R&R
Resilience & Response Shift
By Myrna Tracy
Oct, 2010
Resilience
Resilience
A person’s capacity to
negotiate stressful
events to promote
adaptation and
psychological growth.
Factors:
• Positive disposition and temperament
attributes
Family support
Practical support
Resilience Scale
• For Resilience Scale, see:
• Wagnild, GM & Young, HM. “Development
and psychometric evaluation of the
resilience scale”. Journal Nursing
Measures, V1, pp. 165-178 (from Strauss,
et. al., 2007).
Response Shift
What does it mean?
Response shift occurs as part of
the adjustment process in that
people are able to change
their priorities and
expectations so that they
come into line with their
changed circumstances.
“The Moving Target”
Response Shift Model
On Being Positive
How to help?
• Discussion re: preferred type of support,
who can provide it & how to get it
• Discuss feelings of inadequacy &
alienation
• Reinforce experiences where others have
been available & trustworthy
How to help continued
• Provide opportunity to consider positive
effects of crisis
• Expand coping repertoire
• Discuss how illness is viewed in terms of
controllability
• Explore family support
How to help continued
• Focus on positive areas of life & set goals
in areas that are valued and going well
• Provide information about how life will be
during & after treatment
• Use externalization and re-internalization
Response Shift Model
Social Comparison Theory
More info…
• Taylor, Shelley & Lobel, Marci.
“Social Comparison activity under threat:
Downward evaluation and upward
contacts”. Psychological Review, V96 (4),
1989, pp. 569-575.
Contact Me
Myrna Tracy
mtracy@bccancer.bc.ca
250-712-3973
References
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Aspinwall, Lisa & MacNamara, Atara. “Taking Positive Changes Seriously:
Toward a positive psychology of cancer survivorship and resilience”. Cancer
Supplement, V104 (11), December 1 2005, pp. 2549-2556.
Brehm, Sharon S., Kasin, Saul & Fein, Steven. Social Psychology, 6th Edition.
Boston: Houghton Miflin Company, 2005.
Friborg, Oddgeir, Sorlie, Tore, Rosenvinge, Jan. “Breast cancer: A manual for a
proposed group treatment integrating evidence based resilience factors”.
Psychological Reports, V97, 2005, pp. 77-97.
Harrington, Christina. “Professional Knowledge of Secondary Traumatic Stress
(STS): Moving us forward or holding us back?”. Canadian Social Work, V9 (1),
Autumn, 2007, p. 114.
Rannestad, Toril, et. al. “Quality of life among long-term gynaecological cancer
survivors”. Scandinavia Journal Caring Science, V22, 2008, pp. 472-477.
Schwartz, Carolyn & Sendor, Rabbi Meir. “Helping others helps oneself:
Response shift effects in peer support”. Social Science & Medicine, V 48, 1999,
pp. 1563-1575.
Sharpe, Louise, Butow, Phyllis, Smith, Clair, McConnell, David, & Clarke,
Stephen. “Changes in quality of life in patients with advanced cancer: Evidence
of response shift and response restriction”. Journal of Psychosomatic Research
V58, 2005, pp. 497-504.
References cont’d
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Sprangers, Mirjam & Schwartz, Carolyn. “Integrating response shift into healthrelated quality of life research: A theortetical model”. Social Science & Medicine V48,
1999, pp. 1507-1515.
Strauss, Bernhard et. al. “The influence of resilience on fatigue in cancer patients
undergoing radiation therapy (RT)”. Journal Cancer Res Clinical Oncology, V133,
2007, pp. 511-518.
Taylor, Shelley & Lobel, Marci. “Social Comparison activity under threat: Downward
evaluation and upward contacts”. Psychological Review, V96 (4), 1989, pp. 569-575.
Tierney, D. K., Facione, Noreen, Padilla, Geraldine & Dodd, Marylin. “Response
Shift: A Theoretical exploration of Quality of Life following Hematopoietic Cell
Transplantation”. Cancer Nursing, V30 (2), 2007, pp. 125 – 138.
VanderZee, Karen & Buunk, Bram. “Social comparison as a mediator between health
problems and subjective health evaluations”. British Journal of Social Psychology,
V34, 1995, pp. 53-65.
Wilson, Ira. “Clinical understanding and clinical implications of response shift”.
Social Science & Medicine, V48, 1999, pp. 1577-1588.
For Resilience Scale, see:
• Wagnild, GM & Young, HM. “Development and psychometric evaluation of the
resilience scale”. Journal Nursing Measures, V1, pp. 165-178 (from Strauss, et. al.,
2007).