Introduction
Maslow calls resilience “ordinary magic.” But in reality, there is nothing magic at all about resilience. Resilience is not even a natural human intact or behavior, it is one that is learned over time and influenced by one’s environment. People are not born naturally resilient. The behavior is an adaptation necessary from their surroundings as they grow and change. Simply, Resilience is a learned behavior.
Infants are not naturally resilient
Starting at the beginning of our life, in infancy, individuals are not naturally resilient. Take for example infants. Infants have a wonderful ability to adapt to their environment, to change and move according to when and how their needs are being met. This adaptive ability is often mistaken for resilience, but it is not. It is simply natural adaptation. Resilience comes in the form of perseverance, and infants do not persevere. First, because perseverance requires a thought process. One must actively choose to continue to push forward, despite the negative obstacles in their path. Infants do not have the ability for this sort of cognition. Secondly, if humans were naturally resilient, if infants were naturally resilient, they would continue to cry until their needs are met. And while for parents it seems as though this may sometimes be the case, it is not, as any parent who has practiced the cry it out method will tell you. Eventually, the child will give up and learn to self-soothe. At this stage of development, this does not indicate resilience. It indicates an acceptance that their needs will not be met. As they learn to self-soothe and adapt to their environment, they exhibit a type of resilience, but the basis of this activity requires a recognition that babies simply cannot accomplish. (Narvaez, 2011)
Resilience is influenced by environment
As we age, our ability to become resilient is affected by our environment. For some individuals, they become quite resilient. They are independent, working hard through difficult problems and circumstances to create a positive outcome for themselves. But others do not feel quite so empowered. These individuals are victims of learned helplessness, or the belief that one does not have any ability whatsoever to change their situation. (Cherry, 2016) In educational settings, this is very prevalent. Children who have struggled with school work eventually begin to believe that they will never experience any success. They do not see themselves as able to succeed, and eventually their negative attitudes become a self fulfilling prophecy. This is basically the opposite of resilience. REsilience is the belief that one is empowered to change their situation, and learned helplessness disempowers and blames others for circumstances. What causes this learned helplessness? Any many cases it is the home environment. Either parents bombarded their children with negative messages (they are not good enough, they will never be successful) or the opposite: parents do everything for their children, to the point that it handicaps the child and they can do nothing for themselves. In either case, the environment has affected the child's tendency toward resilience.
Negative Trajectory requires Intervention
At some point in one’s life, a negative trajectory will occur. Negative trajectories occur when a child (presumably) makes a series of poor choices that lead them down a slippery slope of consequences that will be harmful and life altering. An example of a negative trajectory would be the decision to begin smoking marijuana. This decision can lead to the use of other drug addictions, legal complications, and potentially disease and broken relationships. Negative trajectories require intervention, the action of an outside source to either stop the negative trajectory or turn the negative trajectory into a positive trajectory. No negative trajectory can be altered without the use of an intervention. If resilience was such an “ordinary magic,” as Maslow states, individuals would be able to intervene for themselves, changing their own trajectory instead of requiring others to intervene on their behalf. This is not a possibility, however. Intervention requires the use of some outside source to change the trajectory. (Moore, 2006) Therefore, because individuals cannot intervene for themselves, then the case can be made that humans are not naturally resilient. The argument can be made that an individual can maintain a positive trajectory without any outside interference. However, with a positive trajectory, there is no obstacle that needs to be overcome, therefore no resilience is required. And so this argument is invalid, based on the rationale that resilience is not present in a positive trajectory.
Conclusion
Resilience is decidedly a man-made trait, influenced by environment and outside factors. If resilience were a normal part of human nature, babies would be resilient and able to self soothe immediately. They cannot, it is a learned process. Also, the idea of how resilient one is or is not can be influenced by the environment, as evidenced with parenting styles and techniques and the resulting empowerment (or helplessness) that the child feels. Finally, a lack of reliance is demonstrated in one’s inability to alter a negative trajectory. If resilience was truly a natural instinct, then one would be able to alter negative trajectories without outside intervention, and this is - unfortunately - not the case.
Works Cited
Cherry, K. (2016). What Causes Learned Helplessness? Retrieved February 02, 2017, from https://www.verywell.com/what-is-learned-helplessness-2795326
Moore, K. (2006). Defining the Term, "At Risk". Research to Results, (6). Retrieved February 2, 2017.
Narvaez, D. (2011). Believing "children are resilient" may be a fantasy. Retrieved February 02, 2017, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/moral-landscapes/201106/believing-children-are-resilient-may-be-fantasy
