Resilience Research Paper

Life is full of challenges to overcome. Whether it be something small like failing a test or something big like losing someone you love, hardship is everywhere. When it comes to honor and certainty, resilience is a key part of obtaining and keeping these attributes. Getting through hard times is what matters most in a world full of sadness.

Edward’s says: “Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it's less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you've lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that's good.” (Edwards). This quote from Elizabeth Edwards speaks about how people should respond in the face of adversity and how this response creates a resilient person. A resilient person in the face of adversity will gather their bearings and find a new solution to their original problem. However, people who do not possess this quality are more likely to drop everything and give up. This quote supports my definition because in my definition I state that human resilience is “the ability to come from your lowest point, back to your highest” and Edwards’ quote states that “Resilience is accepting your new reality… and try to put together something that’s good” or in other words, to come back from your low

On the other hand some factors work against one’s resiliency such as an absence of a parent, violence, and abuse. Being resilient is an ability learned throughout a person’s life and experiences. It cannot be taught but must be

During our lives we come across many difficult times in which we learn important skills. However, our actions choose what skills we've gained. For instance, a person who makes rational choices, keeps aware of what these choices do, and never letting the situation over take them have the characteristics of a resilient perosn. People with resilience have a way of dealing with problems in the most effective way possible, like Louie Zamperini, who was lost at sea for months after his plane malfunctioned and crashed. His fight for survival brought forth these traits and caused him to outlive his situation.

Where does personal resilience fit with this? In many respects it is a totally separate area. There is a growing recognition that in these pressurised or stressful times having a good or high level of personal resilience is one of the most effective ways of dealing with potential stress. Whilst this has always been the case, more recently work has been done to identify and break down what is involved in personal resilience.

In this week’s reading, Anna Harrington uses a quote from Victor Frankel: “The last of human freedoms… is the ability to choose one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances. What a great way of restating, “Your response is your responsibility.” (Eggerichs, 2014). She communicates some ideas about resiliency she calls elements: emotional, spiritual, social, family, and physical. (Harrington, 2012).

Nearly 600,000 people participated in The Resilience Project, which commenced in 2014 in a search for those who were immune to diseases that should’ve been impossible to be resistant to. In this research, researchers compared the medical records of a participant with their genes and discovered 13 who were fit, despite possessing genes supposed to had killed them or caused

“Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you’ve lost, or you can accept it and try to put something together that is good” — Elizabeth Edwards. Becoming resilient is not an easy thing to do, because it takes mental strength and time. For example, in the book Once by Morris Gleitzman, a fictional story, Felix the protagonist is a Jewish boy who was able to stay strong despite all the hardships he faced. Felix becomes resilient by putting others before himself which helped him get over the many struggles he was faced with.

Resilience is a term that is often applied to those who have faced hardship and viewed the experience in a positive light as an opportunity to grow and change for the better (Wagnild & Collins, 2009). The definition however seems to vary from place to place. Ungar et al. (2008) stated “definitions of resilience are ambiguous when viewed across cultures" (p.174) which is why the understanding of resilience may be difficult to capture (as cited in Windle, Bennett & Noyes, 2011). Although the literature agrees on several common themes about resilience there are many varying opinions on how to define the concept or the attributing factors. Earvolino-Ramirez (2007) and

Scholars define resilience as the outcome of successful adaptation to adversity (Zutra, Hall, & Murray, 2010). Resilience is the ability to recover from adversities challenges in a manner that leaves an individual more flexible and better able to meet future challenges. Resilience involves an ability to react creatively and constructively to change while recognizing that change is an ongoing part of life (Mikail, 2014). Zutra and Hall identify two core dimensions of resilience:

People have learned to be resilient in order to overcome serious hardships. A person’s resilience can be seen through how they handle bad experiences; to be resilient in the face of adversity. People who never give up and always fight back even when it gets hard are resilient. Some believe that resilience is a trait that can be learned.

The author in this article talks about the concept of resiliency and how it can help the field of genetics to identify protective factors in people diagnosed with serious diseases. There are 13 individuals who have been identified somewhere in the world as having the gene for a serious disease and yet have managed to live healthy lives without symptoms of the disease. This is how the “Resilience project” was first created. Researchers are interested in finding out what do these resilient individuals possess that is serving as a protective factors and how can science build on it so that we can have a better grasp in designing treatments and protocols for genetic serious diseases.

The client shows resilience from her childhood until adulthood while feeling constantly attacked by her family and friends.

The theory of resilience originated from Holling’s (1973) research in the field of ecology in the 1970s. Holing defined resilience as ‘‘a measure of the persistence of systems and of their ability to absorb change and disturbance and still maintain the same relationship between population or state variables” (Holling 1973:14). That is, resilience is the ability of a system to witness change and disturbance and still retain its original form, sustains or maintains the ability of performing its purpose or functions to interrelated elements or structures. The ability of a system to retain its structure or form amidst changes and disturbances stimulates the connection between resilience, innovation and sustainable development. The growth or disturbance of the system can be likened to economic growth or development of the economy as a result of innovation or the introduction of a new product or mode of governance.

In an effort to understand how resilience influences mental health positively, research has found that while facing difficult situations, resilient individuals rely on various individual, social and contextual factors that neutralise or mitigate stressful situations (Hjemdal, 2007; Vanderbilt-Adriance & Shaw, 2008; Zolkoski & Bullock, 2012). Thus, the positive relationship between resilience and mental health could be attributed to the association between positive experiences and risk factors in individuals (Stewart, Reid & Mangham, 1997). Accordingly, it may be predicted that if the factors increasing the possibility of incompatible outcomes are outnumbered by the protective factors, then, this may be an indication of the individual displaying