Norman F. Watt

The life course of psychological resilience: A phenomenological perspective on deflecting life's slings and arrows

Notably lacking in the promising new literature on psychological resilience are longitudinal studies of adults who have not only survived extreme early life stresses, but have actually thrived in the face of them. The present study compared 31 resilient adults who were middle-aged, upper-middle class and well educated with 19 controls from comparable life circumstances who had not been exposed to severe early adversity. The experimental group reported exceedingly high scores for early life stress, with emotional abuse by parents being the most pervasive compliant. They felt and showed extreme signs of emotional oppression as children, but normal (or even superior) intellectual development. The majority sought and received substantial support outside the family, including religious counseling and formal psychotherapy, but healing was tediously slow and probably not entirely complete. Most attributed their success to relentless effort and self-reliance, but the groups did not differ significantly on psychological measures of internal locus of control. “Transcenders” appeared remarkably normal as adults, showing significant improvement in interpersonal relations. Their self-descriptions of exceptional fortitude may have been slightly exaggerated but probably contributed to their growing self-esteem. There was only limited support for the hypothesis that resilient people become scrupulously appropriate in their own parenting attitudes and behavior. Their enthusiasm to promote disclosure about their stressful early lives, and about the possibilities for successful outcome seemed to fulfill altruistic needs to counter the popular myth that extreme adversity in early life inexorably leads to adult patholog, and also provided some validation for themselvesas people.

Parental Assessment of the Social and Emotional Adaptation of Children at High Risk for Schizophrenia

Recent models of schizophrenia development assume a continuous etiologic process that begins in childhood, perhaps as early as conception (Garmezy & Streitman, 1974). A further assumption is that early signs of this development are observable before the onset of acute symptoms. This orientation has been the basis of extensive research efforts aimed at discovering the childhood roots of schizophrenia. One such research program, under way for a decade, has studied the development of a group of children believed to be at high risk for schizophrenia (Erlenmeyer-Kimling, 1975). Using a broad range of cognitive, psychophysiological, psychological, and behavioral measures, the development of the high-risk group (children having one or two schizophrenic parents) has been compared to that of a psychiatric control group (children having one or two depressed parents) and a normal control group (whose parents have had no psychiatric history). The children were in primary school when the study began and have now entered the age range where schizophrenia has its highest incidence.

Prevention of Schizophrenic Disorders

Schizophrenic disorders are among the most extensively studied and least understood forms of psychopathology. There has been wide variation across investigators and over time in the clinical definition of these disorders, although it is generally accepted now that the active illness occurs initially before age 45, lasts at least 6 months, shows deterioration from a previous level of social and work functioning, and is characterized by disturbances in several areas: content and form of thought, perception, affect, sense of self, volition, relationship to the external world, and psychomotor behavior (American Psychiatric Association, 1980). Among professionals and even most lay people, delusions, hallucinations or serious disturbances in the form of thinking are considered criterial features.