(SpringerBriefs in psychology) salvatore r maddi (auth ) hardiness turning stressful circumstances into resilient growth springer netherlands (2013)

A particular example of this is personality hardiness, which has emerged as a pattern of learned attitudes and skills that helps in turn-ing stressful circumstances from potential disast

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Turning Stressful Circumstances into Resilient Growth

Salvatore R Maddi

1 3

Hardiness

Salvatore R Maddi

© The Author(s) 2013

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ISBN 978-94-007-5221-4 ISBN 978-94-007-5222-1 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-5222-1

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2012946181

This book is dedicated to Deborah M Khoshaba, my beloved wife and esteemed colleague, without whom things would be very hard for me

My parents were poor immigrants from Sicily, who came to the United States for freedom and opportunity shortly after World War I They worked at odd jobs, and had four children As their only son, I was regarded by them as the hope of the family They encouraged me to try hard to get an education, and to find some career that was honorable In contrast to the other children of immigrants in my classes, I immersed myself in learning and growing thereby So, my teachers also saw me as the hope of my family, and supported my efforts, encouraging me to continue schooling With the help of scholarships, I completed my BA and MA

at Brooklyn College, in New York, and my Ph.D at Harvard, in Cambridge by-step, I found myself pursuing an academic career, first at the University of Chicago, and then at the University of California, Irvine

Step-Preface

1 The Importance of Resiliency in Daily Living 1

The Naturally Stressful Nature of the Personal Development Process 1

We Live in the Centuries of Change 3

The Ongoing Need for Thriving Under Stress 5

References 6

2 Personal Hardiness as the Basis for Resilience 7

Hardiness as the Pathway to Resilience 8

The Longitudinal Study of Stress at Illinois Bell Telephone 10

Hardiness Helps Turn Stresses into Growth Opportunities 13

References 16

3 Thirty Years of Hardiness Validational Research and Practice 19

Hardiness Emerges as a Distinctive Pattern of Attitudes and Strategies 19

Hardiness Improves Health Under Stress 21

Hardiness Improves Performance and Conduct Under Stress 22

The Relative Effectiveness of Hardiness and Other Individual Characteristics 24

Where Does Hardiness Come From? 25

References 26

4 Hardiness Assessment and Training 29

The Development and Effectiveness of Hardiness Assessment 29

The Initial Development of Hardiness Training 31

The First Hardy Coping Step is Situational Reconstruction 32

The Second Hardy Coping Step is Focusing 33

The Third Hardy Coping Step is Compensatory Self-Improvement 34

The Previous Steps Lead to Formulating and Carrying out an Action Plan 35

The Effectiveness of the Initial Form of Hardiness Training 37

The Further Development of the HardiTraining Program 37

Contents

Contents x

The Effectiveness of the HardiTraining Program 38

Becoming a Certified Hardiness Trainer 40

References 41

5 Raising Hardy Children 43

The Hardy Attitudes 44

Supportive Early Interactions Build the Hardy Attitude of Commitment 44

Early Environments Permitting Mastery Build the Hardy Attitude of Control 45

Ongoing Changes Construed as Richness Build the Hardy Attitude of Challenge 46

The Hardy Strategies 47

Parents Need to Emphasize Problem-Solving Coping 48

Parents Need to Emphasize Supportive Social Interactions 49

Parents Need to Emphasize Taking Care of Oneself 49

In all this, Parents Need to Admire, Respect, and Love Their Young 50

References 51

6 Applying Hardiness to Teaching and Counseling 53

Teaching Hardiness in Schools 53

Obtaining the School’s Approval for the Hardiness Course 54

Effectiveness of the Hardiness Training Course on Students 55

Teaching Hardiness in Counseling 56

Conformism and Existential Sickness 57

Specifics of Hardiness Counseling 58

Case Examples from Hardiness Counseling 60

References 62

7 Hardiness as a Relationship and Work Facilitator 65

The Changing Nature of Relationships and Work Situations 65

The Importance of Learning Through Failures as Well as Successes 66

Deepening Significant Relationships into Intimacy 67

Engaging in Fulfilling Work by Learning all the Time 68

Neither Relationships Nor Work Settings Need Last Forever 68

References 69

8 How Hardiness Facilitates Functioning in Military and Safety Roles 71

The Special Importance of Hardiness 72

Relevant Hardiness Research 74

How Military and Safety Personnel Need to Function in Times of Terrorism 78

References 78

Contents xi

9 The Importance of Hardy Organizations 79

How Organizations Thrive in Turbulent Times Through Hardiness 80

Culture, Climate, Structure, and Personnel of Hardy Organizations 80

What are the Advantages of Hardi Organizations? 82

What are the Disadvantages of Organizations that are not Hardy? 83

Can Hardi Organizations Be Built Simply Through a “Greening Effect”? 84

Assessing and Developing the Hardiness of Organizations 84

References 85

10 The Psychology of Possibility 87

Abstract Life is by its nature a changing, and therefore stressful, phenomenon

One source of stress is the ongoing developmental process that starts with birth, and continues until death The other source of stress is megatrends imposed by cir-cumstances beyond our control, especially in our changing times Together, these ongoing stresses need to be turned to advantage by what we learn in dealing with, rather than denying and avoiding them Fully engaging in this resilient process is facilitated by personality hardiness

Keywords  Developmental stresses  •  Stressful megatrends  •  Future-oriented 

decisions  •  Resiliency  •  Personality hardiness

Lately, there has been increasing emphasis on resilience under stressful stances, along with the attempt to understand why some people are more resil-ient than others (e.g., Bonanno 2004; Maddi 1998, 2005) Most of the resiliency emphasis has been on not losing one’s performance and health, despite the stresses There has also been some attention paid to the phenomenon of not just surviving, but also thriving under stress A particular example of this is personality hardiness, which has emerged as a pattern of learned attitudes and skills that helps in turn-ing stressful circumstances from potential disasters into growth opportunities that

circum-do not only merely maintain, but also enhance performance and health (cf., Maddi

2002, 2005) This book follows along this path The first step in this process, which

is covered in this chapter, is to consider the inherently stressful nature of living

The Naturally Stressful Nature of the Personal Development Process

Due to their continually changing, unpredictable, and demanding processes, the developmental stages are an ongoing stressful phenomenon for us all (Frankl

1963; Maddi 2004; May et al 1958) The developmental process begins with our being pushed out of our mother’s womb, and forced to begin breathing and

The Importance of Resiliency

2 1  The Importance of Resiliency in Daily Living 

functioning for ourselves, in the cold, bright, noisy environment we had never anticipated. This experience was called the “birth trauma” by Rank (1929) In this developmental period, the baby tries to understand and interact with other people and the environment, without getting hurt, despite being mystified But, you fail frequently, as you crawl around and bang into things, feel too cold or warm, get hungry without knowing what to do about it, and experience being overwhelmed

or alone You try to figure out what the adults around you mean by the sounds they keep making When you have to urinate and defecate, you just do it, but then the adults around you seem to do all sorts of things in response, without your know-ing what is going on But, one thing becomes reasonably sure—those around you sometimes stop you from doing what you want, or is simply normal And, if these experiences make you cry, or express anger, you may be silenced or chastened by others Although it does not really make sense to you, you end up having to do what others want, and avoiding what they do not want

No sooner do you make some progress in dealing with this early pattern

of trauma, than you have to leave what had hopefully (through what you have learned) become your safe-house, in order to go to school You have no idea what going to school means, and you cry when your mother leaves you off at Kindergarten Then, somehow, you have to interact with other children, who do not have your interests at heart, and a teacher, who imposes rules and regulations

on you, and a curriculum, which requires that you keep learning new things all the time And, even if you are fortunate enough to find some friends, interact coop-eratively with teachers, and get at least reasonably good grades, as soon as you feel you have learned something, the situation changes again Even if your family continues to live in the same place, you will go from grade to grade, and school to school, changing teachers, friends, and curricula in the process

These stressful schooling experiences continue through high school and lege, and become even harder to deal with, as you are increasingly separated from your parents and the safe-house into which you were born Before you realize it, you have reached the age wherein you are expected to begin considering what your adult life will be like Do you fit in with others and institutions, or not? Do you have contributions to make, or is it more important to be a follower? You must seriously begin considering what kind of career, new family, and role in society you will have. Shall you just have sex with anyone who seems attractive or pow-erful, or should you be using all your resources (including sex) to find the right person to marry? Should you just take whatever job is available to you, or strug-gle to find and prepare for the career that best expresses your skills, values, and preferences? By this time, you are also more responsible for your own consumer behavior What brands of clothing, cars, food, beverages, and equipment should you buy, and how much should you spend on these things? Should you just fit into society, or determine the role that is best for you and others? And, how should you feel about the reactions of your parents to all this? Needless to say, the period of education in early adulthood is undoubtedly stressful

col-Nor, as time goes on, does the period of middle adulthood become less ful You have to compete for a job that seems like a good one to you If you get it,

then you have to learn how to perform in it, and get evaluated all the time by your supervisors Even if your performance seems adequate to them, you are constantly evaluating whether it is the right job for you Are you bored, or overwhelmed? And, you are constantly trying to meet people with whom you can be friends or loved ones Needless to say, this is a competitive activity Then, if you marry some-one and start a family, before you know it, you are struggling to help your children and spouse with their own stressful circumstances How can you be a good parent and spouse, and still keep trying to find your own place in life? And, is it the right marriage for you—are you bored, overwhelmed, or unattracted? If there are dif-ficulties in your marriage, should you divorce, just have affairs, or is there some more constructive alternative? And, if you have not married, how can you face all the issues of adulthood alone?

Moving on to the period of later adulthood is hardly less stressful One thing you are increasingly faced with is retirement from work Although this may seem positive, especially if you have hated your job, retirement is generally a stressful circumstance in that you are faced with losing what you have established, and won-dering what to do now In this regard, retirement is a sign of approaching the end

of life Also, the members of your family of origin, and your peers in general, may begin showing signs of deteriorating health, or actually dying, to say nothing about the health problems you may be having Understandably, you begin looking back

on your life, wondering if it was a sufficient expression of your wishes, values, and capabilities You increasingly wonder what you should do with yourself, whether there really is an afterlife, and whether your struggle in life was all worth it

All in all, each of the periods of development is fraught with stressful stances Even if many of them are dealt with constructively, it is nonetheless true that life is, by its developmental nature, fraught with problems and changes that can have an undermining effect on performance, motivation, and health, if not handled well

We Live in the Centuries of Change

As if the ongoing stressfulness of the natural developmental process were not enough, the period of time and the society in which we live may well impose megatrends on us that add additional stresses At the present time, there are sev-eral megatrends that increase the stressfulness of everyday living, beyond what is generated by the ongoing developmental pressures mentioned before Indeed, the twentieth and twenty-first centuries may well be remembered as the centuries of change

One ongoing megatrend is the breathtakingly fast technological advance that began years ago, but is still continuing A major effect of this has been the devel-opment of computers, progressing through the Internet, and the new telecommu-nications industry Also, there has been a general streamlining of the processes whereby goods and solutions are reached While the upside of this megatrend has

The Naturally Stressful Nature of the Personal Development Process

4 1  The Importance of Resiliency in Daily Living 

been much greater ability to communicate, solve problems, reach goals, and bring about new areas of functioning, the downside is the difficulty for many people of participating in, much less contributing to this technological advance There are fewer and fewer jobs involving assembly line working, and the new jobs that get created require increasing amounts of computer and conceptual and technologi-cal knowledge A current example of this is that the old way of buying and selling stocks, which had involved being present and interacting with others at the Wall Street  location,  has  fallen  to  30  %,  and  been  replaced  with  computer  automated processes instead In general, the megatrend of rapid technological advance has put continual stressful pressures on people to try to learn more in order to be quali-fied for jobs that are becoming fewer and more advanced

Another ongoing megatrend of our time is globalization Its upside is our ing knowledge of, and interaction with people all around the world But, the down-side of globalization to societies, communities, and individuals is the threat to their values of right and wrong, and to their stability and security Terrorism is one expression of this sense of threat, as some societies and their members feel that the only way to protect themselves from imposition from more powerful societies is

grow-to undermine them in unidentifiable ways, rather than on the traditional battlefield And, less powerful members of the powerful societies may also be undermined, as globalization encourages businesses to outsource jobs to other countries where pay

is lower For that matter, even relatively powerful members of the powerful ties may experience increasing levels of stress For example, I did counseling sev-eral years ago with an American venture capitalist who was increasingly stressed and anxious at having to do more and more business with people in other countries, whose values and aims he did not know, and whom he would never even meet

socie-In our time, another downside of rapid technological advance and emerging globalization is the megatrend of mounting, worldwide competition The days are over when we could carry on work within our own country and its economy Now, there is worldwide competition for the best products and employees at the best prices The upside of this is that many foreign countries are participating further

in our economy, not only by buying our products, but also by contributing logical advances to our production system Ireland, India, and China, for example, have improved their economies significantly in recent years by having their young workers become expert in writing computer software programs and selling them

techno-to us at competitive prices The downside of all this is that some of our companies (and their workers) are floundering, as they cannot lower their prices and salaries enough to be whole. And, all this is happening in the democratic United States at just the time when the pressure for equal opportunities for women and minorities

in the workplace mounts The upside of this is less discrimination in the job ket But, the downside is decreased job security An additional factor increasing job insecurity is our aging population As people live longer, they are retiring from work at later ages than before, which, along with the other factors mentioned, is making it harder for younger people to find the jobs they want

mar-The Iraq and Afghanistan wars, which have been ongoing for many years, are another example of megatrends affecting us all Certainly, the military personnel

who are fighting abroad, and their families left behind here, are experiencing nificant stresses everyday But, the war-related economic drain, terroristic retali-ations, general uncertainty, and worldwide questions as to whether the United States is a friend or enemy, are increasing the stress for all of us

sig-Another megatrend being experienced now on a worldwide basis is the nomic downturn, not only due to the expenses of wars, but also due to the deterio-ration of the job and real estate markets. Crucial companies in the United States have actually received government subsidies, but there are still an increasing num-ber of job losses and company foreclosures going on This has led to less money being spent by consumers, and the resulting further slowdown of businesses Our economy is in the worst state since the great depression, and needless to say, this has imposed many serious stressful circumstances on us

eco-There are certainly significantly stressful megatrends in our times This does not mean, however, that other times have been less stressful After all, the devel-opmental pressures are always part of the human process of growing up And, history shows that other periods of history than our own have also been fraught with stressful megatrends, though their particular content may have been different There have always been wars, natural disasters, and political and social turmoil

The Ongoing Need for Thriving Under Stress

Life is by its nature a stressful phenomenon, due to the combination of ongoing pressures fueled by developmental requirements and additionally imposed meg-atrends And, the initial effect of increased stress appears to be increased strain, which is the body’s arousal reaction to the perceived threat. Selye’s (1976) award-winning research with laboratory animals has shown that when imposed stresses are strong and uncontrollable, the continuing strain reaction depletes bodily resources, resulting in various kinds of bodily breakdown

People who believe that they are entitled to easy comfort and security tend to deal with stresses by denying them as they constitute threats to their sense of what life should be all about You try to “look the other way,” and if you are unsuccess-ful in this, you minimize the change implications of what is happening Helpful in this denial is the process of avoiding potentially challenging stresses, by immers-ing  yourself  in  activities  that  are  habitual  and  fun.  So,  instead  of  directly  con-sidering the implications of the stresses, you engage in excessive, but enjoyable activities These activities may include overspending on unneeded products, gam-bling, sexual promiscuity, and excessive television watching Whichever pattern you sink into, the overall aim is to distract yourself from those mounting stresses involving developmental pressures and disruptive megatrends What you want is happiness, no matter what is going on Unfortunately, this is a pattern of behavior that interferes with you being able to find meaning and fulfillment in your life.Another stress-response pattern on the part of people who believe they are enti-tled to easy comfort and security is to conclude that they have been victimized,

We Live in the Centuries of Change

6 1  The Importance of Resiliency in Daily Living 

and should therefore strike back at those who are victimizing them The first step

is exaggeration, in which you see the pressures as something imposed on you by enemies, rather than a natural expression of the stressful nature of living This approach leads to looking for enemies, and reacting with angry, even violent behavior toward them

The major difficulty with engaging in denial and avoidance, and feeling timized and striking back, is that these approaches stultify learning, growth, and fulfillment in living In order to keep developing, you must treat stressful circum-stances as an opportunity to learn and grow in wisdom, rather than a destructive imposition on you This is what the existentialists (e.g., Frankl 1963; Kierkegaard

vic-1954; Maddi 2004; May et al 1958) call choosing for the future (which involves learning and changing), instead of the past (which involves insisting on holding

on to what is already known) Choosing the future involves a continual process of changing one’s own beliefs and behaviors, as the result of taking ongoing stressful changes seriously, as what life is all about

In order to proceed in this difficult process, you need existential courage, or what Tillich (1952) called “the courage to be.” The following chapters of this book

concern the conceptualization, research, and practice concerning personality

har-diness, which is the pattern of attitudes and strategies that constitute the tial courage and motivation to do the hard work of turning stressful circumstances from potential disasters into growth opportunities (Maddi 2002)

existen-References

Bonanno, G (2004) Loss, trauma, and human resilience: How we underestimated the human

capacity to thrive after extremely aversive events American Psychologist, 51, 72–82.

Frankl, V E (1963) Man’s search for meaning: An introduction to logotherapy (L Lasch,

Consulting Psychology Journal , 54, 173–185.

Maddi,  S.  R.  (2004).  Hardiness:  An  operationalization  of  existential  courage.  Journal of

Humanistic Psychology, 44, 279–298.

Maddi, S. R. (2005). On hardiness and other pathways to resilience. American Psychologist, 60,

261–262.

May, R., Angel, E., & Ellenberger, H. F. (1958). Existence: A new dimension in psychiatry and

psychology New York: Basic Books.

Rank, O. (1929). The trauma of birth New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.

Selye, H. (1976). The stress of life (2nd Ed.) New York: Lippencott.

Tillich, P. (1952). The courage to be. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Abstract Together, the hardiness attitudes and strategies facilitate resilience under

stress The hardy attitudes are the 3Cs of commitment, control, and challenge No matter how bad things get, challenge helps you realize that life is naturally stress-ful, commitment helps you stay involved with what is going on around you, and control helps you try to turn it to your advantage This courage helps you engage

in the hardy strategies of problem-solving coping, socially-supportive interactions, and beneficial self-care Our 12-year longitudinal study at Illinois Bell Telephone showed that the higher were managers in personality hardiness; the better was their performance, and health after the disruptive deregulation of the telephone industry they experienced These findings led to the Hardiness Model

Keywords  Hardy attitudes  •  Hardy strategies  •  Resilience  •  Enhanced 

performance  •  Enhanced health  •  Problem-solving coping  • 

Socially-supportive interactions  •  Beneficial self-care  •  Illinois Bell Telephone 

study  •  Stress  •  Strain  •  Hardiness model

Early in my career, I was studying the personality characteristics that increase the likelihood of creativity in one’s performance What I was finding is that the more people are interested in novelty and increases in stimulation, the greater the like-lihood that they will show creativity (originality) in their performance (Maddi

1969) At one point, a student on my research team brought me an article she had found in Family Circle Magazine, which emphasized the importance of avoiding stressful circumstances, as they can kill you The article emphasized that the major way of avoiding stress was to keep stability, and avoid changes I was shocked at this conclusion, as it implied that, from what my research was showing, creative people are trying to commit suicide

In mulling over this contradiction between what I, and others were finding,

I began to think that there are probably individual differences in people’s tions  to  stressful  circumstances  that  are  worth  studying.  Perhaps  people  who  are more intrigued by ongoing changes are more likely than others to turn the resulting stresses to advantage by what they learn And, as they grow from what they learn, the stresses are resolved, and therefore less likely to undermine performance and health

reac-Personal Hardiness as the Basis

8 2  Personal Hardiness as the Basis for Resilience 

Hardiness as the Pathway to Resilience

Before long, the conceptualization of personality hardiness began to emerge (Kobasa 1979; Maddi and Kobasa 1984) Basically, hardiness was considered the specifics of what existentialists call existential courage (Maddi 2004) In par-ticular, hardiness emerged as a pattern of attitudes and strategies that together facilitate turning stressful circumstances from potential disasters into growth opportunities

In particular, there are the three Cs of hardiness attitudes (Maddi 1994, 2002)

If you are strong in the C of challenge, you accept that life is by its nature

stress-ful, and see those stressful changes as an opportunity to grow in wisdom and bility by what you learn through trying to turn them to your advantage In this, you think that you can learn from failures as well as successes You do not think you are entitled to easy comfort and security Instead, you feel that fulfillment can only be gained by having turned the stresses into growth opportunities Another C

capa-of hardy attitudes is commitment, which involves the belief that no matter how bad

things get, it is important to stay involved with whatever is happening, rather than

sink into detachment and alienation And the third C of hardiness is control, which

leads you to believe that no matter how bad things get, you need to keep trying to turn the stresses from potential disasters into growth opportunities It seems like a waste of time to let yourself sink into powerlessness and passivity

To truly express existential courage, a person must possess all 3Cs of ment, control, and challenge American psychology is currently preoccupied with the importance of the control attitude, and I have encountered the opinion from others that it is this attitude that fully defines hardiness But, imagine people high

commit-in control though simultaneously low in commitment and challenge. Such people would want to determine outcomes but would not want to waste time and effort learning from experience or feeling involved with people, and events In that, these people would be riddled with impatience, irritability, isolation, and bitter suffering whenever control efforts fail What we see in this is something close to the Type A behavior pattern (e.g., Friedman and Rosenman 1974), with all its physical, mental, and social vulnerabilities. Such people would be egotistical, and vulnerable to see-ing themselves as better than the others, and having nothing more to learn There

is surprisingly little to call hardiness in this orientation

Now, imagine people high in commitment, but simultaneously low in control and challenge. Such people would be completely enmeshed with, and defined by the people, things, and events around them, never thinking to have an influence through, or to reflect on their experience of their interactions They would have little or no individuality, and their sense of meaning would be completely given

by the social interactions and institutions in which they would lose themselves Such people would be extremely vulnerable whenever any changes were imposed 

on them There is certainly little to call hardiness here

Finally, imagine people who, though high in challenge, are simultaneously low in control and commitment. Such people would be preoccupied with novelty, 

caring little for the others, things, and events around them and not imagining they could have a real influence on anything They might appear to be learning con-stantly, but this would be trivial in comparison with their investment in the thrill

of novelty per se They would resemble adventurers (Maddi 1970) and could be expected to engage in games of chance and risky activities for the excitement that they bring Once again, there is little of hardiness in this

I could continue by showing you how any two of the 3Cs, without the third,

is still shy of hardiness However, I hope this is not necessary and that the point

is clear that it is the combination of strength in all 3Cs that constitutes hardiness People  who  are  simultaneously  strong  in  all  of  the  3Cs  tend  to  (1)  see  life  as  a continually changing phenomenon that provokes them to learn and change (chal-lenge), (2) think that through this developmental process, they can work on the changes in a fashion that turns them into fulfilling experiences (control), and (3) share this effort and learning in a supportive way with the significant others and institutions in their lives (commitment)

Thus, conceptually, all three Cs of hardy attitudes need to be strong, in order

to provide the existential courage and motivation to do the hard work of turning stresses to advantage That hard work involves hardy coping, hardy social inter-action, and hardy self-care (Khoshaba and Maddi 2004; Maddi 2002) Coping that is hardy involves clear identification of stressful circumstances, analysis of what can be done to resolve them by turning them to growth advantage, and car-rying out the steps that result from this identification and analysis The opposite

of hardy, problem-solving coping is denial and avoidance, by trying not to notice stressful circumstances, and distracting oneself through excessive activities, such

as overspending, gambling, and substance addiction Hardy social interaction involves giving and getting social support from the significant others in one’s life The opposite of hardy social interaction is feeling victimized and acting on this

to punish the supposed victimizers, and overprotect one’s supposed allies Hardy self-care involves protecting one’s bodily functioning by engaging in relaxation procedures, eating in a balanced and moderate way, and keeping a moderate level

of physical activity The opposite of hardy self-care involves no effort to moderate bodily arousal, indulgence in eating overly sweet and fatty foods, and becoming a

“couch potato.”

Hardiness has been put forward as the pathway to resilience under stress (Bonanno 2004; Maddi 2005). Resilience is often considered the phenomenon of maintaining your performance and health, despite the occurrence of stressful cir-cumstances I emphasize that resilience should also be considered to involve not only this survival, but thriving as well, in the sense that stressful circumstances can also enhance performance and health, through what you learn and then use Thus,

I expect that the combination of strong hardiness attitudes and strategies will result

in the best possible living in our turbulent times

Also, we believe that hardiness can be learned It is best, needless to say, if that learning takes place early in your life, through the nature of your interactions with your parents and other mentors (Khoshaba and Maddi 1999; Maddi 2002) But, hardiness can be learned at any time in life through our hardiness training program

Hardiness as the Pathway to Resilience

10 2  Personal Hardiness as the Basis for Resilience 

(Khoshaba and Maddi 2004; Maddi 1987, 2002) What is especially important in learning hardiness is that the parent or mentor support you in practicing problem-solving coping, supportive social interaction, and beneficial self-care, and also show you how to use the experiential feedback resulting from these hardy strate-gies to enhance the hardy attitudes Thus, when you function on your own, you will have not only the knowledge of how to do problem solving, socially-support-ive interactions, and beneficial self-care, but also the courage and motivation to carry out this needed hard work

The Longitudinal Study of Stress at Illinois Bell Telephone

As indicated earlier, the magazine article my student brought me in 1974, which emphasized avoiding stress because it can kill you, did not make sense to me, especially as my ongoing research was showing how it is specifically people who are oriented toward change who are likely to be creative This contradiction led me

to feel provoked to consider the importance of studying whether there are ual differences in whether stressful circumstances undermine or enhance perfor-mance and health, and if so, whether the individual differences concern hardiness

individ-vidual differences in a sample of people undergoing substantial stresses At the time, I was a psychology consultant for Illinois Bell Telephone (IBT), which was headquartered in Chicago Then, the telephone industry was a federally-regulated monopoly, as our government believed that reliable, inexpensive telephone service was in the national interest In this, IBT was a subsidiary of the parent company, American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), and none of these companies needed

So, I convinced my research team that we needed to do research on such indi-to be competitive, or worry about their botSo, I convinced my research team that we needed to do research on such indi-tom lines

At the time, the Executive Vice President of IBT was Carl Horn, with whom I had become friendly through my consulting work for his company We had both talked about how the monopoly status of AT&T and its subsidiaries probably would be drawing to a close in the near future, as our federal government was beginning to believe that more business competition was necessary in order to hasten the development of the telecommunications industry, and insure that the United States would be at the center of that development. Although “the writing was on the wall,” neither he nor I could predict how many months or years might pass before the deregulation would occur But, there was no uncertainty that the deregulation would be a colossally stressful disruption for the company and its employees

I shared with Carl Horn the importance of my team doing research on the ferent sorts of performance and health reactions people might have when they experience stressful circumstances In this, I emphasized the excessive nature

dif-of the Family Circle article on the importance dif-of avoiding stresses, and asked whether he would permit us to study IBT employees before, during, and after the impending federal deregulation of the telephone monopoly He not only agreed

to endorse this study, but also offered to pay some of its expenses In addition, I had financial grant support from the National Institute of Health. So, we rushed to develop and carry out our natural experiment at IBT

By 1975, we were ready to begin data collection Carl Horn sent a request to the supervisors, managers, and decision-makers at IBT, introducing our data col-lection procedures, encouraging them to volunteer to participate in the study, and promised them anonymity But, he did not elaborate what the study was about The resulting sample was 259 employees, who we tested comprehensively and regularly over the years of the study Administered were many existing question-naires, covering personality characteristics, social interaction patterns, and signs of stress, strain, motivation, and beliefs In this regard, we included each year the set

of test items we had composed to cover the 3Cs of hardiness Over the years, samples were also interviewed, covering many of the same areas, and also empha-sizing early developmental experiences

sub-In addition to these psychological data, we also had available to us the mance data, such as job evaluations, promotions, and demotions that was ordinar-ily compiled by IBT We also had available our participant’s medical information,

perfor-as it wperfor-as IBT’s procedure to give each of its supervisors, managers, and makers a free yearly physical examination on their birthday, and free treatment if, and when, they became ill

decision-We continued to collect the yearly data mentioned above, as we waited for the anticipated federal deregulation of the telephone industry That deregulation hap-pened in 1981 (6 years into our research program), and is still regarded as one of the major business upheavals in history A sign of this at IBT was that it went from roughly 26,000 employees in 1981, to just over 14,000 in 1982 Nearly 50 % of the employees were terminated in the downsizing required in order for the company

to become more economically competitive in the new market conditions And, the work roles of those employees who remained were continually reorganized, in the attempt to get the company to be successfully competitive There were also many subjective signs of this upheaval For example, early in 1983, we asked a manager

in our sample what the deregulation was like for him He indicated that he had 10

different supervisors in 12 months He said, “they were in and out the door, and didn’t know what they were doing And, I don’t know what I am doing either.”

We continued to collect performance and health data for 6 years after the deregulation upheaval, in this study that has come to be regarded as a classical natural experiment (Maddi and Kobasa 1984) What we found is that, following the deregulation, two-thirds of the employees in our sample fell apart, showing various  breakdown  symptoms.  Physically,  there  were  heart  attacks,  strokes,  kid-ney  failures,  cancers,  and  suicides.  Psychologically,  there  was  depression,  anxi-ety, excessive spending, divorces, and dependency on alcohol, drugs, and other addictive experiences But, the other third of the sample were resilient by not only surviving, but also thriving If they stayed at IBT, they tended to rise to the top

of the heap in the reorganization If they left IBT, they either used their ence to start their own companies in the new competitive industry, or joined other startup companies and rose to the top of the heap there If anything, they showed

experi-The Longitudinal Study of Stress at Illinois Bell Telephone

12 2  Personal Hardiness as the Basis for Resilience 

more excitement, enthusiasm, motivation, and fulfillment than they had before the upheaval They showed many signs that the upheaval and reorganization necessi-ties led them to grow and develop These findings clearly supported my position that there are individual differences in the reaction of people to stressful circum-stances Whereas some people are undermined, others are enhanced in their per-formance and health

Another major consideration in this research was to see whether there were psychological factors existing before the deregulation that could have influ-enced the difference between the two-thirds of the sample that were undermined

by the upheaval, and the one-third that survived and thrived Needless to say, the major emphasis of this study was the attitudes and strategies that I came to call hardiness

Concerning the hardy attitudes, we composed various questionnaire items for commitment,  control,  or  challenge.  Examples  are,  for  commitment:  “Most  days life  is  interesting  and  exciting  for  me”,  for  control:  “People’s  misfortunes  result from the mistakes they make”, and for challenge: “I easily start in on unexpected new tasks” Considering the relevant data for the 15 composed items for each of the attitudes of commitment, control, and challenge showed adequate reliability both in terms of internal consistency and stability Further, each of the 3Cs showed moderate positive correlations with the other two, as was expected, in order to consider them together as the attitudes of hardiness Although measurement of hardy attitudes has improved greatly in the years since the IBT study, that study made a good start

At the attitudinal level, we also included a measure of Type A personality, an approach that was emphasized at the time (Friedman and Rosenman 1974). People high in Type A personality are driven, impatient, and competitive, unsatisfied with themselves, and experience great time pressure

At the hardy strategy level, we included two measures from a well-known ing test (Folkman and Lazarus 1980) One measure involved items showing an attempt to resolve work stresses by working on transforming them. Examples of the items included: “I knew what had to be done, so I doubled my efforts and tried harder to make things work” and “I came up with a couple of different solutions to the problem.” The other coping measure, which seemed the opposite of hardiness, involved engaging in denial and avoidance coping of work stresses. Examples of the items included: “Tried to forget the whole thing,” and “Daydreamed or imag-ined a better place than the one I was in.”

cop-Also included concerning hardy strategies was a measure of interacting with others in a socially-supportive way (Moos et al 1974). Sample items include, for family interactions: “We say anything we want to around home,” and “There is plenty of time and attention for everyone in our family.” For work interactions, sample  items  are:  “Superiors  really  stand  up  for  their  people,”  and  “People  take 

a personal interest in each other.” In measuring hardy health practices, interview data was used concerning dieting, smoking, alcohol intake, drug use, relaxation, and physical exercise

Throughout the study, we also included measures of both stress and strain toms (Maddi and Kobasa 1984). The stress measure included such items as “Recently, I’ve had a career or job change”, and “Recently, I have experienced an illness in a family member or friend.” The strain measure included such items as “Often, I have general aches and pains”, and “I’ve been having troubling dreams lately.”

symp-Finally, a measure of constitutional strengths and weaknesses was included, with the kind of interview data often used by physicians The participants were asked to report on the number of major illnesses presumed to have some heredi-tary basis that their natural parents suffered In this, we assumed that parents who had few of these illnesses had passed on stronger physical constitutions to their children (who, of course, constituted our sample)

As to results, we found, as expected, that the hardy attitudes were positively related to the hardy strategy of problem-solving coping, and negatively related

to avoidance coping Further, the hardy attitudes were positively related to the hardy strategy of socially-supportive interactions, and unrelated to Type A social behavior The hardy attitudes were also positively related to the hardy strategy of beneficial self-care These findings emerged in the data before the upheaval, and continued on after the upheaval Indeed, the pattern of hardy attitudes and strate-gies was predominant in the managers who survived and thrived after the deregu-lation, whereas the opposite pattern characterized those who fell apart

As to effects on bodily reactions to stressful circumstances, we found that prior

to the deregulation, the intensity of stress and strain reactions of managers was lower in those with hardy attitudes and strategies, than in those low in hardiness (Kobasa et al 1981, 1982a, b) This pattern continued after the deregulation, even though the amount of stress and strain understandably increased in most managers

In one study (Kobasa et al 1986), hardy attitudes, social support, and physical cise were compared in their health effectiveness after the deregulation Among man-agers who were all above the sample median in stresses, the total hardy attitudes was roughly twice as effective in decreasing risk of illness than were social support and physical exercise Of particular interest was the synergistic beneficial effect of these three stress-buffering variables: Managers with two stress buffers did some-what better than those with only one, but those with all three buffers did remarkably better than those with only two We also found no relationship between hardiness measures and constitutional strength, either before or after the deregulation

Hardiness Helps Turn Stresses into Growth Opportunities

All in all, the pattern of results in the IBT study supported the conceptualization

of hardiness as a pattern of attitudes and skills that facilitates or even enhances performance and health under great stress The results also showed that hardy managers expected stress, and saw it as an opportunity to do what they could to transform it and thereby grow in fulfillment A particularly noteworthy example

in a manager whose questionnaire results showed high hardiness both before and

The Longitudinal Study of Stress at Illinois Bell Telephone

“When a problem arises, you do not think it through on your own Instead, you

go to the index of these books by Ma Bell, and you are directed to the part of the books you need to read, which reading tells you exactly what to do That is what I mean by needing to have a bell-shaped head.”

Interestingly enough, this manager was among those who felt much more getic after the upheaval, immersed himself in using his talent to figure out what needed to be done in the chaotic environment, experienced few signs of perfor-mance and health breakdowns, and rose to the top of his reorganizing company.Figure 2.1 diagrams the general pattern of results of the IBT project, and is quite consistent with the additional research findings in subsequent studies over the next 25 years The bad news depicted in this Hardiness Model is the sinister line near the top The first box considers the total of your stressful circumstances, which circumstances may be either acute or chronic Acute stresses involve dis-ruptive changes, such as unexpected automobile accidents, or job losses Chronic stresses involve a continuing mismatch between what you want and what you get For example, you may see yourself as a loving person, but are unable to find someone on whom to lavish that Or, as in the IBT manager exampled above, you may see yourself as a capable and resilient person, but have to just fit in to be con-sidered doing your job well

ener-Fig 2.1 The Hardiness Model for performance and Health Enhancement, © Copyright 1986–

2004

The model also shows that stressful events that are not resolved have the effect

of increasing bodily strain, or arousal This arousal is what Cannon (1929) called the “fight or flight” response Before there was civilization, whenever humans would encounter the stress of other animals bigger and stronger than them, what was evolu-tionarily important was the mobilization of energy that facilitated either fighting back

or running away Arousal hormones and glucose would be pumped into the blood stream, so that the mind and muscles would have the energy needed to make quick decisions and carry them out Now that we live in more civilized times, the stresses

we encounter tend not to involve bigger and stronger animals Nonetheless, the effect

of our current stressful circumstances is the same on the bodily arousal But, even with this bodily arousal, we are unlikely to fight or run away If we do not resolve the stresses by problem-solving, the arousal persists as what we now call strain

Further, the hardiness model shows that when strain becomes too high and too prolonged, bodily and psychological resources are depleted, and breakdowns occur.  This  has  been  shown  in  Selye’s  (1976) award-winning research These breakdowns can be physical, such as the so-called “wear and tear” diseases of the circulatory and digestive systems Breakdowns can also be psychosocial and emotional, such as failing to meet deadlines, disregarding significant others, and depression and anxiety disorders The last piece of bad news depicted in the hardi-ness model is the box at the top of the figure, which proposes that, when strain-related breakdowns occur, they may do so along the lines of our constitutional weaknesses

The good news involves the four boxes at the bottom of the model, which together conceptualize how stress and strain can be kept within manageable limits,

so that the likelihood of breakdowns is minimized and, indeed, performance and health may even be enhanced The box at the left summarizes the hardy attitudes

of interrelated commitment, control, and challenge Together, these attitudes stitute the existential courage and motivation needed to do the hard work of trans-forming the stressful circumstances from potentials for breakdowns into growth opportunities instead These courageous attitudes stimulate hardy (problem-solv-ing) coping, rather than regressive (denial and avoidance) coping The hardy atti-tudes also stimulate socially-supportive (rather than competitive) interactions with significant others

con-The combination of hardy attitudes, hardy coping, and hardy social interactions facilitates turning stressful circumstances to developmental advantage In this, one has the courage and strategies that permit (1) clear evaluation of the stressful cir-cumstances, (2) a consequently emerging sense of what can be done to learn from them and increase in capability thereby, and (3) persistence in carrying out what has been learned As shown in the diagram, this process will reduce the stressful circumstances, and in that way, decrease strain, and the likelihood of breakdowns.The hardiness model also shows that hardy attitudes can facilitate the strategy

of beneficial (rather than undermining) self-care This helpful self-care involves keeping bodily arousal at an optimal level, so that there is enough energy to carry out the hard work of hardy coping and socially-supportive interactions, but not

so much energy that the careful, ongoing work involved in this coping and social

Hardiness Helps Turn Stresses into Growth Opportunities

16 2  Personal Hardiness as the Basis for Resilience 

interaction is impossible When your arousal level is getting too high, beneficial self-care involves relaxation exercises, nutrition that moderates sweet and fatty foods, and physical exercise that helps in using up the excess energy As the dia-gram shows, hardy attitudes helps with hardy self-care, and this decreases bodily arousal level But, beneficial self-care, by itself, does little to reduce the stressful-ness of the circumstances provoking excessive bodily arousal Only hardy coping and social interactions can decrease the stressfulness of the circumstances, through turning them to advantage by what is learned

But, it should not be concluded from what I have been saying that the best come is to avoid any stress and strain, and thereby feel comfortable After all, as I have said before, life is by its nature stressful. So, it is not possible to avoid stress all together, and still be living well The aim of hardiness attitudes and strategies is

out-to recognize stresses, learn from them, and thereby move one’s living out-toward dom and fulfillment And, this is an ongoing process, not one that once achieved, indicates that nothing further is required Indeed, if it were possible to resolve pre-sent and future stresses completely, one’s resulting life would not be comfortable and stable You would get so bored that soon you would begin engaging in exces-sive attempts to find stimulation, such as over spending, gambling, abusing alco-hol and other stimulating substances, sexual promiscuity, and even aggressiveness and law-breaking After all, the cortex of the human brain evolved in a fashion that facilitates learning and growing This remarkable cortex therefore requires stimulation in order to keep functioning The psychological research on the effects

wis-of stimulus deprivation shows this When research participants were deprived wis-of stimulation for a long time, they actually began hallucinating (such as seeing one’s head separated from one’s body and floating around the room), and often quit par-ticipating in the study, even though that meant not getting the substantial money payments promised (cf., Fiske 1961) It certainly seems as if our human brains need constant stimulation, even if that stimulation is stressful, as that then pro-vokes transforming the stress into new learning and wisdom It seems clear that it

is not the best answer to deny and avoid stressful circumstances, just because ing attention to, and learning from them, can be a consuming process

pay-References

Bonanno,  G.  (2004).  Loss,  trauma,  and  human  resilience:  How  we  underestimated  the  human 

capacity to thrive after extremely aversive events American Psychologist, 51, 72–82.

Cannon, W.B (1929) Bodily changes in pain, hunger, fear, and rage New York: Appleton.

Fiske, D. W. (1961). Effects of monotonous and restricted stimulation. In D.W. Fiske, & S. R. 

Maddi (Eds.), Functions of varied experience. Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press.

Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. S. (1980). An analysis of coping in a middle-aged community sam-ple Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 21, 219–239.

Friedman, M., & Rosenman, R. H. (1974). Type A behavior and your heart New York: Alfred A

Knopf.

Khoshaba, D. M., & Maddi, S. R. (1999). Early experiences in hardiness development. Consult

Psychol J, 51, 106–116.

Khoshaba, D. M., & Maddi, S. R. (2004). HardiTraining: managing stressful change (5th ed.)

Irvine: Hardiness Institute.

Kobasa,  S.  C.  (1979).  Stressful  life  events,  personality  and  health: An  inquiry  into  hardiness. 

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1–11.

Kobasa, S. C., Maddi, S. R., Puccetti, M., & Zola, M. A. (1986). Relative effectiveness of hardi-ness, exercise, and social support as resources against illness J Psychosom Res, 29, 525–533.

Maddi,  S.  R.  (1969).  The  pursuit  of  consistency  and  variety.  In  R.  Abelson,  E.  Aronson,  W. 

McGuire, T. Newcomb, M. Rosenberg, and P. Tannenbaum (Eds.), Theories of cognitive

con-sistency: A sourcebook. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally.

Maddi, S. R. (1970). The search for meaning. In M. Page (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on

Abstract The measure of the hardy attitudes has gone through several

improvements, and is now an 18 item scale called the Personal Views Survey III-R Research has shown that the test is a valid indicator of commitment, con-trol, and challenge, which together constitute the hardy attitudes This test is a positive predictor of various indices of performance and health, and a negative predictor of strain and denial and avoidance, in working adults and college stu-dents The hardy attitudes test has also been shown to be a positive predictor

of the hardy strategies of problem-solving coping, socially-supportive tions, and beneficial self-care These hardy strategies have also been shown to

interac-be positive predictors of performance and health Also, the hardy attitudes are better predictors of performance and health than are optimism, religiosity, and well-being Research has also shown that hardiness can be learned, especially through parental encouragement and assistance of their young

Keywords  Hardiness validational research  •  Performance  •  Health  • 

Anxiety  •  Depression  •  Creativity  •  Conduct  •  Strain  •  Military personnel  •  Firefighters  •  Athletes  •  Nurses  •  Working adults  •  College students

In the years since the IBT study, the hardiness approach has been considerably elaborated and is now an established part of psychology Important in this devel-opment has been an active interplay between theory, research, and practice Hundreds of studies have been done around the world, and the hardy attitudes measure  has  been  translated  into  18  foreign  languages.  What  follows  is  a  brief account of what has taken place in hardiness theorizing, and researching

Hardiness Emerges as a Distinctive Pattern of Attitudes and Strategies

The hardy attitudes questionnaire that had been used in the IBT longitudinal study included 55 relevant items The test had shown adequate internal consistency reli-ability for the commitment, control, and challenge subscales And, of course, there

Thirty Years of Hardiness Validational

Research and Practice

Chapter 3

S. R. Maddi, Hardiness, SpringerBriefs in Psychology,

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-5222-1_3, © The Author(s) 2013

20 3  Thirty Years of Hardiness Validational Research and Practice

was evidence of validity in the test’s positive relationships with subjective measures

of problem-solving coping, socially-supportive interactions, and beneficial self-care

In addition, the hardy attitudes measure showed negative relationships with not only subjective, but also objective measures of illness symptoms and performance difficulties (e.g., Maddi and Kobasa 1984)

Studies beyond IBT showed similar patterns of results with such samples as bus drivers (Bartone 1989), lawyers (Kobasa et al. 1982), and nurses (Keane et al. 

1985).  In  these  and  other  samples,  hardy  attitudes,  as  measured  by  the  Personal Views Survey (PVS) showed positive relationships with the hardy strategies, and negative relationships with reported strain, illness symptoms, and performance problems. But, in some studies using undergraduate samples, one of the three Cs, challenge, was sometimes not related to the other two, commitment and control (e.g., Funk and Houston 1987). This led to a revision of the hardiness measure to 

30 items (the PVS II) that were worded in a manner relevant not only to working adults, but college students as well In this revision, internal consistency reliability was improved, and the challenge subscale showed regular positive relationships with  the  commitment  and  control  subscales  (Maddi 1997).  Since  then,  two  additional  revisions  (the  PVS  III,  and  the  PVS  III-R)  have  taken  place,  with  the aim of shortening the test and improving its reliability and validity The present edition (PVS III-R) is only 18 items, is psychometrically improved, and has a wide range of applicability The general pattern with regard to these recent revisions of the hardiness measure is that of a positive correlation between all of the 3Cs, and each  of  them  and  the  total  hardy  attitudes  score  (Maddi 1994, 1997;  Maddi  and Khoshaba 2001). Consistent with this are the findings of the factor analytic study 

correlated factors, that lead to the total hardy attitudes as a second-order factor.Early on, the validity of the hardy attitudes measure was further questioned by the  alternative  interpretation  (e.g.,  Funk 1992; Funk and Houston 1987; Hull et

of Sinclair and Tetrick (2000), which shows that the 3Cs are first-order, positively-al 1987) that hardy attitudes might be nothing more than the opposite of  negative affectivity, or neuroticism That the PVS II could not be explained away like this is indicated by a study (Maddi and Khoshaba 1994) in which hardy attitudes and an accepted measure of negative affectivity were entered into regression analyses as independent variables in the attempt to predict the clinical scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic  Personality  Inventory  (MMPI)  as  dependent  variables.  With  the effects of negative affectivity controlled, hardiness was still a pervasive negative predictor  of  MMPI  clinical  scale  scores.  Further  undermining  the   negative  affectivity  criticism  is  a  study  that  used  an  objective  measure  of  strain  (Maddi 

1999),  showing  hardiness  to  be  higher  among  employees  whose  nurse-measured blood pressure was in the normal range than it was among those with high blood pressure

The  study  by  Maddi  and  Khoshaba  (1994)  went  further  in  countering  the assertion that hardiness is just the opposite of negative affectivity or neuroti-cism The study investigated the relationship between hardy attitudes and the five-factor model Those findings showed that, although the hardy attitudes meas-ure is negatively related to the neuroticism scale of the NEO-FFI measure of the 

five-factor model of personality, it is also positively related with all four of the other  factors (i.e., extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to  experience). Thus, recent hardy attitudes measures are more than negative affectiv-ity. Interestingly enough, all of the five factors together only accounted for 25 % of the variance of hardiness, suggesting that the latter is not merely a combination of the five factors as a depiction of personality So hardiness theorizing and measure-ment appears to have something to contribute to psychology

An experiential sampling study furthers the view that the hardy attitudes ure is a valid expression of participants’ experiences (Maddi 1999). In this study, working adults who had already completed the PVS III were subsequently paged

meas-at  random  10  times  a  day  for  3  days. When  they  were  paged,  their  task  was  to complete a short questionnaire about what they were doing, and how that was going for them The results indicated a positive relationship between PVS III scores  and  personal  descriptions  that  showed  (1)  involvement  with  others  and ongoing  activities  (commitment),  (2)  a  sense  that  their  ongoing  experiences  had been chosen, and influenced by them (control), and (3) that there was a positive process of learning going on in these activities (challenge)

In further studies, the expected positive correlations have been found between the hardy attitudes measure and standard measures of (1) the hardy strategies of problem-solving  (rather  than  denial  and  avoidance)  coping  (e.g.,  Maddi 1999; Maddi  and  Hightower 1999;  Maddi  et  al. 2006),  (2)  socially-supportive  (rather than  competitive  or  overprotective)  interactions  with  others  (e.g.,  Maddi  and Kobasa, 1984;  Maddi  et  al. 2006),  and  (3)  beneficial  (rather  than  undermining) self-care (e.g., Allred and Smith 1989; Contrada 1989; Khoshaba and Maddi 2004; Maddi et al. 1996; Weibe and McCallum 1986). These findings support the theo-rizing that considers hardiness to be a pattern of attitudes and strategies that can influence performance and health

Hardiness Improves Health Under Stress

There are also accumulated findings indicating that hardiness renders self fidence and resiliency to people experiencing stressful changes In this regard, a number of studies show that hardy attitudes have a buffering effect on both strain and illness symptoms. One such study involved the impact of a military air disas-ter on the health of assistance workers (Bartone et al. 1989). The higher the hardy attitudes of the assistance workers, the less were their signs of strain and illnesses.Also,  Harvey  (2005)  studied  undergraduates  who  were  told  that  they  would have to give a difficult talk in one of their courses The higher their hardiness  levels (which had been measured before the talk was imposed on them), the more effectively and gracefully they responded to the stressful requirement, and the less did they show signs of strain measured physiologically. With similar results, Kobasa et al. (1982) studied the illness symptoms of a subsample of IBT managers from the year before, to the year after the deregulation Understandably, this great

con-Hardiness Emerges as a Distinctive Pattern of Attitudes and Strategies

22 3  Thirty Years of Hardiness Validational Research and Practice

upheaval increased the overall level of illness symptoms But, the managers high

in hardiness showed a much lower increase than did those low in hardiness

There  is  also  a  study  by  Kuo  and  Tsai  (1986)  in  which  hardy  attitudes  were measured in a Chinese sample of people about to emigrate to the United States. They found that, the higher the hardy attitudes levels prior to emigration, the lower the signs of stress, strain, and illnesses in the first few years in the new country.One  possible  alternative  explanation  to  the  greater  tolerance  of  stress  and strain provided by strong hardy attitudes is that these attitudes simply encourage denial and avoidance But, there are findings showing a negative relationship between hardy attitudes and defensive repression (Maddi et al. 2006). Repression 

in this study was measured through a standard, accepted approach involving a combination of a high score on socially-desirable responding and a low score on anxiety  (Jamner  and  Schwartz 1986;  Myers  and  Steed 1999).  Our  findings  are consistent with the conceptualization of hardiness as a way of recognizing and working with stress and strain, rather than denying and avoiding them

Hardiness Improves Performance and Conduct

Under Stress

Consistent  with  the  IBT  results  are  those  of  many  subsequent  studies  showing that hardy attitudes are not only positively associated with hardy strategies, but with enhanced performance as well. For example, Maddi and Hess (1992) meas-ured hardy attitudes in high school, varsity basketball players from a number of schools during the summer, before the regular sports season began Then, they obtained from the team coaches performance data throughout the ensuing season

on these players The performance data involved seven characteristics, such as number of points scored, assists, and foul-outs The results showed that hardiness was positively related to positive measures of performance, and negatively related

to measures of poor performance The only performance measure not related to hardiness was number of free throws scored Interestingly enough, free throws are routinely practiced every day by varsity players, and take place during the only moments of calm in a basketball game So, it appears that hardiness helped these varsity players address the ongoing stresses of the games, and enhanced their ensuing behavior

Another sports study involved women who were competing to become bers  of  the  1994  U.S.  Olympic  synchronized  swimming  team  (Lancer 2000). These female athletes had completed the PVS III at the beginning of the struggle

mem-to become members of the U.S. team. Once the competition was over, it became clear that those who made the team had higher levels of hardiness than those who failed. Then, in the Olympics competition, the U.S. synchronized swimming team and the team from another country tied for first place, and a playoff was necessary

to determine the winner The U.S team lost the playoff, and the two of its mers with the poorest performance were the ones with the lowest hardiness scores

There have also been a number of studies showing a positive relationship between hardiness and performance of military personnel in ongoing stressful circumstances. For example, Bartone (1999) studied U.S. Army members in vari-ous stressful circumstances, such as peace-keeping and combat missions abroad Using various dependent variables and prospective designs, he has found consid-erable evidence that the lower hardy attitudes were, when measured prior to the missions, the greater was the likelihood that life-threatening stresses and culture shock of military engagement abroad would lead to such mental breakdowns as depression and post-traumatic stress disorders There have been similar findings

in studies concerning the experience of non life-threatening, non military culture shock  for American  employees  on  work  missions  abroad  (Atella 1989),  and  for immigrants to the U.S. (Kuo and Tsai 1986)

Similar results have also been reported on people undergoing the intentionally stressful training of military personnel. Westman (1990) studied men and women 

in officer training school for the Israeli military She measured hardiness levels before the participants entered training, and determined their observations and per-formance throughout the training The higher the hardiness, the greater was the tendency to perceive the training as stressful, but to graduate successfully After all, officer training school is intended to be stressful, in order to separate the resil-ient from the vulnerable If one’s ability to see a problem clearly is impeded by complacency or defensiveness, how can one cope with it effectively enough to find

a solution? Along those lines, Florian et al. (1995) found that hardiness positively predicts  mental  health  at  the  end  of  a  4-month  combat  training  program  for  the Israeli military By path analysis, they showed that mediating factors included an increase in problem-solving coping and support-seeking interaction strategies These findings are quite consistent with hardiness theorizing

Also consistent with these findings on hardiness as a force in performing well during  stressful  training  is  a  study  by  Bartone  and  Snook  (1999).  In  a  group  of cadets at U.S. Military Academy, it was found that the best predictor of leadership behavior  over  the  4-year  training  program  was  hardiness,  measured  early  in  the training process Further, it has been found that hardiness, measured in firefighter cadets before their four-and-a-half-month, strenuous training began, predicted who  would  stay  in  the  program,  and  perform  well  (Maddi  et  al. 2007). A  simi-lar pattern of results is emerging in studies of male and female undergraduates Lifton  et  al.  (2000)  have  found  that  among  high-risk  undergraduates,  hardiness measured just after their arrival on campus was a positive predictor of retention over the 4-year program. Further, it has been shown that there is a positive cor-relation between hardiness and grade-point-average in undergraduates (Maddi et 

al 2009)

There are also findings showing a positive relationship between hardiness and creativity  (Maddi  et  al. 2006).  In  this,  creativity  was  measured  by  the  Unusual Uses test, which provides participants with a list of everyday objects, and asks them to indicate four ways in which each object can be used Then, the usages are compared for frequency across the entire sample This showed that the higher the hardiness, the more infrequent are the proposed usages

Hardiness Improves Performance and Conduct Under Stress

24 3  Thirty Years of Hardiness Validational Research and Practice

There is also one study about hardiness and conduct (Maddi et al. 1996). This study concerned alcohol and drug use among recent high school graduates The results showed that, although almost all the participants indicated that they had tried alcohol and drugs, there was a negative relationship between hardiness and continued use of these debilitating substances Although these results were based

on self-report data, the findings were also confirmed by concurrent urine tests Additional conduct studies are currently under way

The Relative Effectiveness of Hardiness and Other

Individual Characteristics

Some additional studies have compared the relative effects of hardy attitudes and other personality factors in determining coping strategies and performance This beginning emphasis on the role of various individual difference characteristics on performance and health is very important

An early effort of this sort compared the relative effectiveness of hardy tudes  and  optimism  on  problem-solving  and  avoidance  coping  (Maddi  and Hightower 1999). In the first study, male and female undergraduates were admin-istered measures of the personality characteristics of hardy attitudes and optimism, and of both problem-solving and avoidance coping efforts The second study fol-lowed the same pattern, but used different coping measures In these two studies, the stressful circumstances were the ongoing pressures of college life To increase the experienced stresses, the third study involved a sample of females who had been referred by their physicians to a local hospital where their breast lumps would be tested to see if they were cancerous In the third study, hardy attitudes and optimism were measured before the hospital appointment at which it would

atti-be determined whether or not the lumps involved cancer In regression analyses, hardy attitudes and optimism were used as independent variables, in the attempt to predict the coping variables as dependent variables

The approach taken in all three studies automatically purifies the independent variables of their effects on each other The results of these three studies were sim-ilar, showing that hardy attitudes was positively related to problem-solving cop-ing, and negatively related to avoidance coping. Optimism had little or no effect in the analyses This is clearly consistent with our theorizing about hardy attitudes as existential courage, and suggests that there may be an element of complacency in optimism that interferes with dealing with stressful circumstances

Another comparative study involved U.S Army officers at or above the rank of Colonel, who were spending a year of additional training, as they were regarded as leaders in their organization (Maddi et al. 2006). They completed  questionnaires concerning hardy attitudes, religiosity, and signs of depression and anger Here, too, regression analyses were run, with hardiness and religiosity as the independ-ent variables, and measures of depression and anger as the dependent variables

As expected, the hardy attitudes showed a pattern of negative relationships with

measures of both depression and anger, whereas religiosity had little role in these dependent variables But, with one of the measures of anger used, there was a significant  interaction  between  hardiness  and  religiosity.  When  the  interaction effect was graphed, it showed that when hardiness was high, it rather then religi-osity decreased anger But, when hardiness was low, religiosity was associated with lower anger The results of this study are also consistent with our theorizing that hardy attitudes amount to the existential courage needed to deal directly with stresses The findings also suggest that religiosity may not be as directly relevant

to dealing effectively with stressful circumstances as is hardiness

Also  relevant  are  three  studies  done  on  undergraduate  students  (Maddi  and Khoshaba 2001). In each of these studies hardiness and one conceptually relevant vari-able were measured, and compared through regression analyses in their relative effec-tiveness in predicting subsequent grade point average (GPA). In all three studies, both hardiness and the other personality variable showed significant positive correlations with GPA. But, the regression analyses changed the picture. In the first study, hardi-ness showed a stronger relationship to GPA than did Satisfaction with Life. This seems another expression that hardiness avoids the complacency of happiness measures, such as optimism and satisfaction with life In the second and third studies, hardiness retained a positive relationship with GPA, but the other variables did not. The other variables in these two studies concerned standard measures of academic attitudes Taken together, these three studies suggest that it is hardiness, rather than specific aca-demic attitudes or general happiness that has an influence on college performance.Another relevant study (Maddi and Matthews et al. 2011) utilizing a cohort of 

1254  cadets  at  the  U.S.  Military Academy.  In  this  study,  the  personality  teristics of hardiness, grit, and emotional intelligence were measured before the training began, was evaluated as to their relative effect on the various performance measures used in that institution at the end of the first year of training. Needless 

charac-to say, the best prediccharac-tor of these performance measures was cadet performance

in high school (which had been used as a criterion for selecting applicants to be cadets). The only personality characteristic that made an additional difference on performance was hardiness, which positively predicted the grades at the end of the first year of training Also, both hardiness and grit were positive predictors of retention during this first year of training

Where Does Hardiness Come From?

In the research covered thus far, it appears that hardiness attitudes positively influence performance and conduct This positive influence may well involve the moderating effect of problem-solving coping, socially-supportive interactions, and beneficial self-care on accurately perceiving stresses, managing strain, and attempting to transform the stresses to advantage by what is learned

But, where does this important hardiness come from? Is it inherited, or learned? And,  if  it  is  learned,  how  does  this  happen?  Our  relevant  theorizing  emphasizes 

The Relative Effectiveness of Hardiness and Other Individual Characteristics

26 3  Thirty Years of Hardiness Validational Research and Practice

that  hardiness  is  learned  (Maddi  and  Kobasa 1984).  In  particular,  a  sense  of  commitment to people and circumstances develops if the youngster’s parents are generally loving and supportive, approving their child’s interactions with them and others with encouragement and acceptance Further, a sense of control, in the con-tinuing efforts to fulfill goals, is encouraged when the parents make sure that the tasks their child experiences are just a bit more difficult than what they can easily perform In contrast, if the tasks are too easy, there will be no resulting sense of accomplishment or mastery If the tasks are too hard, the child is likely to fail and feel powerless And, to develop a sense of challenge, the child needs to be helped

by parents to see ongoing changes as important, and a positive influence to learn, and make the best of things In this, the environment gets seen as full of require-ments to grow and develop, and help others in this process All together, these three areas of positive experience build the 3Cs of hardiness, as the child develops.Thus far, there has not been much directly relevant research on this conceptual-ization But, there is one study involving a sample of managers at IBT, who were interviewed concerning their early life experiences (Khoshaba and Maddi, 1999). The managers included in this study were selected for interviews on the basis of whether they had been shown to be regularly high or regularly low in hardiness, measured by the PVS II questionnaire The high hardiness managers, in contrast

to those who were low, described their early lives as replete with stressful changes, such as moving from place to place, frequently meeting new people, and having their parents change jobs Their parents helped them to see these changes as just what happens, and to work together in resolving the disruptions in a manner that involved moving forward in family life In all this, the managers, who were of course quite young at the time, were viewed by their parents as the hope of the family The youngsters were encouraged, respected, and supported whenever they tried to help the family not only survive, but also thrive

As you can see, these results are consistent with what would be expected in the conceptualization  of  how  hardiness  is  learned.  Needless  to  say,  the  weakness  of this study is that it involved retrospective interviews about early life, on the part of managers who were already high or low in hardiness Further studies are needed in order to reach a firm conclusion that hardiness is a learned process Fortunately, as will be covered in the next chapter, there are now emerging studies showing that hardiness training in adulthood can increase hardiness levels and improve subse-quent performance

References

Allred,  K.  D.,  &  Smith,  T.  W.  (1989).  The  hardy  personality:  Cognitive  and  physiological 

responses to evaluative threat Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 257–266.

Atella, M. (1989). Crossing boundaries: Effectiveness and health among western managers living 

in China. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago.

Bartone,  P.  T.  (1989).  Predictors  of  stress-related  illness  in  city  bus  drivers.  Journal of

Occupational Medicine , 31, 857–863.

Bartone,  P.  T.  (1999).  Hardiness  protects  against  war-related  stress  in  army  reserve  forces. 

Consulting Psychology Journal , 51, 72–82.

ment in U.S. Army cadets. Paper presented at 35th International Applied Military Psychology  Symposium, May, Florence, Italy.

during a stressful real life situation? The roles of appraisal and coping Journal of Personality

and Social Psychology , 68, 687–695.

Funk, S. C. (1992). Hardiness: A review of theory and research. Health Psychology, 11, 335–345 Funk,  S.  C.,  &  Houston,  B.  K.  (1987).  A  critical  analysis  of  the  hardiness  scale.  Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology , 53, 572–578.

Harvey,  R.  H  (2005).  Hardiness  at  work:  Psychophysiological indicators of everyday courage

under stress. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Irvine.

Hull, J. G., Van Treuren, R. R., & Virnelli, S. (1987). Hardiness and health: A critique and alter-native approach Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 518–530.

Jamner,  L.  D.,  &  Schwartz,  G.  E.  (1986).  Self-deception  predicts  self-report  and  endurance  of 

pain Psychosomatic Medicine, 48, 211–223.

Keane, A., Ducette, J., & Adler, D. (1985). Stress in ICU and non-ICU nurses. Nursing Research, 

34, 231–236.

Khoshaba,  D.  M.,  &  Maddi,  S.  R.  (1999).  Early  experiences  in  hardiness  development. 

Consulting Psychology Journal, 51, 106–116.

Khoshaba, D. M., & Maddi, S. R. (2004). HardiTraining: Managing stressful change (5th ed.). 

Irvine: Hardiness Institute.

Kobasa,  S.  C.,  Maddi,  S.  R.,  &  Kahn,  S.  (1982).  Hardiness  and  health:  A  prospective  study. 

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 42, 168–177.

Kuo,  W.  H.,  &  Tsai, Y.  (1986).  Social  networking,  hardiness,  and  immigrants’  mental  health. 

Journal of Health and Social Behavior , 27, 133–149.

Lancer, K. (2000). Hardiness and Olympic women’s synchronized swim team Paper presented at

University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Lifton, D. E., Seay, S., & Bushke, A. (2000). Can student “hardiness” serve as an indicator of 

likely persistence to graduation? Baseline results from a longitudinal study Academic

Exchange Quarterly, Winter, 73–81.

tarianism, and performance Journal of Personality, 74, 575–598.

Maddi, S. R., Harvey, R. H., Resurreccion, R., Giatras, C. D., & Raganold, S. (2007). Hardiness 

as a performance enhancer in firefighters International Journal of Fire Service Leadership

and Management, 1(2), 3–9.

References

Maddi,  S.  R.,  &  Khoshaba,  D.  M.  (2001).  HardiSurvey III-R: Test development and internet

instruction manual. Irvine: Hardiness Institute.

Maddi,  S.  R.,  &  Kobasa,  S.  C.  (1984).  The hardy executive: Health under stress.  Homewood: 

Dow Jones-Irwin.

Maddi,  S.  R.,  Matthews,  M.D.,  Kelly,  D.  R., Villarreal,  B.,  &  White,  M.  (2011).  The  role  of 

hardiness  and  grit  in  predicting  performance  and  retention  in  USMA  cadets.  Military

Psychology, submitted.

Maddi, S. R., Wadhwa, P., & Haier, R. J. (1996). Relationship of hardiness to alcohol and drug 

use in adolescents American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 22, 247–257.

Myers,  L.,  &  Steed,  L.  (1999).  The  relationship  between  optimism,  dispositional  pessimism, 

regressive coping, and trait anxiety Personality and Individual Differences, 27, 1261–1272.

Sinclair,  R.  R.,  &  Tetrick,  L.  E.  (2000).  Implications  of  item  wording  for  hardiness  structure, 

relation with neuroticism, and stress buffering Journal of Research in Personality, 34, 1–25.

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stress-illness relationship Health Psychology, 5, 435–438.

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hardiness Human performance, 3, 141–155.

Abstract This chapter concerns hardiness assessment and training With regard

to assessments, the development over many years of an effective questionnaire measure is emphasized Most of this work concerned the hardiness attitudes of commitment, control, and challenge, as measured by the Personal Views Survey III-R This measure has also been included along with measures of hardy strate-gies of problem-solving coping, and socially supportive interactions, and is called the HardiSurvey III-R Also covered is the initial form of HardiTraining, which has been expanded and improved over the years The approach now emphasizes exercises in problem-solving coping, socially supportive interactions, effective self-care, and how the feedback obtained from these efforts deepen the hardi-ness attitudes Research validation of the effectiveness of this training is included Finally, reference is made to our Hardiness Train-the-Trainer program

Keywords  Hardiness assessment  •  Hardiness training  •  Personal Views Survey 

III-R  •  HardiSurvey III-R  •  Hardiness Train-the-Trainer program

There has now been more than 30 years of hardiness theorizing, researching, and practicing In the facilitation of practice, the Hardiness Institute was formed more than 20 years ago This company is licensed in California By now, considerable progress has been made on measuring hardiness, and determining whether it can

be effectively trained This chapter will cover both topics

The Development and Effectiveness of Hardiness

Assessment

The measurement of hardy attitudes has improved over the years The first ure, the Personal Views Survey, involved 50 items, and was introduced in the IBT longitudinal study (Maddi and Kobasa 1984) Even before that study was com-pleted, the number of items used in measuring hardy attitudes had diminished to the 30 that most clearly showed the 3Cs of commitment, control, and challenge

meas-Hardiness Assessment and Training

Chapter 4

S R Maddi, Hardiness, SpringerBriefs in Psychology,

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-5222-1_4, © The Author(s) 2013

30 4 Hardiness Assessment and Training

(Personal Views Survey, II) In working adults, the 3Cs measured by the Personal Views Survey II, were positively intercorrelated, as expected conceptually, and showed adequate reliability (as to internal consistency and stability)

But, other studies (e.g., Funk 1992; Hull et al 1987), mostly using college dent samples, found that challenge was not always positively correlated with com-mitment and control This problem led us to rewrite several of the items, so that they would be more relevant to college age samples, and that led to the Personal Views Survey III, which also showed adequate reliability This version of the test showed consistent positive correlations of the 3Cs, and strong positive correla-tions of them with total hardiness scores (cf Maddi 2002) Indeed, factor analysis results showed that the three Cs were consistent with interrelated first order factors that lead to a composite second order factor (Sinclair and Tetrick 2000)

stu-The latest version of the hardy attitudes test is the Personal Views Survey III-R

It is formed of the empirically best 18 of the 30 items of the previous version of the test (Maddi et al 2006) In this test version, the 3cs show strong positive inter-correlations with each other, and with the total hardiness score Internal consist-ency reliability is adequate for each of the 3cs, and for the total hardiness score And, there is growing evidence of empirical validity Each of the 3cs is measured

by three positively and three negatively worded items Examples of items are, for commitment, “I often wake up eager to take up life wherever it left off” (posi-tive indicator) and “It’s hard to imagine anyone getting excited about working” (negative indicator); for control, “When I make plans, I’m certain I can make them work”, (positive indicator) and “Most of what happens in life is just meant to be” (negative indicator); and for challenge, “Changes in routine provoke me to learn” (positive indicator) and “I am not equipped to handle unexpected problems of life” (negative indicator) In general, the major use of the Personal Views Survey is in research (e.g., Maddi 2002)

But, there is also the HardiSurvey, III-R (copyrighted and trademarked by the Hardiness Institute), a 65 item questionnaire which includes, along with the just discussed measure of hardy attitudes, measures of hardy (problem-solving) cop-ing, and hardy (socially-supportive) interactions Also included are measures

of stress, strain, and regressive (avoidance) coping Taken together, the scores

on these various scales produce a comprehensive report of stress resilience and stress vulnerability, along with recommendations as to what needs to be done

to strengthen resilience In this regard, the extensive norms maintained by the Hardiness Institute, are used to evaluate the scores of individuals taking the test The most resilient pattern involves relatively high scores on hardy attitudes, hardy coping, hardy interactions, and hardy self-care, especially if the stress and strain scores that reflect ongoing experiences are also high The most vulnerable pattern includes low scores on one or more of the hardy attitudes, coping, interactions, and self-care, and relatively high scores on stress, strain, and regressive coping Needless to say, there are also mixed patterns The HardiSurvey III-R, which is typically used in consulting or counseling work (though it can also be taken by individuals interested in their own patterns), is available on line at www.HardinessInstitute.com

As an example, Fig 4.1 shows the graph from the report of a person who has completed the HardiSurvey III-R As you can see from the percentile scores (which are based on our normative base), this person has stress, strain, and regres-sive coping scores that are higher than the norms This indicates a stressful envi-ronment, which may sometimes be reacted to with denial and avoidance But, the person’s hardy attitudes, hardy coping, and hardy work and family social support scores are considerably higher than the norms, indicating considerable involve-ment in turning stresses to developmental advantage Understandably, this pat-tern leads to a stress effectiveness score that is very high as to the norms, and also much higher than the person’s own overall vulnerability score All in all, the over-all score shows that this person is handling the stressful environment quite well, and growing and developing in the process

The Initial Development of Hardiness Training

There is now also a well-delineated, and empirically validated procedure for ing hardiness (Khoshaba and Maddi 2004) This training effort began at Illinois Bell Telephone, in the years following the traumatic deregulation of the telephone industry (Maddi et al 1998) As the upheaval further and further undermined the performance and health of managers, the decision-makers at the company came

train-to us for help They were so pleased with our valuable research efforts, but hoped that we could somehow participate in helping managers survive and thrive in the new, competitive business environment into which they had been thrust

Percentile Ranks

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95

HardiAttitudeTM

Stress Strain Regressive Coping

HardiCopingTM

Work Support

Personal Effectiveness

Vulnerability to Change Factors Social Support

Overall Personal Effectiveness

Fig 4.1 Your personalized HardiSurveyIII-R™ score summary

The Development and Effectiveness of Hardiness Assessment

32 4 Hardiness Assessment and Training

We arranged a course schedule that involved 12 once-a-week meetings for doing hardiness training exercises that we put together through our ongoing con-ceptualization of what leads to resilience under stress (Maddi 1987) The course was made available to Illinois Bell Telephone managers on a voluntary basis Each course was limited to 20 managers, so that they and the trainer would have a chance to interact Our general conceptualization was to put the managers through exercises that involved hardy (problem-solving) coping, and to then have them use the feedback they obtained from carrying out these exercises to deepen their hardy attitudes Thus, they were not only learning how to take steps to turn their stressful circumstances to their advantage, but also deepening their courage and motivation

to do this hard work, when the encouragement of the trainer was no longer ble to them Specifically, we would present the exercises in class, and then instruct the course members to carry out the exercises in their own lives, during the week

availa-in between sessions In each session, class members would share with each other and the trainer how things had gone for them during their week of trying the exer-cises out in their living

The First Hardy Coping Step is Situational Reconstruction

In the first session, class members were introduced to each other and the trainer, and informed of the efforts they would be using throughout the course and there-after, in the attempt to turn stressful circumstances to their advantage Their homework assignment in the following week was to make a list of the stressful circumstances they were currently experiencing, that they had not yet resolved

In the second session, they began to learn about the first mental step in hardy

coping, which is called Situational Reconstruction (Khoshaba and Maddi 2004) This involves each of them selecting a stressful circumstance from their list, and thinking about it various ways Specifically, they tried to imagine how the stressor could actually become worse, and also, how it could become better Whatever would make it worse or better is up to them, as that involves their view of what makes sense in their lives Once having determined what would make the stressor better or worse, they were encouraged to make up stories about how the better and worse versions would actually happen Once having done this, they are asked to come up with what they could actually do that would decrease the likelihood of the stressor getting worse, and increase the likelihood of it getting better If the trainee goes through these steps of Situational Reconstruction effectively, this is

called the first scenario, which prepares him/her for constructing an Action Plan

that can turn the stressor to advantage

In working on Situational Reconstruction, James provided a good example

of this first scenario Like all managers at Illinois Bell Telephone, he was whelmed by the disruptions and unpredictability produced by the federal deregu-lation of the telephone industry But, this did not stop him from working through Situational Reconstruction In this, James realized that things could be even worse