Social resilience: the value of social fitness with an application to the military.

Resilience has been regarded narrowly as a quintessential individual property by most investigators. Social resilience, however, is inherently a multilevel construct, revealed by capacities of individuals, but also groups, to foster, engage in, and sustain positive social relationships and to endure and recover from stressors and social isolation. Emergent levels of organization, ranging from dyads, families, and groups to cities, civilizations, and international alliances have long been apparent in human existence, but identifying the features of individuals, relationships, and group structures and norms that promote social resilience-and determining effective interventions to build social resilience-represent some of the most important challenges facing the military as well as contemporary behavioral science. We identify nine personal resources that foster social resilience, and we describe an educational, computer-based program that builds on these resources in an effort to improve the social resilience among troops in the U.S. Army. Data from this program should provide valuable evidence regarding the challenge of building social resilience.

[1]  D. Krebs.  The age of empathy: nature’s lessons for a kinder society , 2011 .

[2]  R. Cornum,et al.  The Soldier Fitness Tracker: global delivery of Comprehensive Soldier Fitness. , 2011, The American psychologist.

[3]  K. Pargament,et al.  Building spiritual fitness in the Army: an innovative approach to a vital aspect of human development. , 2011, The American psychologist.

[4]  George W. Casey.  Comprehensive soldier fitness: a vision for psychological resilience in the U.S. Army. , 2011, The American psychologist.

[5]  Michael D Matthews,et al.  Comprehensive soldier fitness: building resilience in a challenging institutional context. , 2011, The American psychologist.

[6]  J. Reich,et al.  Resilience: The Meanings, Methods, and Measures of a Fundamental Characteristic of Human Adaptation , 2010 .

[7]  J. Reich,et al.  Handbook of Adult Resilience , 2010 .

[8]  N. Christakis,et al.  Alone in the Crowd: The Structure and Spread of Loneliness in a Large Social Network , 2009 .

[9]  L. Hawkley,et al.  Perceived social isolation and cognition , 2009, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[10]  F. D. Waal,et al.  The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society , 2009 .

[11]  K. Fingerman,et al.  Consequential Strangers: The Power of People Who Don't Seem to Matter. . . But Really Do , 2009 .

[12]  A. Kennerley.  Book Review: Island of the Lost; Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World , 2009 .

[13]  Ann S. Masten,et al.  Resilience over the lifespan: Developmental perspectives on resistance, recovery, and transformation , 2009 .

[14]  John T. Cacioppo,et al.  Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection , 2008 .

[15]  John S. Hall,et al.  Resilience: a new integrative approach to health and mental health research , 2008 .

[16]  David Sloan Wilson,et al.  Multilevel Selection Theory and Major Evolutionary Transitions , 2008 .

[17]  Jeffry A. Simpson,et al.  25. Foundations of interpersonal trust , 2007 .

[18]  S. Cochran,et al.  Race, race-based discrimination, and health outcomes among African Americans. , 2007, Annual review of psychology.

[19]  S. Bowles.  Group Competition, Reproductive Leveling, and the Evolution of Human Altruism , 2006, Science.

[20]  Barbara A. Wasik,et al.  A social model for health promotion for an aging population: Initial evidence on the experience corps model , 2004, Journal of Urban Health.

[21]  Isaac Luginaah,et al.  Who you know, where you live: social capital, neighbourhood and health. , 2005, Social science & medicine.

[22]  F. Dattilio,et al.  The restructuring of family schemas: a cognitive-behavior perspective. , 2005, Journal of marital and family therapy.

[23]  D. Magnusson,et al.  The psychobiology of emotion: the role of the oxytocinergic system , 2005, International journal of behavioral medicine.

[24]  M. Seligman,et al.  Positive psychology progress: empirical validation of interventions. , 2005, The American psychologist.

[25]  D. Druckman,et al.  Theory, research, and practice , 2003 .

[26]  J. G. Holmes,et al.  An Atlas of Interpersonal Situations , 2003 .

[27]  J. Blattner,et al.  Coaching versus therapy: A perspective. , 2001 .

[28]  H. Reis,et al.  The relationship context of human behavior and development. , 2000, Psychological bulletin.

[29]  張富鈞,et al.  從人際吸引(interpersonal attraction)的觀點談體育課中師生的互動 , 2000 .

[30]  D. Bugental,et al.  Acquisition of the algorithms of social life: a domain-based approach. , 2000, Psychological bulletin.

[31]  K. Pargament,et al.  Forgiveness: Theory, research, and practice. , 2000 .

[32]  E. Klinenberg.  Denaturalizing disaster: A social autopsy of the 1995 Chicago heat wave , 1999 .

[33]  Michael A. Becker.  Social Psychology: Handbook of Basic Principles , 1998 .

[34]  I. Kawachi,et al.  Social capital, income inequality, and mortality. , 1997, American journal of public health.

[35]  W. Hartup,et al.  Friendships and adaptation in the life course. , 1997 .

[36]  S. Minuchin,et al.  Mastering Family Therapy: Journeys of Growth and Transformation , 1996 .

[37]  Bert N. Uchino,et al.  The relationship between social support and physiological processes: a review with emphasis on underlying mechanisms and implications for health. , 1996, Psychological bulletin.

[38]  E. Higgins,et al.  Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles. , 1996 .

[39]  D. Myers,et al.  Who Is Happy? , 1995 .

[40]  Philip Langdon,et al.  A Better Place to Live: Reshaping the American Suburb , 1994 .

[41]  John P. Kretzman,et al.  Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets , 1993 .

[42]  J. Coleman.  Foundations of Social Theory , 1990 .

[43]  J. House,et al.  Social relationships and health. , 1988, Science.

[44]  S. Sarason.  The Psychological Sense of Community: Prospects for a Community Psychology , 1974 .

[45]  I. Janis.  Victims of Groupthink: A psychological study of foreign-policy decisions and fiascoes. By Irving L. Janis. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972. viii + 276 pp. Map, illustrations, chart, notes, sources, bibliography, and index. Cloth, $7.95; paper $4.50.) , 1973 .

[46]  S. Fiske,et al.  The Handbook of Social Psychology , 1935 .

[47]  C. Darwin.  The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex: INDEX , 1871 .