Stressor appraisal as an explanation for the influence of extra- individual factors on psychological resilience

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors show how studying stressor appraisal and resulting adaptive coping potentially provides a parsimonious explanation of psychological resilience. Extra-individual factors such as social support, favorable environmental conditions, or positive cultural influences have all been found to be associated with people maintaining mental health in the face of adversity. It thus appears logical that the inclusion of extra-individual factors into models of psychological resilience will improve our understanding of the concept. However, these multisystemic approaches to resilience sometimes ignore that the presence of adversity is an essential part of the concept of psychological resilience: some individuals stay mentally healthy despite being exposed to significant stressors. As a consequence, extra-individual factors that reduce or limit individuals’ overall exposure to stressors (e.g., material support, healthy living conditions, safe neighborhoods) may be beneficial for their mental health, but they do not, as such, inform about resilience. Classifying these buffers as resilience factors blurs the resilience concept, because by removing stressors they remove a driving force for mental health deteriorations rather than help individuals to not let the stressors drive mental health changes. The authors argue that the primary mechanism for mental health in contexts of stressor exposure remains individual appraisal of difficult situations in a way that produces adaptive stress reactions. These reactions promote coping with the threat but do not overly burden or unnecessarily consume an organism’s resources, thereby containing the deleterious consequences of stressor exposure on mental health.