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Theory and Measurement of Resilience: Views from Development

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The Social Ecology of Resilience

Abstract

From its early appearance in the psychological literature through the present, the construct of resilience has met theoretical and methodological obstacles. We believe those impediments to be surmountable. Investigators have debated, but not resolved, the relationships of the construct of resilience to other concepts such as invulnerability, stress resistance, hardiness, and protective factors and they have proposed a variety of methods for the measurement of resilience and related concepts. To advance our explication of the construct, we present two developmental approaches to the study of resilience. The first, based on developmental learning theory, argues that the behavioral seeds of resilience inhere in the predisposing capabilities of the newborn infant. The second, grounded in a holistic/systems developmental perspective, proposes that the telos of development entails a differentiated and hierarchically integrated person-in-environment system with the capacity for flexibility, self-mastery, and freedom. While the two approaches differ in some ways, they share (a) the theoretical assumption that resilience may be seen as constitutional states or traits of developing individuals as they flexibly negotiate changing situational demands, and (b) the methodological assumption that the concept of resilience may be best assessed rigorously through experimental methods.

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Acknowledgements

An ongoing Study Group on “Development, Adversity, and Resilience” and the work described herein were supported by the Brown University Wayland Collegium Fund for the 2009–2010 academic year. We wish to thank the Wayland Collegium as well as our dedicated colleagues who attended the Study Group meetings.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Science, and Human Development & Research, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

    Lewis P. Lipsitt

  2. Department of Education, Center for the Study of Human Development, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

    Jack Demick

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  1. Lewis P. Lipsitt
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  2. Jack Demick
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Correspondence to Jack Demick .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, Dalhousie University, Coburg Road 6414, Halifax, B3H 2A7, Nova Scotia, Canada

    Michael Ungar

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Lipsitt, L.P., Demick, J. (2012). Theory and Measurement of Resilience: Views from Development. In: Ungar, M. (eds) The Social Ecology of Resilience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0586-3_4

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