EDUC10057 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Explanatory Style, Learned Helplessness, Posttraumatic Growth
13 Jun 2018
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Lecture 7: Resilience
●Dealing with challenge & adversity
●A pattern of positive adaptation in the face of significant adversity or risk
●Broad abilities in constructively and positively adapting to risk, adversity, or a monumental negative event
Kauai 30 year longitudinal study
⅓ of high risk children develop into competent, confident, caring adults
Examined 698 children born in 1955
Resilient children possessed 5 core characteristics:
- optimistic
- creative
- social/communication skills
- nurturing surrogate
- religious beliefs
Factors that foster resilience:
Family relationships: positive attachment, authoritative parenting, organized home environment, positive family climate,
connections to prosocial peers, socioeconomic advantage
In the community: effective schools, neighbourhoods with collective efficacy, high public safety, good public health, ties to
pro-social organizations
In the child: problem solving skills, self-regulation and self-control, positive self-perceptions or self-efficacy, positive outlook
on life
Adults and children show similar clusters
Theoretical models:
Explanatory style:
●negative event > pessimistic explanatory style > permanent, pervasive, and personal
●negative event > optimistic explanatory style > temporary, limited, and not only due to you
Classical conditioning in dogs: theory of learned helplessness:
●prior to shuttle box > experimentally naive (no previous shock) > first given an inescapable electric shock
●in shuttle box > escapes the electric shock > gives up and lies down, accepting the shock
Findings/implications:
●dogs who had learned to be helpless were taught that their behaviour can affect outcomes again - trained to
unlearn being helpless, and to jump to avoid the shock
●some dogs bounced back right away and others never recovered
●some dogs gave up in brand new situation
Learned helplessness in humans:
●experimentally naive (no prior noise treatment) + escapable noise (had learned to turn off the noise) = learned to
turn off the noise quite easily
●subject to inescapable noise = just sat there
●some humans blamed themselves for failing to escape the noise while others blamed the experimenter
Optimistic explanatory style: view bad events as temporary challenges to overcome > bounce back quickly after challenge
> builds energy/resilience/health
temporary + limited + not only due to me
Pessimistic explanatory style: negative event > causal attribution > permanent, pervasive, and personal response
Post-traumatic growth:
●Self perception - personal strength
●Interpersonal relationships - relating to and appreciation of others
●Philosophy of life - new possibilities and spiritual change
Protective factors for resilience: Masten & Reed
●spirituality
●optimism
●effective problem solving
●faith
●sense of meaning
●self efficacy
●flexibility
●self regulation
●empathy
●close relationships
Ideas to cultivate resilience:
●be aware that you have the capacity to choose your thoughts and whether you believe them
●be mindful of your explanatory style
Document Summary
A pattern of positive adaptation in the face of signi cant adversity or risk. Broad abilities in constructively and positively adapting to risk, adversity, or a monumental negative event. Of high risk children develop into competent, con dent, caring adults. Resilient children possessed 5 core characteristics: optimistic creative social/communication skills nurturing surrogate religious beliefs. Family relationships: positive attachment, authoritative parenting, organized home environment, positive family climate, connections to prosocial peers, socioeconomic advantage. In the community: e ective schools, neighbourhoods with collective e cacy, high public safety, good public health, ties to pro-social organizations. In the child: problem solving skills, self-regulation and self-control, positive self-perceptions or self-e cacy, positive outlook on life. Negative event > pessimistic explanatory style > permanent, pervasive, and personal. Negative event > optimistic explanatory style > temporary, limited, and not only due to you. Classical conditioning in dogs: theory of learned helplessness:
