SUCCESS Materials – English

Resilience – Theoretical Background – The Seven Key Ingredients of Resilience

The Seven Key Ingredients of Resilience

Resilience is widely considered to be a dynamic process as opposed to a standalone, once off occurrence (Waugh & Koster, 2014; Rutter, 2012). The malleable nature means that resilience to be cultivated through the development of a range of inner strengths and capacities which operate in tandem with a collection of reliable external supports to empower individuals and enable them to make continued progression within the various areas of their life, even in the presence of obstacles and setbacks (Masten, 2001, 2009). The aforementioned inner strengths have been subject to considerable attention among resilience researchers, and the work of Karen Reivich and her colleagues pertaining to the nature of resilience represents one of the most prominent perspectives within the field. Reivich and colleagues (Reivich, Gillham, Chaplin, & Seligman, 2005; Reivich & Shatté, 2003) determined that the core abilities which resilience was comprised of were sevenfold:

 

Each of these abilities has been shown to be augmentable, with a view to building one’s overall resilience (Shatté, Pulla, Shatté, & Warren, 2012).