor of positive outcomes. An optimistic attitude pays significant dividends
in individual health and happiness, particularly when people face difficult life changes.
Optimism and Well-Being: Dispositional optimism is perhaps best regarded as a personal resource that fosters
resistance to distress.
Coping with Distress and Life Transitions. Optimistic women reported fewer depressive symptoms, both
during pregnancy and during the postpartum period, compared to more pessimistic women. During pregnancy,
optimism was associated with less anxiety and an ability to maintain a positive outlook (Park et al., 1997).
People recovering from coronary bypass surgery also benefit from an optimistic attitude (Fitzgerald,
Tennen, Affleck, & Pransky, 1993; Scheier et al., 1989). Men undergoing bypass surgery were surveyed
before, and at several times after their surgery.
Compared to more pessimistic patients, optimists reported less presurgical distress, more confidence
in and satisfaction with their medical care, more relief and happiness shortly after surgery, and greater post-
surgery life satisfaction in the months following their operation.
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 An optimistic attitude is a valuable resource. Studies find that optimistic family caregivers experience
lower levels of depression, better physical health, and less disruption of their daily schedules (Given et al.,
1993; Hooker, Monahan, Shifren, & Hutchinson, 1992).
Aspinwall and Taylor (1992) examined three individual difference variables as potential predictors of
successful adaptation: self-esteem, perceived control, and optimism. They found that optimism was directly
related to measures of successful college adjustment and more effective, active coping.
Physical and Emotional Health. Compared to pessimists, many studies find that people with an optimistic
attitude enjoy better mental and physical health.
• Optimists are less likely than pessimists to suffer from depression.
• Optimists experience less anxiety in adjusting to new life tasks such as medical school and law school.
• Optimists take better care of themselves by not smoking or abusing drugs or alcohol, and by
maintaining a healthy diet, exercising regularly, and following their doctors’ advice in screening for
and treating illness.
• Optimistic people suffering from chronic illnesses such as rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, and
fibromyalgia maintain a more positive daily mood compared to less optimistic people coping with the
same illnesses.
• Following bypass surgery, optimists reach behavioral milestones (such as sitting up in bed, walking,
resuming an exercise routine, and returning to full-time work) more quickly than patients with less
optimistic outlooks (Scheier et al., 1989).
• Levy, Slade, Kunkel, & Kasl, (2002), focused on older adults’ attitudes toward self and aging.
Participants’ attitudes were assessed for as long as 23 years before mortality data were collected. Those
with positive attitudes lived an average of 7.5 years longer than people with more negative views.
II. Optimism as Explanatory Style: One reason optimists do better involves how they explain why bad
things happen. Certain types of explanations soften the blow of disappointments and protect our self-image
and positive view of life.
Seligman and his colleagues have conceptualized optimism and pessimism in terms of explanatory
style, defined as people’s characteristic way of explaining negative events. Originally focused on the thinking
patterns of depressed individuals, studies of explanatory style evolved to describe the differences between
optimistic and pessimistic interpretations of bad life events. The explanation that pessimists give for a
particular setback or misfortune points to causes that are stable, global, and internal. Stable causes are those
that are enduring and unlikely to change in the future. Global refers to general causes that affect almost
everything about a person’s life. Internal causes are those stemming from the traits and beliefs of the
individual.
A pessimistic explanatory style is exemplified by a college student who fails a big math exam and
says, “I’m just no good at math” or “I’m a bad test-taker.” Each of these two explanations refers to stable
causes (e.g., if you’re not good at math today, odds are you won’t be tomorrow, either), global causes (e.g.,
being a bad test-taker will affect performance in all classes) and internal causes (e.g., it’s me; it’s my fault-not
the test or how much I studied). In contrast, an optimist sees disappointments as caused by more unstable,
specific, and external causes. An optimist might offer the following explanations for a failed exam. “I failed
the exam because the instructor didn’t make clear what material would be covered.” “The exam was
ambiguous and unrelated to what we studied in class.” “I had to work late and didn’t have much time to
study.” These interpretations of failure points to unstable causes (e.g., next time the instructor may be more
cleat), specific causes (e.g., I had to work late) and external causes (e.g., it was the poor instructor, a bad test,
or working late-not my lack of ability or laziness, etc.)
Explanatory style is frequently assessed by the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ) or the Content
Analysis of Verbatim Explanations (CAVE).
Studies have shown that people’s explanatory style for negative events is a better predictor of behavior than
their explanatory style for positive events. Research has also found that the internal-external dimension is less
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predictive than the stability and global dimensions. From the perspective of explanatory style, the difference
between an optimist and a pessimist concerns whether bad events are seen as relatively permanent or only
temporary features of life (stable or unstable), and whether they affect most aspects of one’s life (global) or
are limited to particular situations (specific).
Learned Optimism. Abramson, Seligman, and Teasdale (1978) reformulated their model of helplessness to
incorporate the attributions (explanations) that people make for the bad and good things that happen to them.
University of Pennsylvania psychologist Martin Seligman later used this attributional or explanatory process
as the basis for his theory of learned optimism.
A Definition of Learned Optimism
In the Seligman theory of learned optimism, the optimist uses adaptive causal attributions to explain negative
experiences or events – the optimist makes external, variable, and specific attributions for failure-like events
rather than the internal, stable, and global attributions of the pessimist. Simply, the optimist explains bad
things in such a manner as (1) to account for the role of other people and environments in producing bad
outcomes (i.e., an external attribution), (2) to interpret the bad event as not likely to happen again (ie, a variable
attribution), and (3) to constrain the bad outcome to just one performance area and not others (i.e., a specific
attribution).
The optimistic student who has received a poor grade in a high school class would say, “It was a poorly
worded exam” (external attribution), “I have done better on previous exams” (variable attribution), and “I am
doing better in other areas of my life such as my relationships and sports achievements” (specific attribution).
The pessimistic student who has received a poor grade would say, “I screwed up” (internal attribution), “I
have done lousy on previous exams” (stable attribution), and “I also am not doing well in other areas of my
life” (global attribution).
Seligmans theory implicitly places great emphasis upon negative outcomes in determining one’s
attributional explanations. Therefore, Seligman’s theory uses an excuse-like process of “distancing” from bad
things that have happened in the past, rather than the more usual notion of optimism involving the connection
to positive outcomes desired in the future. Within the learned optimism perspective, therefore, the optimistic
goal-directed cognitions are aimed at distancing the person from negative outcomes of high importance.

How Optimism Works.

1. Optimism is a source of motivation. It is much easier to initiate action when we believe our actions will
lead to positive outcomes. This is particularly important when we face obstacles that may tax our persistence.
In the face of disappointments, optimism energizes continued action.
The explanatory style of optimists offers one reason for these motivational benefits. By interpreting
bad events as temporary and limited to specific situations, optimists protect themselves from strong negative
emotional reactions that might undermine confidence and interfere with effective coping.
2. Effective Coping. Optimists are better at dealing with stress. Optimists use active coping strategies aimed
at confronting and solving problems. Aspinwall and Taylor (1992) study of college students’ adjustments to
the stresses of college, found that optimistic students set to work finding ways to deal directly with the
challenges of attending class, preparing for exams, writing papers, and developing new relationships.
Studying, preparing for tests, talking with other students, and planned use of time were among the active
stress-reducing approaches used by optimistic students.
3. Flexibility in the use of different coping approaches. Ness and Segerstrom (2006) suggest that optimists
distinguish between controllable and uncontrollable life stressors and adjust their coping strategies
appropriately. Faced with less controllable threats, such as life-threatening illness, optimists shift their coping
orientation from active problem-solving to more emotion-focused coping based on acceptance of a reality that
cannot be changed. Emotional coping involves finding ways to reduce and manage the emotional
consequences of stressful events and conditions.

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4. An optimistic attitude contributes to more frequent experiencing of positive affect. Optimists may reap
the benefits described by Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. Positive emotions
contribute to more creative problem-solving, offset the effects of negative emotions, enhance resilience in the
face of distress, and increase the likelihood of social support from others. Finally, an optimism-positive
emotion connection would also include the beneficial effects of positive emotions on physical health. Recent
studies strongly suggest that positive emotions may enhance the body’s ability to fight disease.
Varieties of Optimism and Pessimism
Hope Theory. Dispositional optimism focuses on positive expectations for the future that motivate goal-
directed behavior. Optimism as explanatory style focuses on a sense of agency in describing how people stay
on course in achieving their goals by explaining bad events (setbacks) in a way that preserves a positive
attitude. Snyder’s hope theory combines these two elements of expectation and agency in defining hope as
“willpower” and “waypower”. Agency is the willpower that provides the energy and determination to persist
in the pursuit of personally important goals. What Snyder calls “path-ways thinking” is the “waypower,”
which he explains as confidence that routes to desired goals can be identified and, when obstacles are
encountered, alternative routes can be found.
Hope shows substantial correlations with optimism. Hopeful people tend to be optimistic. However,
hope adds the importance of flexible thinking, problem-solving ability, and self-motivation to an
understanding of the coping benefits of optimism .
The Positive Power of Negative Thinking. Norem and her colleagues describe defensive pessimism as
negative thinking that channels anxiety about potential failure into successful achievement.
Defensive pessimism serves three positive functions: First, by setting low expectations (ie., expecting
the worst), this form of pessimism softens the blow of failure if it does occur. Second, by anticipating and
reflecting on worst-case outcomes you can prepare in advance to prevent failure from occurring. Third, if you
are anxious about how you will do in various performance situations, pouring over all the ways you may fail,
and making preparations to avoid each potential source of failure “harnesses” and channels your anxiety into
a productive purpose.
Defensive pessimists perform just as well as optimists, but use a very different strategy. Optimists set
high expectations and avoid extensive thinking about future outcomes. They are confident that things will
work out well. Defensive pessimists set low expectations, are anxious, and worry about failing, but prepare
thoroughly to ensure success.
Despite their performance success, defensive pessimists may pay an emotional price. Related to their
higher levels of performance anxiety and focus on the negatives (what may go wrong), defensive pessimists
show elevated scores on measures of trait anxiety and neuroticism.
Unrealistic Optimism. Another distinction among the varieties of optimism concerns the difference between
realistic and unrealistic optimism. Not all forms of optimism are beneficial. When optimistic expectations
become too far removed from reality, they may do more harm than good. Research by Weinstein has shown
an unrealistically optimistic bias in people’s assessments of their likelihood of experiencing negative life
events such as cancer, heart attacks, romantic failure, serious accidents, alcoholism, and divorce. Failure to
get regular medical check-ups, continuing to smoke, and not using contraceptives to prevent unwanted
pregnancy all reflect the potential dangers of an unrealistically optimistic attitude that discounts
personal susceptibility.

POSITIVE SELF
Self as a source of value has become an important topic. The self-as-object theme underpins constructs from
social, cognitive, behavioural, and narrative psychology and self-as-agent theme is central to theories in the
evolutionary tradition that highlight the biological underpinnings of the self as a conscious agent.

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 High self-esteem and strong self-efficacy beliefs, entailed by the view of self-as-object, contribute to
personal strength and resilience. Coping effectively with life challenges and using adaptive defence
mechanisms to manage intrapsychic conflict are entailed by the view of self-as-agent.

Self-Esteem: William James (1890) defined self-esteem as the feeling of self-worth that derives from the ratio
of our actual successes to our pretensions. In modern psychology, self-esteem is viewed as hierarchically
organised, with overall global self-esteem based on general judgements of self-worth.
Parents accepting their children’s strengths and limitations, authoritative parenting style, role
modeling, problem-solving coping style and high socioeconomic status plays an important role in the
development of self-esteem.
High self-esteem is associated with good personal, social, educational, and occupational adjustment
across the lifespan, positive affectivity, personal autonomy, androgyny, internal locus of control, greater self-
knowledge, setting appropriate goals, fulfilling personal commitments, high achievement, coping well with
criticism or negative feedback, managing stress well, showing low levels of self-criticism and criticism of
others, having the power and skills to influence others, acting in a way we perceive to be moral, and being
accepted and approved of by others.
People with high levels of self-esteem are concerned mainly with enhancing their views of themselves
and seek opportunities to excel and stand out while people with low self-esteem are concerned with self-
protection and avoiding failure, humiliation, or rejection.

Self Efficacy: Perceived self-efficacy refers to beliefs that we hold about our capability to organise and
perform tasks within a specific domain to effectively lead to specific goals.
According to Bandura, in any domain of functioning our efficacy beliefs determine our expectations
about the effects or consequences of our actions. With Bandura’s model there is a reciprocal interaction
between perceived self-efficacy, behaviour, and the external environment. Self-efficacy beliefs are
constructed from four sources of information: mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social persuasion,
and physical and emotional states.
Self-efficacy beliefs regulate functioning through cognitive, motivational, emotional, and choice processes.
• At a cognitive level, people with high perceived self-efficacy show greater cognitive resourcefulness,
strategic flexibility, and effectiveness in managing environmental challenges.
• At a motivational level, people with strong self-efficacy beliefs set challenging goals and expect their
efforts to produce good results.
• Efficacy beliefs regulate emotional states by allowing people to interpret potentially threatening
demands as manageable challenges and by reducing worrying and negative thinking about potential
threats.
• Efficacy beliefs also regulate emotional states by facilitating problem-focused coping to alter
potentially threatening environmental circumstances; by enabling people to solicit social support to act
as a buffer against stress; and by facilitating the use of self-soothing techniques such as humour,
relaxation, and exercise to reduce arousal associated with potentially threatening situations.
Self-efficacy beliefs enhance the functioning of the immune system and lead to better physical health, greater
resilience in the face of stress, and better psychological and social adjustment. Within specific domains such
as work, sports, weight-control, smoking cessation, alcohol use, and mental health problems, the development
of self-efficacy beliefs leads to positive outcomes.

Defence Mechanisms: At the adaptive level, defences regulate negative affect by allowing a balance to be
achieved between unacceptable impulses and prosocial wishes or between demands and coping resources.
This balance maximises the possibilities of gratification. Also, while the balance is being achieved, the

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conflicting impulses and wishes, demands, and personal resources and related emotions are all held in
consciousness. Adaptive defences are as follows:
1. Anticipation involves considering and partially experiencing emotional reactions and the consequences
of these before the conflict or stress occurs and exploring the various solutions to these problematic
emotional states. Anticipation involves both cognitive planning and allowing oneself to experience some
of the affect that may occur in the impending situation and practising regulating it.
Example - a person preparing for a job interview by practicing their answer to tough questions.
2. Affiliation involves seeking social support from others, sharing problems with them and doing this without
making them responsible for the problem or for relieving the distress they entail.
Example – a woman who has had a hard day at work calls a close friend and talks about the conflict
entailed by her aggression towards her boss.
3. Altruism is dedication to meeting the needs of others and receiving gratification from this without
engaging in excessive self-sacrifice.

Example – someone recovering from substance use might volunteer to help others in recovery as a
way to deal with drug cravings.

4. When humour is used as a defence, we reframe situations that give rise to conflict or stress in an ironic
or amusing way. We are all enriched when anxiety and aggression are transformed into humour.
Example – a person joking about his fall/trip in the hallway.
5. Self-assertion involves expressing conflict-related thoughts or feelings in a direct yet non-coercive way.
Example - unacceptable rage at a neighbour for holding a loud party till 4.00 am the night before an
exam, may be managed assertively by asking the neighbour to turn down the music.
6. Self-observation involves monitoring how situations lead to conflict or stress and using this new
understanding to modify negative affect.
Example - noting that pressures to be kind, thoughtful, and to do all the shopping and preparation for
Christmas can lead to unacceptable aggression may lead a person to pace these demands better in
future.
7. Sublimation is the channelling of negative emotions arising from conflict or stress into socially acceptable
activities such as work, sports, or art.
Example - channelling aggression associated with being bullied to being a professional boxer.
8. Suppression is the intentional avoidance of thinking about conflict or stress.
Example - consciously setting aside thoughts and feelings associated with a conflictual work meeting
when going for a drink with a friend after work involves suppression.
In a 50-year longitudinal study, Professor George Valliant(2000) at Harvard University found that the use of
positive defences in early adulthood was predictive of midlife psychosocial functioning, social support,
subjective well-being, marital satisfaction, and income. The use of adaptive defences was also associated with
less disability in middle life and greater resilience against developing depression in the face of multiple life
stresses.

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Coping Strategy: The idea of coping strategies was developed within the cognitive-behavioural tradition to
explain how we consciously manage situations in which external demands (such as exams) outstrip personal
resources (such as our memory of the material being examined).
Coping strategies are consciously used to manage situations in which there is a perceived discrepancy
between stressful demands and available resources for meeting these demands (Aldwin et al., 2010).
Coping strategies may include:
• Emotion-focused coping strategies are appropriate for managing affective states associated with
uncontrollable stresses such as bereavement.
• For controllable stresses such as college examinations or job interviews, problem-focused coping
strategies, which aim to directly modify the source of stress, are more appropriate.
• In some situations where time-out from active coping is required to marshal personal resources before
returning to active coping, avoidant coping may be appropriate.
For all three coping styles, a distinction may be made between functional and dysfunctional strategies.
Functional problem-focused coping strategies include : accepting responsibility for solving the problem;
seeking accurate information about the problem; seeking dependable advice and help; developing realistic
action plans; carrying out plans either alone or with the help of other people; staying focused by postponing
engaging in competing activities; and maintaining an optimistic view of one’s capacity to solve the problem.
Dysfunctional problem-focused coping strategies include : accepting little responsibility for solving the
problem; seeking inaccurate or irrelevant information; seeking support and advice from inappropriate sources
(such as fortune tellers); developing unrealistic plans, such as winning the lotto; not following through on
problem-solving plans; procrastination; and holding a pessimistic view of one’s capacity to solve the problem.
Functional emotion-focused coping strategy include : Making and maintaining socially supportive and
empathetic friendships. Catharsis, verbally expressing in detail intense emotional experiences and engaging
in processing of emotionally charged thoughts and memories within the context of a confiding relationship.
Seeking meaningful spiritual support. Reframing, cognitive restructuring, and looking at stresses from a
humorous perspective are emotion-focused coping strategies where the aim is to reduce distress by thinking
about a situation in a different way. Relaxation routines and physical exercise are other functional emotion-
focused coping strategies used to regulate mood in a highly deliberate way.
Dysfunctional emotion-focused coping strategies include : making destructive rather than supportive
relationships; seeking spiritual support that is not personally meaningful; engaging in long-term denial rather
than catharsis; engaging in wishful thinking rather than constructive reframing; taking oneself too seriously
rather than looking at stresses in a humorous light, misusing drugs and alcohol rather than using relaxation
routines; and engaging in aggression rather than physical exercise. Dysfunctional coping strategies may lead
to short-term relief but in the long term they tend to maintain rather than resolve stress-related problems.
Psychologically disengaging from a stressful situation and the judicious short-term involvement in distracting
activities and relationships are functional avoidant coping strategies.
Functional avoidant coping strategies include : Temporarily mentally disengaging from the problem,
temporally engaging in distracting activities and temporally engaging distracting relationships.
Dysfunctional avoidant coping strategies include :Mentally disengaging from the problem for the long-
term, long-term engagement in distracting activities and long term engagement in distracting relationships.

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References
Baumgardner, S. R., & Crothers, M. K. (2009). Positive Psychology. Pearson.

Carr, A. (2013). Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness and Human Strengths. Routledge.

Snyder, C. R., Lopez, S. J., & Pedrotti, J. T. (2011). Positive Psychology: The Scientific and Practical

Explorations of Human Strengths. SAGE.

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