Presentation by

Dr Roz Gasper
Personal Resilience

February 2020
Today’s Session
• Definitions of resilience
• Scope of resilience
• Resilience as a complex construct
• How do personal experience impact our resilience?
• Reflecting on research: Can resilience be developed?
• Renewal cycles
Resilience and your Personal
and Professional
development
Learning about Individual Change Management through:
o Reflection on experience
o Developing knowledge and understanding of theory and literature
o Improving analytical capability to use theory to reflect on and learn
from experience
o Critically evaluating theory and experience to make appropriate
judgements
o Using insight and learning to plan for future professional and
career development
Resilience is…
• Oxford dictionary definition:

‘the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties’

‘the ability for a substance or an object to spring back into shape.’

An increasingly important and valued skill or capacity in modern

organisations:
‘The self-assurance and resilience of low (Apprehension) scorers are
valued in a range of occupations, especially those that involve positive
self-representation, confident decision making, or dealing with stress…
such as salesperson, manager, executive, banker, marketer, and lawyer…’
Cattell & Schuerger (2003: 113)
 Resilience…
• What does the term
mean to you?
Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for
• Who comes to mind
Meaning when you think of
someone who is very
resilient?
• What characteristics
do these people
possess?
The Scope of Resilience
We can see resilience from two different perspectives:

Narrow conceptualisations e.g. the ability to recover from trauma

Wider definitions that see resilience as an on-going protective capability that enables not
only reactive recovery but also proactive learning and growth through conquering
challenges (Youssef and Luthans, 2007: 778)

Psychological component to Behavioural component is where

resilience which enables people individuals remain effective at home
to maintain mental health and and work and are able to focus on
well-being when faced with relevant tasks and goals and carry then
adversity out
Resilience as a complex
construct
Haglund et al (2007) suggest that rather than resilience being ‘uni-
dimensional’ there are 6 key attitudinal and behavioural factors which
can help maintain wellbeing around periods of stress:

1. Positive attitude, optimism and sense of humour

2. Active coping
3. Cognitive flexibility
4. Moral compass
5. Physical exercise
6. Social support and role models
Components of Resilience
1. Confidence
Competence, effectiveness in coping with
stressful situation, a strong sense of self-
esteem
3. Adaptability
Flexibility and adapting to changing
situations which are beyond our control
and essential to maintaining resilience
2. Social Support
Building good relationships and seeking
support can help individuals to overcome
adverse situations rather than to cope on
their own
4. Purposefulness
Having a clear sense of purpose, clear
values, drive and direction help
individuals to persist and achieve in the
face of set-backs
How does experience effect
resilience?
Stressful experiences

Stressful experiences may Exposure to extreme

predispose people to mood traumatic events may help to
and anxiety disorders because build resilience (Khoshba and
of changes to the Maddi, 1999)
hypothalamic-pituitary-
adrenal axis (Gladstone et al.,
2004)

Resilience = intensity of experience + availability of support +

underlying individual factors

(Chicchetti, 2010)
Can Resilience be
developed?
Nature…
Some suggest that resilience is related to
underlying individual differences e.g.
personality characteristics
Furnham, Crump and Whelan (1997)
suggest that those who test more highly for
stability often have higher levels of
resilience
The relationship between personality as a
nomothetic set of fixed traits would suggest
that resilience is something we are born
with and therefore cannot be developed.
Nurture…
Other research challenges the idea that
resilience is a fixed personal characteristic
Environmental factors play a role, as well as
experience and personal characteristics
(Cooper, Flint-Taylor and Pearn, 2014)
The growth of resilience training would
suggest that resilience is amenable to
change e.g. resilience is developed in Police
training (Steensma et al., 2006) or is used in
organizations to protect employees from
stress and burnout (Artnez et al., 2009)
Reflecting on Resilience:
Resilience and Renewal
‘Stress is a part of our lives and essential to our survival
and adaptation. But if stress becomes chronic , it causes
rifts in our awareness, and eventually erodes our
cognitive, perceptual, and emotional openness and
performance. Fortunately, the human body and mind have
a built in mechanism for renewal in the experiences of
hope , mindfulness , compassion and playfulness.’

Boyatzis and Smith, 2006: 6

Building Resilience: Personal
Renewal
Mindfulness
• “Living in a state of full, conscious awareness of one’s whole self, other people, and the context
in which we live and work.”
• Mindfulness enables us to pay attention to what is happening to us, and to stop the Sacrifice
Syndrome before it stops us.
• People who cultivate mindfulness have more cognitive flexibility, creativity, and problem-solving
skills.

• Hope
• “Enables us to believe that the future we envision is attainable, and to move toward our visions
and goals while inspiring others toward those goals as well.”
• The experience of hope causes changes in our brains and hormones that allow us to renew our
minds, bodies, and hearts.
• Hope engages and raises our spirit, mobilizes energy, and increases resiliency.

Compassionate relationships
• Being in tune with the people around us, understanding their wants and needs, and being
motivated to act on our feelings.
(Boyatzis and McKee, 2005)
References
Arntez, B, Nevedal, D, Lumley, M, Backman, L and Lublin, A. 2009. Trauma resilience training for police:
psychophysiological and performance effects. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology , 24: 1-9
Boyatzis, R. and McKee, A. 2005. Resonant Leadership: Renewing Yourself and Connecting with Others through
Mindfulness, Hope and Compassion . Harvard Business School Press. Boston.
Boyatzis, R. and Smith, M. 2012. ‘Positive Renewal. Can you keep going?’ Leadership Excellence, March: 6
Cattell, H.E.P. & Schuerger, J.M. 2003. Essentials of 16PF Assessment, Wiley
Cicchetti, D. 2010. Resilience under conditions of extreme stress: a multilevel perspective. World Psychiatry, 9: 145-
154
Cooper, C, Flint-Taylor, J and Pearn, M. 2014. Building resilience for success. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Furnham, A, Crump, J and Whelan, J. 1997. Validating NEO personality inventory using assessor’s ratings. Personality
and Individual Differences, 22: 669-675
Haglund, M, Nestadt, P, Cooper, N, Southwick, S and Charney, D. 2007. Psychological mechanisms of resilience:
relevance to prevention and treatment of stress related psycho-pathology. Development and Psychology, 19: 889-
920
Khoshaba, D and Maddi, S. 1999. Early experiences in hardiness development. Consulting Psychology Journal , 51:
106-116
Steensma, H, Den Heijer, M and Stalen, V. 2006. Research note: effects of resilience training on the reduction of
stress and depression amongst Dutch workers . International Quarterly of Community Health Education. 27: 145-159
Youssef, C and Luthans, F. 2007. Positive Organisational Behaviour in the Workplace. Journal of Management, 33:
774-800