The Resilient Individual

1. The Resilient Individual

2. Review of Major Individual Characters of Resilient Children Intelligence Diligence and Sociability Belief in Self Motivation/Persistence Hope/Optimism

3. Intelligence • IQ Rather Consistently a Strong Predictor of Success (e.g., Morales, 2008, Waugh, Fredickson, & Taylor, 2008) • Benficial Not Only for Academic Success, • But Also Finding Resources • And Adaptation, Attribution, Etc.

4. Personality:Sociability and Diligence • The “Big Five” (In descending order of typical importance to academic resilience, e.g., Furnham et al., 2009, O’Connor and Paunonen, 2007, Friborg et al., 2005) • Conscientiousness • Openness • Emotional Stability • Agreeableness • Extroversion

5. Conscientiousness • “Being painstaking and careful” • (Acting according to the dictates of one’s conscience) • Includes: • Self-discipline • Carefulness • Thoroughness • Organization • Deliberation (the tendency to think carefully before acting) • Need for achievement. • Low tend to be more laid back, less goal oriented, and less driven by success.

6. Openness • Active Imagination • Aesthetic Sensitivity • Attentiveness to Inner Feelings • Preference for Variety • Intellectual Curiosity

7. Emotional Stability • The Tendency to Experience Positive Emotions and Not Overreact to Stressors • Those who score low in emotional stablity are emotionally reactive and vulnerable to stress. • More likely to interpret ordinary situations as threatening, and minor frustrations as hopelessly difficult. • Low Emotional Stability is Also Called Neuroticism

8. Agreeableness • The Tendency to Be Compassionate and Cooperative Rather than Suspicious and Antagonistic Towards Others • Generally Considerate, Friendly, Generous, Helpful, and Willing to Compromise Their Interests with Others.

9. Extroversion • The Tendency to Seek Out Stimulation and the Company of Others. • Enthusiastic, Action-Oriented • Introverts Lack “Social Exuberance” and Activity Levels of Extraverts. • Tend to Seem Quiet, Low-Key, Deliberate, and Less Involved in the Social World

10. Typical CorrelationsBetween Big Five and Grades • From Kaufman, J. C.; Agars, M. D. & Lopez-Wagner, M. C. (2008).

11. Belief in Self: Attribution • Attributions: Explanations of the Causes of Events • I.e., What Does One Attribute as the Cause of an Event or Situation • We Appear to Have a Strong Need to Understand and Explain What Is Going on in the World

12. To What Does One Attribute the Cause of Events • More Specifically, Was the Cause • Oneself (Internal) • Or the Environment (External)

13. (First, an Explanation of Schemas) • An Outline for How a Given Situation Should Proceed • Like a Script for a Play • Or a List of What Should Happen When • E.g., An Evening at a Restaurant

14. Back to Attributions: • The Attribution Process • When Schemas Proceed As Expected, the Situation Grabs Little or No Attention • But, When the Schema Does Not Go As Expected, • The Situation Grabs Attention • And the Person Tries to Figure Out What Happened • (This Can Often Create Emotions, Too) • In Addition, People Try to Explain the Cause of Situations That Are • Very Bad • Important

15. People Seek to Understand the Causes of Situations • To Understand Why (Predict) • To Gain Control of the Situation

16. Three Dimensions of Attributes 1. Internal-External: Whether the Cause Is Inside or Outside the Individual 2. Stable-Unstable: Whether the Cause Is a Rather Permanent Thing or Is a Temporary Thing • E.g., • Internal-Stable: Gender • Internal-Unstable: Hunger

17. 3. Controllable-Uncontrollable: Whether the Cause Can Be Controlled by the Individual • E.g., • Internal-Stable-Controllable: Physical Health (Eating Right, Exercising, Good Attitude, Etc.) • Internal-Stable-Uncontrollable: Genetic Predisposition to a Disease

18. The Actual Thing That Is Attributed to Be the Cause of the Event Is Not As Important As the Type of Attribution. • In Other Words, It Doesn’t Matter What the Presumed Cause Is • What Matters Is Whether You Feel It Is, E.g., Controllable or Not • E.g., It Doesn’t So Much Matter if the Reason You Could or Couldn’t Do Something Is Because of Your Health. • What Does Matter Is Whether You Feel That You Are Control of Your Health.

19. The Stable-Unstable Dimension • Least Studied • And Apparently the Least Important for How It Affects One’s Attitude or Position Towards the Situation

20. The Internal-External Dimension • Historically, the Most Studied of the Three Dimensions

21. Children and Math(Miller, Brickman, and Bolen, 1975) • Had Teachers Use One of Three Methods to Motivate 2nd Grade Students to Do Better in Math 1. Attribution Training • “You Really Work Hard.” • “You Seem to Know Your Arithmetic Assignments Very Well.” 2. Reinforcement Condition • “I’m Proud of Your Work.” • “Excellent Progress.” 3. Persuasion Training • “You Should Be Doing Well in Math.” • You Should Be Getting Higher Grades in Math.”

22. Results • Self-Esteem • The Children in All Conditions Ended With Higher Self-Reported Measures of Self-Esteem • But Those in the Attribution Condition Reported the Highest Levels of Self-Esteem

23. Results (Cont.) • Math Scores • Children in the Persuasion Condition Showed No Increase in Math Scores • Those in the Reinforcement Condition Showed Significant Gains • But Those in the Attribution Condition Showed the Highest Gains in Math Scores • (Standard Error Was Approximately 1.0)

24. Therefore, When People Make Internal Attributions About Themselves, • They May Also Change Their Attitudes and Beliefs About Themselves

25. To Help Instill Internal Attributions: 1. Make Comments When the Person (Yourself or Someone Else) Is Reflecting Upon Why Things Happened 2. Provide Reasons That Denote (Hopefully Positive) Internal Attributions • Note It’s the Person Him/Herself Who Must Come to the Conclusion • You Just May Be Helping Them Form the “Good” Conclusion

26. Internal-External Dimension Errors and Their Implications: • Fundamental Attribution Error • Defn.: People Tend to Assume That Events Have Internal Causes • I.e., That the Reason a Person Does Something Is Because Something Inside (Like Their Will) Them Made Them Do It • As Opposed to Something Outside, Like the Weather

27. Self-Serving Bias • Defn.: People Tend to Attribute • Their Successes to Internal Causes • And Their Failures to External Causes • Likely Borne From a Desire to Maintain a Positive Self-Esteem • While It’s a Skewed and Incorrect View of the World, People Who Adopt It to a Moderate Degree Are Better off on Several Ways • (E.g., Depressed People Tend to Have a More Accurate Self-Image) • The Self-Serving Bias Is Related to Optimism

28. A Pessimistic Explanatory Style Tends to Make One: • Be More Susceptible to Feeling Helpless and Ineffectual • Persist Less • And Perform Worse • Pessimists Are Become More Prone to Disease As They Get Older • Become Depressed More Easily • It’s Like a Diathesis for Depression After Crises • (Compared to an Optimist Style)

29. The Controllable-Uncontrollable Dimension • Personal Control Beliefs • Defn.: The Extent to Which a Person Believes That They Can Control Their Own Life • Two Aspects to It: 1. The Extent to Which the World Is Controllable in an Absolute Sense • I.e.., Whether or Not Anything Could Be Done to Influence It (by Anyone)

30. 2. The Extent to Which the Individual Feels They Can Change It • How Much They View Failure in a Task as Insurmountable • Interrelated with Optimism/Pessimism • In That Pessimists Tend to Be Fatalistic and Not Expect Success • And to Downplay Their Ability to Succeed

31. The Illusion of Control • People Tend to Think the World Is Orderly, Predictable, Sensible, Etc. • Importantly, People Tend to Exaggerate Their Control Over the World • (And Underestimate the Role of Chance) • E.g., Wortman (1975), Putting Two Marbles in a Bowl • Thus, People Tend to Blame Victims for Their Misfortunes • E.g., Janoff-Bulman (1979), Victims of Assault Tend to Blame Themselves • Finding Actions They Could Have Changed to Prevent the Situation

32. The Illusion of a Just World (Lerner, 1965) • We Tend to Attribute Chance Events to The Victim’s Moral Disposition • So, Morally Good People Get Good Results, Morally Bad People Get Bad Results • E.g., Lerner (1970), Randomly Chose Subjects to Be Given Electrical Shocks • The Other, Non-Shocked Subjects Tended to Denigrate the Shocked Subjects

33. Adaptively of the Illusion of Control • When People Lose Their Sense of Control, They Tend to • Seek Information • Experience Pain and Stress More Intensely • Generally React With More Hostility and Anger • Feel Hopeless and Apathetic • Perform More Poorly • These Feelings and Behaviors Decrease When Someone Attempts to Regain Control • In Fact, Some Psychologists (E.g., Taylor, 1988) Believe That Simply Trying to Regain Control Is Very Therapeutic

34. The Benefits of Feeling One Has Control Over Their Life Are Similar to the Benefits of Optimism • The Benefits of Feeling One Has Control Appears to Be in How They Regard Failure • Thus, Instilling a Sense of Control Includes Addressing How That Person Feels About Failure

35. To Help Avoid Feeling Helpless: 1. Change the Person’s Attitude About How Uncontrollable the Environment Is • E.g., By Showing Them (or Yourself) That the Environment Is Not Entirely Uncontrollable • Or by Changing the Environment--if Possible--to One That Is More Controllable

36. 2. “Immunize” the Person to Failure • Like Disease Immunization, Involves Exposing the Person to a Small Amount of the Problem So They Can Learn How to Deal With Large Amounts of It

37. Steps to Immunize: 1. Expose Them to Mild Experiences With Adversity and Failure • (Or Note When These Happen So You Are Ready to Enact the Next Step) 2. Then Help Them Learn: • Control and Mastery of That Sort of Adversity • To Interpret the Adversity With an Optimistic Explanatory Style • I.e., Learn That • Failures Occur, but That They Are • Not Greatly Detrimental • Controllable • And That the Person Is Competent and Able to Maintain Control of Their Life

38. To Help Reverse Feelings of Helplessness 1. Expand the Range of Possible Attributions to Include Stable, Controllable Explanations • E..g., to Show the Person That the Failure May Not Be From Lack of Ability, but Instead: • Too Little Effort (Which Is Likely Among Pessimists) • Ineffectual Strategies • Lack of Experience • (All of Which Are Controllable)

39. 2. Here Too, Nurture an Optimistic Explanatory Style to Also Help Them to Be • More Confident They Have the Skills Needed • More Persevering • (And Often It Is True That the Only Critical Skill People Miss to Succeed Is Perseverance) 3. Also Part of Teaching Optimism (but Worth Separating Out to Emphasize), Is the Benefit of Maintaining a Pleasant Attitude Regardless of the Circumstances • I.e., Not Taking It Failure Too Badly or Too Personally • Yeah, I Know, Easier Said Than Than, but It Can Be Done, and Improves Over Time

40. Motivation and Persistence:The Need to Achieve

41. Two Types of Goals: • Performance Goals • To Demonstrate Competence and Ability • Mastery Goals • To Develop Competence and Ability

42. Performance Goals • Directly Correlated with Outcome. • Getting an “A” on That Spanish Test • Or a “B” • Great in the Short Term • But Have Downsides 1. Are “Shallow” • Not Based on How It’s Achieved • Cheating to Get that “A”

43. 2. Can Undermine Long-Term Performance • Achieving Initial Goal Can make one Less Motivated to Reach Additional Goals • Or Losing Motivation if Initial Goal Is Not Met

44. Mastery Goals • Seeking to Excel in a Skill or Area • Not Getting an “A” in Spanish, but Becoming Fluent in Spanish • I.e., Rewards Are Intrinsic • Challenge Is With Oneself

45. Self-Regulation • The Marshmallow Test • Your Mind Is a Muscle • E.g., Baumeister & Alquist (2009), Kotz • Exercise &Rest • Eat Small Snacks • Plan and Track Progress (Masicampo & Baumeister, 2011)

46. A Final Note on Hope • Hope Helps Academic Achievement (Day et al., 2010) • May Be Independent of Other Aspects of Motivation. • Therefore, May Help Simply to Role Model an Optimistic Hope • Especially if There’s Nothing Else You Can Do