Strategies for personal growth: developing resilience ... · The Furman Advantage Strategic Vision...
Transcript of 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
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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
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 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.
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 situations
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
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 situations
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