Essay Example on Study in order to investigate psychological factors which confer resilience to emotional distress

Johnson et al 2017 conducted a study in order to investigate psychological factors which confer resilience to emotional distress in response to failure error and mistakes and to evaluate and compare the evidence for different types of psychological variables in conferring resilience They used Bi Dimensional Framework for resilience research to buffer the impact of risk factors and outlines criteria that a variable should meet in order to be considered as conferring resilience By following inclusions criteria they have included 38 papers containing 46 studies in the review which provides evidence of the presence of factors which confer resilience to emotional distress in response to failure Included studies had a total of 5905 participants m sample size 128 37 SD 83 8 range 46 399 The mean age of participants ranged from 18 6 to 47 6 and the majority of studies were among undergraduate students with only one study conducted in a clinical population Most studies used in this review were experimental or longitudinal designs Results suggested that higher self esteem more positive attributional style and lower levels of socially prescribed perfectionism may confer resilience to emotional distress in response to failure and academic self worth and trait emotion suppression are not related with resilience The strongest support was found for the factors of higher self esteem more positive attributional style and lower socially prescribed perfectionism 

Weaker evidence was found for the factors of lower trait reappraisal lower self oriented perfectionism and higher emotional intelligence These results identify specific factors which should be targeted by resilience-building interventions Besser et al 2014 examined the role of intrapersonal resilience optimism hope and self esteem in moderating the association between the severity of exposure to potentially traumatic event and the development of PTSD symptoms as assessed in vivo i e under life-threatening conditions during exposure to war In this study a nonclinical community sample of 251 adults was assessed during real-time exposure to missile and rocket fire during an eruption of violence in the Middle East during July and August 2014 The results reveal that the severity of PTSD symptoms was positively correlated with severity of exposure to trauma However it also shows that the association was moderated by individual differences in intrapersonal resilience More explicitly this study also indicate that the individuals with low levels of intrapersonal resilience reported more PTSD symptoms than those with high levels of intrapersonal resilience in the individuals who are exposed to low and high levels of rocket and missile fire 

The results of this research further indicate that intrapersonal resilience may significantly mitigate the development of PTSD symptoms among civilians exposed to potentially traumatic events Mak Ng and Wong 2011 examined the mediating role of positive cognitive triad positive views toward the self the world and the future between the relationship of trait resilience with life satisfaction and depression Structural equation modeling and mediation analyses were conducted on sample of 1 419 660 male and 759 female college students in Hong Kong The model of positive cognitive triad as mediator between resilience and well being fit the data comparative fit index 94 Tucker Lewis index 93 root mean square error of approximation 08 Research Findings indicate resilience has significant association with positive cognitions about the self the world and the future However findings also indicate that Individuals who had higher level of resilience held significantly more positive cognitions and reported significantly higher levels of life satisfaction and lower levels of depression 

The findings also supported the effectiveness of the positive cognitive triad as the mechanism through which resilience enhances well being Denise Catalano Fong Chan Lisa Wilson and Chung Yi Chiu 2011 conducted a study in 250 individuals with SCI to explain the theoretical constructs from a model of resilience into a structural equation model and to evaluate relationships among the model s theoretical constructs associated with resilience and the occurrence of depressive symptoms A Quantitative descriptive research design utilising structural equation modeling SEM has been used for this study and results indicate that the resilience model fit the data relatively well x2 200 N 255 451 57 p 001 x2 df 2 26 CFI 92 RMSEA 0 070 90 CI 0 06 0 08 explaining 77 of the variance in depressive symptommatology However researchers also found that SCI related stressors significantly influenced perceived stress β 60 and perceived stress in turn affected depressive symptoms β 66 characteristics of resilience β 43 and social support β 26 The resilience characteristics had negative relationship with depressive symptoms β 29 No direct relationship was found between severity of SCI related stressors and depressive symptoms Finding supports the resilience model and suggests characteristics of resilience buffer the perceptions of stress on depressive symptoms The resilience model also found to be useful to guide clinical interventions and to improve the mental health of individuals with SCI