RESILIENCE: CAUSAL
PATHWAYS AND SOCIAL
ECOLOGY
By
Michael Rutter
450
Resilience
= Relative resistance to
environmental
risk experiences
OR
The overcoming of
stress or adversity
OR
A relatively good
outcome despite risk
experiences
(N.B. It is not just social competence or
positive mental health)
2
Background = Universal finding of
huge individual differences in
people’s responses to all kinds of
environmental hazard
PLUS
Evidence of ‘steeling’ effects in which
successful coping with stress or
adversity can lead to improved
functioning and increased resistance
to stress/adversity
3
RESILIENCE IS AN
INTERACTIVE CONCEPT
It requires demonstration of an effect that
operates in the presence of
stress/adversity but not in its absence i.e.
– NOT the same as competence or well-being
And
– NOT the same as positive influences or
positive mental health
4
IS RESILIENCE JUST A FANCY WAY
OF RE-INVENTING CONCEPTS OF
RISK AND PROTECTION? I
No, because
risk and protection start with a focus on
variables and move to outcomes with an
implicit assumption that the impact of risk
and protective factors will be broadly
similar in everyone, and that outcomes
will depend on the mix and balance
between risk and protective influences
5
IS RESILIENCE JUST A FANCY WAY OF REINVENTING CONCEPTS OF RISK AND
PROTECTION? II
By contrast,
resilience starts with a recognition of the
huge individual variation in people’s
responses to the same experiences, and
considers outcomes with the assumption that
an understanding of the mechanisms
underlying that variation will cast light on the
causal processes and, by so doing, will have
implications for intervention strategies with
respect to both prevention and treatment
6
DO RESILIENCE CONCEPTS REJECT
THE TRADITIONAL STUDY OF RISK AND
PROTECTIVE FACTORS?
NO
because 1) there is an abundance of evidence that
much of the variance in psychopathological
outcomes can be accounted for by the
summative effects of risk and protective factors
because 2) resilience is an interactive concept that
can only be studied if there is a thorough
measurement of risk and protective factors
7
CAN RESILIENCE BE MEASURED DIRECTLY AS
AN OBSERVED TRAIT, RATHER THAN HAVING
TO RELY ON AN INFERENCE BASED ON SOME
KIND OF INTERACTION, HOWEVER ASSESSED?
NO, because it is not a single quality.
People may be resilient in relation to some
sorts of environmental hazards, but yet not
others. Equally, they may be resilient in
relation to some kinds of outcomes but not
others. In addition, because context may
be crucial, people may be resilient at one
time period in their life but not at others
8
LESSONS FROM RESILIENCE
FINDINGS I
1. Resistance to environmental hazards may come
from exposure to risk in controlled
circumstances, rather than avoidance of risk.
c.f. Natural immunity to infections and immunisation
Animal experiments (e.g. Levine) with physical
stressors
Treatment of phobias
California studies (Elder) in the economic
depression
N.B. Paucity of evidence, and great need to consider
both physiological mediation and cognitive/affective
mediation
9
LESSONS FROM RESILIENCE
FINDINGS II
2. Protection may derive from circumstances
that are either neutral or risky in the
absence of the key environmental
hazard
c.f. heterozygote sickle cell status and
malaria
adoption for children exposed to
abuse/neglect
10
LESSONS FROM RESILIENCE
FINDINGS III
3. Protection may derive from what people
do to deal with stress/adversity
(that is, the notion of resilience focuses
attention on coping mechanisms,
mental sets, and the operation of
personal agency. In other words, it
requires a move from a focus on
external risks to a focus on how those
are dealt with)
11
STRATEGIES FOR STUDYING
RESILIENCE
1. Focus on positive turning point effects in
individuals from a deviant background
2. Focus on features associated with
educational/occupational success in
individuals from a disadvantaged
background
3. Focus on individual differences in
outcome following serious
stress/adversity
12
OUT OF THE WOODS: TALES OF RESILIENT
TEENS
by Stuart Hauser, Joseph Allen & Eve Golden,
2006
Follow-up into adult life of 67 young people who
were patients in an inpatient adolescent
psychiatry unit
Comparison of 9 who showed outstanding
resilience and 7 who were 'ordinary'
Three key elements characterised resilience:
1. personal agency and a concern to overcome
adversity
2. a self-reflective style
3. a commitment to relationships
13
SHARED BEGINNINGS, DIVERGENT
LIVES
John Laub & Robert Sampson, 2003
Follow up to age 70 years of Gluecks' sample
of 500 incarcerated adolescent
delinquents and 500 matched nondelinquents
Plus
Detailed life history interviews of 19 desistors,
14 persisters and 19 with a zig-zag course
Turning point effects associated with resilience
Military service
Marriage
Employment
Plus
Human agency
exercising
focussed choice
14
PROTECTIVE ELEMENTS IN
MARRIAGE
1. Social support & commitment
2. Informal social control
3. Change in routines & lifestyle activities
4. Residential change
5. Birth of children and consequent effects
on responsibilities
15
MILITARY SERVICE AND LATER
SOCIOECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT (data
from Sampson & Laub, 1996)
Key predictors of success: Overseas duty
Training under the GI Bill
Lack of a military arrest
but interactions with
Early entry to military service
N.B. effects of military service comparable to those of
measured ability and much greater than SES or
educational achievement
16
ELEMENTS IN EFFECTIVE SCHOOLING
From Rutter et al, 1970, '15,000 Hours'
Crucial role of social experiences is
differentiating between effective and less
effective schools (as judged by pupil
success)
– Academic emphasis & high expectations
– Children treated positively and given multiple
opportunities for responsibility & success
– Teachers provided models of conscientious
behavior together with an interest in, and a
positive response to, pupils' work & other
activities
17
COMMUNITIES FOSTERING
RESILIENCE
Chicago study by Sampson et al (1997) showed that
crime was highest in areas showing social
disorganization and a lack of collective efficacy.
That is, the area differences in crime were not a
result of noxious influences pushing individuals
into crime but, rather, a lack of a positive social
ethos that protected individuals in a high risk
area.
Bruhn and Wolf's (1979 & 1993) study of Roseto in
Pennsylvania showed that an unusually low rate
of deaths from heart disease seemed to derive
from a powerful egalitarian social structure
involving an unusual degree of collective
18
efficacy
OUTLIERS FOR ECONOMIC
SUCCESS
(Gladwell, 2008)
Opportunity
+
Practice
+
Multiplier effect
19
EXAMPLES OF OPPORTUNITY
THROUGH PHYSICAL MATURITY
High proportion of ice hockey stars born in
first 3 months of the year
– Because more physically mature
This led to high intensity training providing
a multiplier effect
Extended practice added to this (cf the
'10,000 Hours Rule')
20
VALUE OF MEANINGFUL
WORK
Autonomy
Complexity
Connection between efforts & reward
21
TERMAN'S STUDY OF BOYS
WITH AN IQ OF AT LEAST 140
Follow-up showed
– 1/5th outstandingly successful in adult life
But
– 1/5th strikingly unsuccessful (dropping out of
college & struggling in their work)
22
DIVERGENT PARENTING
STYLES (Lareau, 2003)
'Concerted Cultivation'
'Accomplishment of
Natural Growth'
Active intensive
scheduling of activities
Care of children but style
of letting them grow &
develop on their own
Expectation that children
compliant & obedient
Expectation that children
talk back, negotiate &
question
Fostering 'sense of
entitlement'
No fostering of active
entitlement
23
RESILIENCE: CAUSAL
PATHWAYS AND SOCIAL
ECOLOGY
By
Michael Rutter
450
SOCIAL CONTEXT: KEY
ELEMENTS
Provision of social support at an individual
level
: emotional
: practical
Provision of community resources
Source of friends & love relationships
25
IMPORTANCE OF
OPPORTUNITY
GI Bill providing entitlement to college
education
Hamburg clubs opportunity for the
'Beatles'
Opportunity of period of economic
expansion
New opportunity of free access to timesharing mainframe computer
Physical maturity
Being part of a smaller birth cohort
26