Prepared By Sheri Rambharose
Why do some people suffer physical and mental break-downs when faced with overwhelming stress while other seem to thrive? A landmark 12-year longitudinal study by psychologist Salvatore R. Maddi, Ph.D., and colleagues at the University of Chicago involving one of the biggest deregulation and divestiture cases in American history provides some answers.
In 1981 Illinois Bell Telephone (IBT) downsized from 26, 000 employees to just over half that many in one year. The remaining employees faced changing job descriptions, company goals and supervisors. One manager reported having 10 different supevisors in one year. Dr. Salvatore Maddi and his research team found that about two-thirds of the employees in the study suffered significant performance, leadership and health declines as the result of the extreme stress from the deregulation and divestiture, including heart attacks, strokes, obesity, dpression, substance abuse and poor performance reviews. However, the other one-third actually thrived during the upheaval despite experiencing the same amount of disruption and stressful events as their co-workers. These employees maintained their health, happiness and performance and felt renewed enthusiasm.
What made the two groups so different? Dr. Maddi found that those who thrived maintained three key beliefs that helped them turn adversity into an advantage: commitment, control and challenge attitudes. The Commitment attitude led them to strive to be involved with people(at work and at home), things, and contexts( community/church/volunteer organizations) rather than be detached, isolated or alienated. The Control attitude led them to struggle and try to influence outcomes going on around them rather than lapse into passivity and powerlessness. The Challenge attitude led them to view stress changes, whether positive or negative as opportunities for new learning rather than playing it safe by avoiding uncertainties and potential threats. Before long, Dr. Maddi's team were calling these interrelated attitudes the 3Cs of hardiness
Why is it important to have all three attitudes? Imagine people high in control but simultaneoulsy 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(at work or home), things, and events. Theses people would be riddled with impatience, irritability, isolations and bitter suffering whenever control efforts fail. Such people would also be egotistical and would be vulnerable to seeing themselves as better than the others and as a result having nothing more to learn. There is surprisingly little to call hardiness in this orientation" (Maddi ,2002).
" Now imagine people high in commitment but simultanelusly low in control and challenge. Such people would be completely enmeshed with 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 institutions in which they would lose themselves. Such people would be extremely vulnerable whenever any but the most trivial changes were imposed on them. There is certainly little to call hardiness here" (Maddi, 2002).
"Finally, imagine people who, though high in challenge, were 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 an influence on anything. They might appear to be learning constantly, but this would be trivial by comparison with their investment in the thrill of novelty per se. They would resemble adventurers and could be expected to engage in games of chance and risky activites for the excitement that they bring" (Maddi, 2002).
Clearly, any of the two attitudes without the third does not fully constitute hardiness but rather the combination of all three attitudes is key to hardiness and resiliency for not only surviving, but also thriving, under stress by turning stressful circumstances into opportunites.
For further reference, see resource link www.hardinessinstitute.com