Positive Psychology in Practice: Promoting Human Flourishing in Work, Health, Education, and Everyday Life, 2nd Edition

Chapter 44Resilience Theory and the Practice of Positive Psychology From Individuals to Societies

TUPPETT M. YATES, FANITA A. TYRELL AND ANN S. MASTEN

Preparation of this chapter was supported in part by a grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Developmental and Learning Sciences (ID 0951775) and William T. Grant Foundation to the first author, and to the University of Minnesota (Ann S. Masten, Stephanie M. Carlson, and David Philip Zelazo, Co-PIs) from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), U.S. Department of Education (R305A110528). The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent the views of NSF, the William T. Grant Foundation, IES, the U.S. Department of Education, or other funders.

Resilience Science emerged more than half a century ago when trailblazers in psychology, psychiatry, and pediatrics searching for clues to the origins and treatment of problems in child development observed the striking variation in outcomes among children at risk due to disadvantage and adversity. From the outset, resilience research pioneers, such as Norman Garmezy, Lois Murphy, Michael Rutter, and Emmy Werner, sought to inform practice by understanding the processes that explained how some individuals fared well in the face of adversity while others floundered (Masten, 2013). Their compelling ideas and research propagated the field of resilience science, which has transformed frameworks for practice in multiple disciplines by shifting the emphasis away ...