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How Resilience Works 3

The Buzz About Resilience 2

Academic research into resilience started about 40 years ago with pioneering studies by Norman Garmezy, now a professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. After studying why many children of schizophrenic parents did not suffer psychological illness as a result of growing up with them, he concluded that a certain quality of resilience played a greater role in mental health than anyone had previously suspected.

Today, theories abound about what makes resilience. Looking at Holocaust victims, Maurice Vanderpol, a former president of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, found that many of the healthy survivors of concentration camps had what he calls a “plastic shield.” The shield was comprised of several factors, including a sense of humor. Often the humor was black, but nonetheless it provided a critical sense of perspective. Other core characteristics that helped included the ability to form attachments to others and the possession of an inner psychological space that protected the survivors from the intrusions of abusive others. Research about other groups uncovered different qualities associated with resilience. The Search Institute, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit organization that focuses on resilience and youth, found that the more resilient kids have an uncanny ability to get adults to help them out. Still other research showed that resilient inner-city youth often have talents such as athletic abilities that attract others to them.

Many of the early theories about resilience stressed the role of genetics. Some people are just born resilient, so the arguments went. There’s some truth to that, of course, but an increasing body of empirical evidence shows that resilience—whether in children, survivors of concentration camps, or businesses back from the brink—can be learned. For example, George Vaillant, the director of the Study of Adult Development at Harvard Medical School in Boston, observes that within various groups studied during a 60-year period, some people became markedly more resilient over their lifetimes. Other psychologists claim that unresilient people more easily develop resiliency skills than those with head starts.

Most of the resilience theories I encountered in my research make good common sense. But I also observed that almost all the theories overlap in three ways. Resilient people, they posit, possess three characteristics: a staunch acceptance of reality; a deep belief, often buttressed by strongly held values, that life is meaningful; and an uncanny ability to improvise. You can bounce back from hardship with just one or two of these qualities, but you will only be truly resilient with all three. These three characteristics hold true for resilient organizations as well. Let’s take a look at each of them in turn.

有关复原力的学术研究可以追溯到40年前诺曼·伽莫绥的开创性研究，他现在是明尼阿波利斯市明尼苏达大学的名誉教授（已退休）。在研究了精神分裂症父母的孩子为什么没有因为与父母一起长大而患上心理疾病之后，他得出结论，一定程度的复原力在心理健康中发挥的作用比之前任何人所怀疑的都要大。

今天，关于什么是复原力的理论比比皆是。波士顿精神分析学会前会长莫里斯·范德波尔在研究大屠杀受害者时发现，许多集中营里健康的幸存者都有他所说的“塑料盾牌”。这个盾牌由几个因素组成，包括幽默感。这种幽默通常是黑色幽默，但尽管如此，它还是提供了一种批判的视角。其他有帮助的主要特征包括对他人形成依恋的能力，以及拥有保护幸存者免受施虐者侵犯的内部心理空间。对其他群体的研究发现了与复原力相关的不同品质。位于明尼阿波利斯的非营利研究所，主要关注与复原力和年轻人的研究，他们发现适应力越强的孩子有一种不可思议的能力，能让成年人帮助他们走出困境。还有其他研究表明，富有韧性的生活在市中心的年轻人经常具有诸如运动能力之类的才能吸引其他人。

许多关于适应力的早期理论强调了基因的作用。有些人天生就有很强的适应力，所以争论就这么过去了。当然，这是有一定道理的，但越来越多的经验证据表明，无论是儿童、集中营的幸存者，还是绝地生还的企业，他们的复原力都是可以学习的。例如，波士顿哈佛医学院成人发展研究中心主任乔治·瓦兰特在总结了不同人群的长达60年的研究后发现，有些人的复原力会随着时间增长。还有些心理学家声称，那些无复原力的人反而比那些有复原力的人更容易发展出这种能力。

在我所遇到的有关复原力的理论中，有有很好的常识。我注意到，几乎所有的理论在三个方面都有重叠。这些理论都认为，复原力强的人都有三个特点:1. 坚定地接受现实;2. 深信生活是有意义的-通常被坚定的价值观所支撑;3. 还有一种不可思议的即兴创作能力。如果你只拥有一两个特质也能从困难中恢复过来，但你只有在这三个特质都具备的情况下才算是真的拥有复原力。对于那些有复原力的组织来说，它们也同样拥有这些特点。接下来我们依次来聊一聊这三个特点。

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