Hardiness: Turning Stressful Circumstances into Resilient Growth

91 Pages·2013·1.191 MB·English

by  Salvatore R. Maddi (auth.)

SpringerBriefs in Psychology
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Salvatore R. Maddi
Hardiness
Turning Stressful Circumstances
into Resilient Growth
1 3
Salvatore R. Maddi
Department of Psychology
and Social Behaviour
University of California
Irvine, CA
USA
ISSN 2192-8363 ISSN 2192-8371 (electronic)
ISBN 978-94-007-5221-4 ISBN 978-94-007-5222-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-5222-1
Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012946181
© The Author(s) 2013
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This book is dedicated to Deborah M.
Khoshaba, my beloved wife and esteemed
colleague, without whom things would be
very hard for me
Preface
My parents were poor immigrants from Sicily, who came to the United States
for freedom and opportunity shortly after World War I. They worked at odd jobs,
and had four children. As their only son, I was regarded by them as the hope of
the family. They encouraged me to try hard to get an education, and to find some
career that was honorable. In contrast to the other children of immigrants in my
classes, I immersed myself in learning and growing thereby. So, my teachers also
saw me as the hope of my family, and supported my efforts, encouraging me to
continue schooling. With the help of scholarships, I completed my BA and MA
at Brooklyn College, in New York, and my Ph.D. at Harvard, in Cambridge. Step-
by-step, I found myself pursuing an academic career, first at the University of
Chicago, and then at the University of California, Irvine.
vii
Contents
1 The Importance of Resiliency in Daily Living .................... 1
The Naturally Stressful Nature of the Personal Development
Process ..................................................... 1
We Live in the Centuries of Change .............................. 3
The Ongoing Need for Thriving Under Stress ...................... 5
References .................................................. 6
2 Personal Hardiness as the Basis for Resilience .................... 7
Hardiness as the Pathway to Resilience ........................... 8
The Longitudinal Study of Stress at Illinois Bell Telephone ........... 10
Hardiness Helps Turn Stresses into Growth Opportunities ............. 13
References .................................................. 16
3 Thirty Years of Hardiness Validational Research and Practice ...... 19
Hardiness Emerges as a Distinctive Pattern of Attitudes
and Strategies ............................................... 19
Hardiness Improves Health Under Stress .......................... 21
Hardiness Improves Performance and Conduct Under Stress ........... 22
The Relative Effectiveness of Hardiness and Other Individual
Characteristics .......................................... 24
Where Does Hardiness Come From? ............................. 25
References .................................................. 26
4 Hardiness Assessment and Training ............................ 29
The Development and Effectiveness of Hardiness Assessment ......... 29
The Initial Development of Hardiness Training ..................... 31
The First Hardy Coping Step is Situational Reconstruction ............ 32
The Second Hardy Coping Step is Focusing ........................ 33
The Third Hardy Coping Step is Compensatory Self-Improvement ...... 34
The Previous Steps Lead to Formulating and Carrying out
an Action Plan .......................................... 35
The Effectiveness of the Initial Form of Hardiness Training ........... 37
The Further Development of the HardiTraining Program .............. 37
ix
x Contents
The Effectiveness of the HardiTraining Program .................... 38
Becoming a Certified Hardiness Trainer ........................... 40
References .................................................. 41
5 Raising Hardy Children ...................................... 43
The Hardy Attitudes .......................................... 44
Supportive Early Interactions Build the Hardy Attitude
of Commitment ......................................... 44
Early Environments Permitting Mastery Build the Hardy Attitude
of Control .............................................. 45
Ongoing Changes Construed as Richness Build the Hardy Attitude
of Challenge ........................................... 46
The Hardy Strategies .......................................... 47
Parents Need to Emphasize Problem-Solving Coping ................ 48
Parents Need to Emphasize Supportive Social Interactions ............ 49
Parents Need to Emphasize Taking Care of Oneself .................. 49
In all this, Parents Need to Admire, Respect, and Love Their Young ..... 50
References .................................................. 51
6 Applying Hardiness to Teaching and Counseling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Teaching Hardiness in Schools .................................. 53
Obtaining the School’s Approval for the Hardiness Course ............ 54
Effectiveness of the Hardiness Training Course on Students ........... 55
Teaching Hardiness in Counseling ............................... 56
Conformism and Existential Sickness ............................. 57
Specifics of Hardiness Counseling ............................... 58
Case Examples from Hardiness Counseling ........................ 60
References .................................................. 62
7 Hardiness as a Relationship and Work Facilitator ................ 65
The Changing Nature of Relationships and Work Situations ........... 65
The Importance of Learning Through Failures as Well as Successes ..... 66
Deepening Significant Relationships into Intimacy .................. 67
Engaging in Fulfilling Work by Learning all the Time ................ 68
Neither Relationships Nor Work Settings Need Last Forever ........... 68
References .................................................. 69
8 How Hardiness Facilitates Functioning in Military
and Safety Roles ............................................. 71
The Special Importance of Hardiness ............................. 72
Relevant Hardiness Research ................................... 74
How Military and Safety Personnel Need to Function in Times
of Terrorism ............................................ 78
References .................................................. 78
Contents xi
9 The Importance of Hardy Organizations ........................ 79
How Organizations Thrive in Turbulent Times Through Hardiness ...... 80
Culture, Climate, Structure, and Personnel of Hardy Organizations ..... 80
What are the Advantages of Hardi Organizations? ................... 82
What are the Disadvantages of Organizations that are not Hardy? ....... 83
Can Hardi Organizations Be Built Simply Through a
“Greening Effect”? ....................................... 84
Assessing and Developing the Hardiness of Organizations ............ 84
References .................................................. 85
10 The Psychology of Possibility .................................. 87
Chapter 1
The Importance of Resiliency
in Daily Living
Abstract Life is by its nature a changing, and therefore stressful, phenomenon.
One source of stress is the ongoing developmental process that starts with birth,
and continues until death. The other source of stress is megatrends imposed by cir-
cumstances beyond our control, especially in our changing times. Together, these
ongoing stresses need to be turned to advantage by what we learn in dealing with,
rather than denying and avoiding them. Fully engaging in this resilient process is
facilitated by personality hardiness.
Keywords Developmental stresses • Stressful megatrends • Future-oriented 
decisions • Resiliency • Personality hardiness
Lately, there has been increasing emphasis on resilience under stressful circum-
stances, along with the attempt to understand why some people are more resil-
ient than others (e.g., Bonanno 2004; Maddi 1998, 2005). Most of the resiliency
emphasis has been on not losing one’s performance and health, despite the stresses.
There has also been some attention paid to the phenomenon of not just surviving,
but also thriving under stress. A particular example of this is personality hardiness,
which has emerged as a pattern of learned attitudes and skills that helps in turn-
ing stressful circumstances from potential disasters into growth opportunities that
do not only merely maintain, but also enhance performance and health (cf., Maddi
2002, 2005). This book follows along this path. The rfi st step in this process, which
is covered in this chapter, is to consider the inherently stressful nature of living.
The Naturally Stressful Nature of the Personal Development
Process
Due to their continually changing, unpredictable, and demanding processes, the
developmental stages are an ongoing stressful phenomenon for us all (Frankl
1963; Maddi 2004; May et al. 1958). The developmental process begins with
our being pushed out of our mother’s womb, and forced to begin breathing and
S. R. Maddi, Hardiness, SpringerBriefs in Psychology,  1
DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-5222-1_1, © The Author(s) 2013