Hardiness Flashcards
She clustered a number of traits of people who could cope with with stress best. What term did she use for the traits?
Hardiness
What did Kobasa think?
That people differ on their ability to cope with stressors
What are the three main hardiness traits?
Commitment, challenge, control
What are committed people like?
Involved in what they do and have a direction in life
Find meaning in work and personal relationships
Take responsibility and work hard to make their dreams come true
Explain the trait of challenge
Hardy people view stressful situations as a challenge and an exciting opportunity
Embrace challenges and grow from new experiences
Explain the trait of control
Hardy people have a strong sense of control that is internal
Feel as though they can influence their lives
Optimistic and feel in control of their fate
What are non hardy people like?
Fear change
More likely to develop stress related illnesses as a result of stressful situations
Feel like they have no control
Likely to leave tasks unfinished
How did Kobasa support her research?
She studied 800 American men who were managers in a company
She used the SRRS to measure their stress levels
150 were highly stressed, but not all had stress related illnesses
Those with high scores of hardiness had the least illness
How did Maddi et al support Kobasa?
He studied employees in an American company who were making redundancies
This made a stressful working environment
The 1/3 who had high levels of hardiness coped better with the stress than the other 2/3 who were less hardy
What are the practical applications?
Therapies like hardiness training have been developed to help people cope with stress
How is the type of data a weakness?
The data correlational and it’s been concluded that hardiness is a causal factor in health
It could be that those who are ill find it harder to be psychologically hardy
What did funk believe?
Hardiness is difficult to assess
Being non hardy and negative are the same thing
Actually negativity leads to stress
What is a weakness to Kobasa’s theory
Studies have been done on white middle class males so the findings can’t be generalised
What did Kobasa think?
That people differ on their ability to cope with stressors
She clustered a number of traits of people who could cope with with stress best. What term did she use for the traits?
Hardiness
