lecture 5 - resilience and recovery

Stress (Lazarus & Folkman)

Stress is not the event itself, but how the event is appraised (interpreted as threat, challenge, or harmless)

Primary appraisal

Evaluating whether a situation is a threat, challenge, or harmless

Secondary appraisal

Evaluating whether you have the resources to cope and deciding how to respond

Problem-focused coping

Trying to directly change or solve the stressor

Emotion-focused coping

Trying to manage your emotional reaction to the stressor

Reappraisal

Continuously re-evaluating a situation, which can change emotional responses over time

Resilience

The ability to adapt, recover, and “bounce back” from stress or adversity

What resilience is NOT

Not avoiding hardship, but effectively navigating it and potentially growing from it

Indicators of resilience

Emotional balance, quick recovery, flexibility, problem-solving, and growth after adversity

What determines resilience

A mix of protective factors, the nature of the stressor, and the person’s context

Protective factors

Factors like social support that reduce stress and improve well-being

Key finding on social support

Support from family/significant others reduces stress and improves well-being, but friend support may not buffer stress the same way

Patterns of psychological responses

People follow different trajectories after adversity rather than reacting the same way

Resilient trajectory

Little to no distress over time

Recovery trajectory

Initial distress followed by improvement

Delayed distress trajectory

Little distress at first, but worsens later

Chronic/sustained distress trajectory

High distress that continues over time

Key takeaway about trajectories

Resilience is common, even after major trauma

Factors linked to higher resilience

Older age, higher well-being, lower anxiety/loneliness, no prior mental health issues

Factors linked to lower resilience

High anxiety, loneliness, uncertainty, financial stress, substance use

Resilience and personality

Lower neuroticism is linked to higher resilience, while more positive and outgoing traits increase resilience

Broaden-and-build theory

Positive emotions broaden thinking and build long-term psychological resources

Upward spiral of resilience

Positive emotions lead to more resources, which improve coping and generate more positive emotions

Key finding (9/11 study)

Resilient people experienced both negative and strong positive emotions, which helped them cope better

Active ingredient of resilience

Positive emotions buffer against stress and help maintain well-being

Adaptation

People tend to return toward baseline well-being after both positive and negative events

Adversity and resilience

Moderate adversity leads to the best outcomes, while too little or too much leads to worse outcomes

Post-traumatic growth (PTG)

Positive psychological change that occurs after struggling with trauma

Domains of PTG

New possibilities, stronger relationships, personal strength, spiritual change, and greater appreciation of life

Key idea of PTG

Trauma can lead not just to recovery, but to meaningful growth

What contributes to PTG

Positive coping strategies and cognitive reappraisal

Meaning (PERMA)

Meaning is one of the five key components of well-being along with emotion, engagement, relationships, and accomplishment

Existentialism

Life has no inherent meaning, and we create meaning through our choices

Absurdism

Life is inherently meaningless, but we should accept this and still live fully

Meaning and resilience

Finding meaning in adversity helps people cope and recover more effectively