Interdisciplinary Psychology:

            The Resilience Factor by Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatte was eye-opening. I am apparently not as resilient as I once thought. I took the tests expecting to pass with flying colors but unfortunately I ranked well below average. I have overcome so much in my life that I thought that meant I was resilient but the definition of resilient is also different than I once thought. On page 26 the author says that, “resilience is a mind-set that enables you to seek out new experiences and to view your life as a work in progress.”  After taking the tests I am realize that this is something that I need to strive for.

“The Resilience Factor”                                                                                    Patricia Sims

by Karen Reivich, Ph.D.  &  Andrew Shatte, Ph.D.                                           02/17/08

            I’ve been called a “survivor” which in my mind implies victim.  I much prefer the term “resilient” which is defined in the introduction as “the ability to persevere and adapt when things go wrong”.  Surviving is living but resiliency is living a certain way.  On page 26 the authors say that “resilience is a mind-set that enables you to seek out new experiences and to view your life as a work in progress.”  While surviving may get you through to the next day, resilience allows you to “overcome, steer through, bounce back, and reach out”.

Gratitude Letter 

            This was an interesting activity. The more I thought about it, I realized that I’ve never written a letter for someone and then actually read it to them. It felt a little strange writing a letter knowing that I would soon have to read out loud to that person. However, once the “activity” was fully under weigh, the awkwardness wore off.

The book “The Resilience Factor presents nothing that I haven’t heard before.  The terminology is just stated in some different descriptive labels such as ticker tape thoughts iceberg beliefs, and amygdala hijack.  Even the term resilience in this book means nothing more than the ability to look at things with a positive viewpoint.  The book is repetitive, and thorough.  Being in the self-help genre, I can understand why it was written in this way.  The terms are easy to remember, and the repetition helps with memory as well.  I preferred the style of Introduction to Positive Psychology because I am used to that type of presentation as a university student, but I can see that this more folksy type of writing with lots of stories and examples is more of a fun read and helps immensely with clarity for the person who may not have had very much, or any kind, of introduction to psychological thinking and terminology.  I even enjoyed it when the lead author used examples from his own or his co-author’s life.  However, the book came across as a made-for-tv promise that will slice, dice and perfect your life in one easy read.  Not everyone will be able to, or possibly should, apply this information on their own.