PSY 106 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Santa Barbara City College, Positive Psychology, Stress Management
Psych 106
Positive Psychology
Santa Barbara City College
4 Unit Course
GE
Spring 2017
Notes:
● If people are faced with trauma or unintentional change, three psychological approaches
are proposed
o (1) Succumbent on the stressor (also known as post-traumatic stress disorder or
PTSD);
o (2) resilience and/or recovery; and
o (3) post-traumatic development.
o The common belief is that after a trauma like the diagnosis of an illness a person
becomes extremely depressed.
o Indeed, research shows that this pessimistic way of thinking only succeeds 5 to
35% (Kangas et al, 2002; Cordova, 2008).
● Positive psychology asks:'
o What about 65% to 95% of the others?
o What is it with them?'.
● Resilience
o Resilience is a term with many significance.
▪ Here we define it as the resilience in response to changing situational
conditions and the ability to bounce back from negative emotional
experiences.
▪ "However, some scholars see resilience as more multifaceted than this.
o Lepore and Revenson (2006) distinguish resilience to recuperation, resistance,
and reconfiguration.
o Recovery is simply a return to the functional baseline levels, while resistance is
when a person shows no signs of disturbance (low distress) after a traumatic event
(Lepore and Revenson, 2006).
o Finally, reconfiguration is when people in a different formation return to
homeostasis-they've changed (positively or negatively) from their traumatic
experience.
● What are the components of resilience-involves
o (1) reframing;
o (2) positive emotional experience;
o (3) participation in physical activity;
o (4)effective social support;
o (5) the use of real and legitimate strengths; and, of course, (5) confidence?
o Coping Styles-The most widely known and used technique within coping science
is Lazarus and Folkman's transactional model of stress management.
