Vulnerability and Resilience
The tragedy happened in Haiti have deepened wounded us. Looking at TV news within so strong, huge horror, desolation, and grief, I saw a few images which shocked me by surprising me. In the first image there was a woman, taken out from rubble, laying on a stretcher, who sang a song for thanking her rescuers. In the second clip a young woman watched at her destroyed house, she raised her arms, singing a song to compassionate herself for the loss. Finally a group of survived orphans play and sing in the middle of ruins. Almost the same happened after the earthquake in L’Aquila. There the famous conductor, Riccardo Muti, organized concert with musicians only from that area to support survived people who lost everything and lived in tent.
The above events and how human beings cope with dramatic situations without being overwhelmed, allow us to think about human resources, specifically what is known as resilient capacity.
If we would examine mankind history we can feel astonished considering how many known and unknown natural disasters, plagues, genocides happened for thousands years. Dinosaurs disappeared together with numerous animal species when they could no more be able to adapt at unexpected change occurred suddenly in their environment. On the opposite side, the mankind survives as specie and as individual after challenging experiences and environmental basic modification. Which are critical characteristics to survive maintaining a positive psychological well-being? Many researchers demonstrate interest to study this issue associated with resilience because its involvement in many aspects of human life.
Based upon positive psychology and constructivism perspectives, let see how resilience is defined by Dr. Ungar, Principal Investigator with the Resilience Research Centre “Resilience is both an individual’s capacity to navigate to health resources and a condition of the individual’s family, community and culture to provide those resources in culturally meaningful ways”. This seems to mean that health could reside in all individuals even when adverse experiential factors are present, since two dimensions seem to be particularly relevant at individual level, i.e. self-efficacy and self-esteem by which people could control and cope with difficulties. Other main personal characteristics include: optimism, altruism, having a moral compass, faith and spirituality, humour, social supports, facing fear, and having a mission. The above psychological elements could not be sufficient to avoid Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or other severe consequences in individuals who have been exposed to extreme stressful situation, unless the community contexts do not provide them with protective factors culturally grounded. Perhaps there could be a predisposition to emotional resilient attitude critical for adapting to adversity by using of emotional resources in a flexible and appropriate way. Probably there is a biological network by which stress-related neurochemicals are interactive and regulate one another. This does not mean that resilience could not be learnt and enhanced through social support and environmental protective factors influenced by specific cultures.
We are witness that the world community is present to give comfort and compassion to Haitian people. Only showing respect to their own set of beliefs and truly understanding their ways of living, then we will help Haitian people to develop resilience in meeting and overcoming challenges with hardiness, to help their children to thrive with the right attunement to the broadest human community. We are part of such musical environment able to empathize by playing and singing their sad, hopeful, trustful, and resilient song.
References
Luthar, S. S. (2006). Resilience in development: A synthesis of research across five decades. In D. Cicchetti & D. J. Cohen (Eds), Developmental Psychopathology: Risk, disorder, and adaptation. Vol. 3 (2th edition). New York: Wiley.
Ozbay, F., Johnson, D.C., Dimoulas, E., Morga, C.A. Charney, D., & Southwick, S. (2007). Social Support and Resilience to Stress: From Neurobiology to Clinical Practice. Psychiatry, 4(5), 35-40.
Ungar, M. (2004). A constructionist discourse of resilience. Multiple Context, Multiple Realities among at-Risk Children and Youth. Youth & Society, 35(3), 341-365.
How to cite this page
Perilli, Gabriella Giordanella (2010). Vulnerability and Resilience. Voices Resources. Retrieved January 15, 2015, from http://testvoices.uib.no/community/?q=colperilli220210
