Topic 2: resilience
Momentum’s Ally
Think about a rubber ball. Imagine letting it fall to the ground. What happens? It bounces right back up to you. Now imagine rolling it along the ground. It seems to be able to roll smoothly and bounces over anything that gets in the way. Drop it in a tub fill with water, and it pops right back up to the surface and floats.
A rubber ball has many of the qualities we want as people. When it is thrown down, it bounces right back up; it can get over obstacles and doesn’t think.
Qualities of resilience
Think about someone you know that as encountered adversity but as still succeeded in achieving their goals. What qualities do they have that have helped them to do this?
Type test here (there is no requirement to print or say this reflection)
Characteristics of resilience
You may have thought of things like the ability to pound back, determination, courage, Inner strength, the ability to manage change and transitions, self-confidence, able to roll with life’s punches, a problem-solver. These are characteristics of someone who is resilient. Someone who can bounce back in the face of challenge, roll along smoothly and stay afloat.
Defining resilience
Some of the ways that resilience have been defined include:
- From the latin “ resilins, “ meaning the pliant or elastic quality of a substance
- The positive adaptations despite adversity (Suniya Luthar, Columbia University, 2006)
- “ The process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant source of stress-such as family and relationship problems serious health problems, or workplace and financials stressors. As much as resilience involves “ bouncing back “ from this difficult experiences, it can also involve profound personal growth “ (American Psychological Association, 2020).
Career resilience
What is your definition? Does it match these, or do you define it differently? In career development, the term “ career resilience “ As begun to emerge as a way of illustrating the competencies required for managing turbulent labor market conditions.
Resilience is becoming a major international research topic in the social and health science fields. Career resilience is a highly relevant frontier for career development research and practice-it is essential team in carrier success.
Resilience research
A few years ago, the Canadian Career Development Foundation (CCDF), the organization behind the Learning Center, was asked to develop a grade 12 career development school-based program focused on building career resilience. It was a program to help students as they planned for, prepare for and implement their transition from Secondary School to post secondary, work our other endeavours. Before developing the program, we want to get firmly grounded in resilience research. To do this, we conducted a meta-analysis of the research on resilience across multiple disciplines.
Protective factors
The research try to uncover what produces protective factors- and if the capacity to absorb adverse conditions could be nourished. A meta-analysis suggested three broad categories of factors, and here you will begin to see the connection to carry the movement immediately.
Caring and supportive relationship
This means that you have people in your life that care and support you. They provide the validation that you matter, that you have value and can make contributions to the broader world around you.
Opportunities for Meaningful participation in school and/or in the community
This second Factor links to the first. When you know that you matter and feel that you have value, this can once again be solidified when you are giving opportunities to contribute meaningfully. It can be anything. Some examples could be participating in the school’s music band, volunteering at the seniors home, coaching a sports team, being part of the book club, helping a fundraising effort, becoming an elder and working in an organization that fits with your values.
Having it a person in your life who believes in your capacity to succeed
According to this real resiliency research, adding a person in your life that has high expectations of you are who believes in your ability to succeed is a crucial building block. Concerning this third point, “ success “ is not tied to any occupation. Instead, it refers to a belief that a person will succeed in their life goals, whatever they may be.
Why people are resilient
Resiliency research concludes that:
- Income, financial situation, socio-economic ethnic background did not have the most significant impact on resilience. What appears to make the most significant difference is the caring and confidence of a parent or significant adult, grandparent, sibling, or legal guardian.
- People become resilient because they want to affect change.
- It is also increasingly clear that the skills of resilience can be learned.
Key factors
In CCDF’s research into resilience, we were especially interested in protective factors and how these might be fostered, nurtured and further developed within career development. This research identifies four key factors. Click on each of the image to learn more.
Before After
Internal factors
Intrapersonal factors are those factors that lie within the person. Research suggests that someone with strong self-efficacy, self-worth, a good sense of humor, a sense of purpose and hope is more likely to be resilient in the face of hardship. Intrapersonal factors are relatively stable elements of our personality, but they are changeable and can be learned.
Social /coping skills include both active coping skills, such as problem-solving teamwork and willingness to seek help and the absence of non-productive coping-like negative self-talk.
External factors
Interpersonal supports such as the quality of relationships we have with family, teachers, role models and other network.
Institutional supports such as our connections to the community.
Applying resilience
Notice that these factors are both internal and external. The research is clear that the factors can be learned and acquired. This means that everyone can be resilient.
It is also interesting to consider how many of these are already part of career development outcomes. Think about what you’ve experienced through this course thus far. Take a moment and tick off in your mind any of these four elements you think we touched upon in the career development activities in the course. What ones have you been doing already in your work?
