strategies for personal growth: developing resilience ... · the furman advantage strategic vision...

Strategies for personal growth:

developing resilience across

generations

Keith Anderson, Ph.D

Staff Psychologist, RPI

Agenda1. Where are we now

1. Challenges of the current generation

2. Counseling Center demand

3. The high school experience

2. How have we gotten here

1. A generational shift

2. Parenting styles: The self-esteem/feel good movement

3. Where do we go from here

1. Assessing resilience

2. Drawing the line, providing care vs. encouraging dependence

a. Giving them what they want vs. giving them what they need

b. Providing services – is faster better?

3. Can the trend be reversed: Developmental changes that improve resilience

1. Systemic changes and Individual changes

2. Research agenda

Resiliency• Resiliency: a quality in people to function well

when in distress

• Developed coping techniques that allow people to

effectively and relatively easily navigate around or

through crises

• Synonyms: grit, toughness, hardiness

Defining Resiliency

Counseling Center demand

Students today are less resilient than previous generations.

“They haven’t developed skills in how to soothe themselves, because their parents have solved all their problems and removed the obstacles. They don’t seem to have as much grit as previous generations”

Dan Jones, Ph.D

Past President AUCCCD

“I have done a considerable amount of reading and

research in recent months on the topic of resilience in

college students. Our students are no different from

what is being reported across the country on the state

of late adolescence/early adulthood. There has been an

increase in diagnosable mental health problems, but

there has also been a decrease in the ability of many

young people to manage the everyday bumps in the

road of life. Whether we want it or not, these students

are bringing their struggles to their teachers and others

on campus who deal with students on a day-to-day

basis. The lack of resilience is interfering with the

academic mission of the University and is thwarting the

emotional and personal development of students.”

Less Resiliency = More Psychological

Distress

• Less ability to cope with everyday stressors

• Less self-efficacy

– Internalized sense of self is more negative

• Interpretation of life events more negative

• Less likely to take risks

• Fewer stressful experiences in adolescence

results in less tolerance for distress

VIDEO

• Simon Sinek, cultural anthropology, speaker,

author

Cases of suicidal ideation or attempts

• Ending of a romantic relationship

• Doing poorly on a test

• Not wanting to discuss research progress with their advisor

• Possible judicial dismissal

• Parents not financially supportive

• None of these students had long term problems with depression

How did this occur?

– A generational difference, likely begun during the ‘self-esteem’

movement of early 70’s

– More and excessive parent involvement in their students daily

experiences

– Students have more difficulty tolerating uncomfortable situations

– Recent research suggests that, in this age group, MH problems in

the UK are much less common than in the US

The self-esteem movement

• Improving self-esteem would lead to more

happiness

– If students feel badly about themselves, they will

perform poorly

– Improving self-esteem would resolve many societal

problems

– Some schools stopped using red ink for grading

• Seeing too much red could harm self-esteem

• Winning is helpful to self-esteem

– Everyone gets a trophy for participation

Adolescence and emerging adulthood

18-25 yo

• The search for identity

• Moving towards independence

• Peer influence and acceptance becomes important

• Abstract thinking

• Goal setting/long term planning

• Experiencing change and instability

http://jeffreyarnett.com/ARNETT_Emerging_Adulthood_theory.pdf

Changes in adolescent behavior

• Compared with teenagers in previous decades:– less likely to go to parties,

– Less likely to go out with friends,

– Less likely to go on a date

– Less likely to go to shopping malls or to the movies.

– hold fewer paid jobs

– spending less time with their friends in person

• 1970s, 52 percent of 12th-graders got together with their friends almost every day.

• 2017, only 28 percent got together with their friends almost every day

Jean Twenge - Professor of Psychology, San Diego State University

The young people whose survey answers Twenge analyzes are largely confused, disenchanted, materialistic, relatively uncaring about other people, animals, or the world, lonely, and depressed. They believe in few things outside of themselves. They are terrified of each other and spend less time with other people than ever, having fewer, less meaningful relationships.

Review of: Generation Me - Revised and Updated: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before

Have a drivers license age 20-24

The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute

65

70

75

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85

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1983 2008 2011 2014

Chart Title

Trends in student self-reported distress

as indicated by the CCAPS (Counseling

Center Assessment of Psychological

Symptoms) subscales

• Center for Collegiate Mental Health. (2019, January). 2018 Annual Report (Publication No. STA 19-180).

What have they heard from parents

and teachers?

• Hard work yields success….. always…..

• Success in your career is a critical component of

happiness in life

• You can be anything you want to be, nothing is

impossible

• What you personally want, is most important

– Parents give control of decision making to those not

equipped to make the decision.

Scales for assessing resilience

1. Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) Mean score 80.7

2. Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA) Mean score 29

3. Resilience Scale (means not found, may be useful for measuring change

4. Academic Resilience Scale (ARS-30) Mean score 116 (freshman)

A methodological review of resilience measurement scales,Windle, Bennett & Noyes: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3042897/

Questions that help evaluate resilience

• Do you have difficulty coping with distress

– Distress because of their experiencing distress

• Have you taken on a challenge where you thought

you might fail

• Do you avoid taking risks

• Do you believe if you work hard, you will be

successful

• Do you feel helpless when experiencing distress

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vudaAYx2IcE

Institutional challenges

• Discussions with administration

• Parental demand for service

• Strategies for assessing need for service

• Engaging parents in the process

– Messaging challenges

– Students as consumers of health information

Resilience and Positive Psychology

• Resilience training (RT) is rooted in Positive Psychology (Authentic Happiness, Seligman)

• Resilience training includes:

– Participating in stressful experiences/coping with failure

– Identifying strategies for increasing positive emotions

– Promote realistic ways of fostering well being

– Identifying beliefs that limit the ability to flourish

– Focus on strengths and using intentional planning to

encourage growth

Being more resilient can improve

academic performance

• Increase persistence with difficult and

challenging classes

• Increased persistence with difficult assignments

• Increased tolerance of failure

• Less procrastination

• More patient with others who might be

struggling

• More patient with self

• Able to delay gratification

Increasing resilience

• System level changes– Encourage participation from

• Faculty– Encourage growth mindset in course planning

– Use of trigger warnings

• Student affairs staff– Provide freshman seminar

• Recreation staff– Use of ropes/challenge courses

• Counseling center– Treating/managing students who seek care for problems of living

• Higher Education: moving upstream– Publication in two journals, secondary teachers and superintendents

– Upcoming chapter in Sage textbook on Community Involvement

• Individual intervention

System Level

The Academic Resilience Consortium

• The Academic Resilience Consortium (ARC) is an association of faculty, professionals, and students in higher education who are dedicated to understanding and promoting student resilience. Members represent many functions in higher education, including learning services, counseling services, advising programs, academic departments, and bridge programs. The Consortium currently includes over 500 members from 250 schools in 16 countries.

• https://academicresilience.org/symposium-proceedings.html

The Furman Advantage Strategic

Vision Pilot Intervention Pathways

Advising Program

• Provide consistent levels of support, access, and

awareness for first & second year students

– 2-year, credit bearing course (1 credit per term = 1

course over two years)

– 15 students with academic advisor

– Cover broad common curriculum timed appropriately

for student development

– Focus on reflection

Human Development

• Numerous theories identify various aspects of

development

– Piaget: cognitive development

– Super: career development

– Kohlberg: moral development

– Perry: intellectual development

– Chickering: identity development

• Interesting to note that these theories now

receive little attention in CSP programs.

Challenges of adolescence

• Developing autonomy

• Managing emotions

• Developing competence/self efficacy

• Separation/individuation/identity

• Developing resilience

• Developing personal values

• Answering the question ‘Who am I?’

Individual level

developmental Changes that

encourage growth of resilience

• Patience/Persistence, normalize failure

• Distinguishing Pleasure from Happiness

• Distress and stress tolerance

• Shift from Dualism towards Relativism

• Developing social support

• Internal Locus of Control - agency

• Delay of gratification

– Long term reward vs. immediate payoff

Practice persistence, develop patience

Consider a habit you want to change. Create a set of strategies to modify your daily routine.

1. Identify a series of small goals that are measurable and helpful

2. Identify your strengths that you can use as you move forward

3. Identify small rewards for persisting with this goal

4. Journal while working towards the goal, identify the benefits of persisting

5. Identify problem solving strategies, giving up often occurs when there is no apparent solution to a problem

6. Identify a quitting point, when is it ok to give up?

Persistence/Patience

• Challenging thoughts that make it difficult to

develop patience

– If I can’t do it quickly, there must be something

wrong

– If its going to take a lot of time/effort, better to

start it later

– I should be able to do this as quickly as others do

it.

Normalize failure

• Develop strategies for taking small risks that are

gradually more difficult

• Identify tasks or goals where failure is more likely

– Note benefits from failure if/when it occurs

– Encourage task orientation, less focus on others

• Plan a task where failure is likely

– When a failure experience occurs, it is critical to

discuss the impact of the experience

– Do expectations for self/performance interfere with

risk taking?

Pleasure or happiness

Many people confuse/mislabel these concepts

• Pleasure usually characterized as a positive emotion usually the by product of a sensory experience

– Skiing, rollercoaster, food, alcohol, drugs, shopping, TV

• Happiness – .. “a positive emotion (when) alienated from the exercise of character leads to emptiness, to inauthenticity, to depression….” (Seligman, Authentic Happiness, 2013)

Students can use stress to their

advantage

• Requires their understanding of the benefits of learning how to cope with stress

• Willingness to tolerate the distress that builds resilience

• Uses effective stress coping strategies when needed

Distress and stress tolerance

Steinhardt M, Dolbier C. Evaluation of a resilience intervention to enhance coping strategies and protective

factors and decrease symptomatology.J Am Coll Health.2008;56:445–453.

Four common responses to stress

and stressful situations1. GIVING UP

Individuals who give up succumb to the stressful situation and feel defeated.

• Often lack persistence

• Are uncomfortable taking on challenge

• Avoid situations that might result in distress

� May have suicide ideation because of their uncertainty about what to do to feel better.

The idea of failure implies a person has tried and given best effort.

• May rationalize that, with more effort, or different circumstances, they would have been successful


and stressful situations

2. PUT UP

Individuals who put up usually struggle with the stressful situation

� they usually have the ability to tolerate some distress and accept that their level of well-being is diminished temporarily

� May also have periods of suicide ideation when solutions seem difficult to find.



3. BOUNCE UP

Individuals who bounce up fully recover from the

stressful situation back to their prior level of

functioning, which we call resilience

• No fear of failure

• Willing to accept challenge

• Tolerance of distress/discomfort

Using stress to your advantage





4. STEP UP

Individuals who step up do whatever it takes to meet

the challenge and grow to an even higher level of

functioning and well-being than previously

experienced, an experience called thriving

• Traditional S M Often focuses on the learning of

skills

– Relaxation training

– Biofeedback

– Meditation

– Mindfulness

All are effective at coping with external sources of

stress

Traditional Stress Management vs.

Resilience Training

Traditional Stress Management vs.

Resilience Training

• Traditional stress management programs do not address the internal causes of stress.

Resilience training involves identifying internal factors that influence stress levels and focuses on

teaching skills for building strengths.

• Unrealistic expectations for self/others

• Core beliefs about struggle, avoiding distress

• Focusing on always feeling good

Use of effective stress coping

strategies

Problem focused coping

� active coping

� planning

� positive reframing

� acceptance

� Help students solve stressful

situations inside their circle

of influence, usually a more

productive strategy

Emotional focused coping

� Denial

� Behavioral disengagement,

� Self-distraction

� Venting

� Useful when feeling

overwhelmed, or when help

not available

Tolerating Distress

Develop strategies for improving your ability to

tolerate distress

– Recognize that feeling distressed is a natural experience

– Remember that being upset is not a long term condition

and you will feel better

– Develop some self-soothing strategies that work for you

• Remember, these are strategies for use when in distress …..

– Not to avoid distress or procrastinate

Self Soothing

Meditation

Mindfulness

Listen to music

Exercise

Talk with friends

Distract your self – guide your attention to something else

Change of scenery

Relaxation training

Helping others

Find meaning in the situation

Dualism/Relativism

• William Perry, 1970

• Dualism – dichotomous view of the world with a

reliance on authority figures to provide information

– Right/wrong

– Good/bad

• Relativism – knowledge is based on context, truth

derived from experience

– Can be encouraged by challenging a dualistic perspective

Relativism

• Less likely to make quick judgments

• Fewer assumptions that might lead to distress

– An alternative to cognitive dissonance?

• The ability to make multiple interpretations about an event.. thinking about thinking

– Reduce distress by not making negative assumptions

• To encourage this change, may benefit from motivational interviewing strategies

… what does it mean when….

Social support: finding strength in

others• Meaningful relationships can make it easier to

tolerate the distress that accompanies building

resilience.

• Health and well being are directly related to your

connections with other people

• Social connection boosts your ability to tolerate

distress

Proverb: If you want to travel fast, go alone, if you

want to go far, go with others.

Internal Locus of Control

• Promote growth mindset over fixed mindset

– Challenge, struggle and failure are necessary parts of growth

• Consider strategies that increase the likelihood of goal completion

• Create a short term plan that is attainable

Balance detail and flexibility

– Enough detail to eliminate confusion

– Enough flexibility so unforeseen problems can be managed.

Internal Locus of Control

• Write down a goal, experience, or desire you

have been avoiding because you aren’t sure

you are capable.

� List specific steps to accomplish the goal

or move forward

� Identify a Plan B

� Identify unpleasant feelings associated

with each step

� Identify benefits for goal achievement

� Take small steps to make daily progress

� Describe strategies you can use to help

you monitor your progress

Increasing resilience by delaying

gratification

• Childhood and adolescence are characterized

by the individuals pursuit of enjoyment,

pleasure, fun…. immediate gratification

• Adulthood is characterized by the ability to

delay gratification for the sake of pursuing

long term goals of value

Delaying gratification

• Seems like a simple concept

• Initially, can cause a great deal of confusion

• Helpful to have long term goals in place

• Choice of language is critical

– Not about semantic differences

• Requires a great deal of caution when discussing it

– If the concept is misunderstood, other problems will

occur.

Increasing resilience and academic

success by delaying gratification

Acceptance of personal responsibility

Ownership of choices and freedom to choose

Saying… ‘I want to….’

Your personal responsibility line

Saying… ‘‘I need to….I have to…’

denying, blaming, making excuses, rationalizing, intellectualizing

(More time spent above the line = greater self esteem though ownership of choices)

Resiliency Factors

• Persistence

• Motivation

• Goal Orientation

• Optimism

• Confidence

• Cognitive reframing

• Emotional regulation

• Decisive risk-taking

• Internal locus of control

• Insight

• Self-efficacy

• Altruism

• Connection to others

• Effective relationships

• Well balanced lifestyle

Strategies for building resilience

A. Identify the thoughts that make it difficult to develop

resilience

B. Identify thoughts that encourage resilience

C. Use of effecting stress coping strategies

D. Becoming persistent

E. Recognize your Self-Explanatory Style

F. Accepting the struggle

G. Letting Go

H. Social Support

I. Tolerating Distress

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