RESILIENCE - A DYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE

Identifying characteristics that distinguish youth who achieve adaptiv e outcomes in the face of adversity from those who do not has furthere d our understanding of developmental psychopathology. However, accumul ating evidence indicates that particular characteristics rarely serve exclusively risk or protective functions, that individuals who seem re silient on one index often do not seem so on other indices, and that i ndividuals often are not equally resilient across contexts. These find ings call for a dynamic conceptualisation of resiliency that can accou nt for why the ways children cope with stressors vary across domain, d evelopment, and context. We organise resiliency research into a framew ork based on a recently proposed dynamic conceptualisation of personal ity (Mischel gr Shoda, 1995). This framework assumes that understandin g why some children show resilience in the face of adversity whereas o thers show difficulties requires identifying: (a) the content of and r elational structure among relevant psychological mediators such as com petencies, expectancies, values, and goals; and (b) the relation betwe en these psychological mediators and relevant features of the environm ent. To illustrate the potential of this approach to further our under standing of resiliency, we examine and reconsider the link between IQ and conduct problems.