Handbook of Adult Resilience Review

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Handbook of Adult Resilience ReviewEver notice that some individuals seem to be able to push back healthfully against most of life's adversities, while others fold under far less pressure? Is this kind of reslience to stress a natural gift? Something that can be learned? If so, when and how early should such training begin?
The large size and scope of this Handbook of Adult Resilience is justified by its being a one-stop-shopping resource for both researchers and clinicians in the field of stress and stress management. The book begins by emphasizing that resilience is not just a quality that inheres in individual personalities, but that interacts with biological predispositions, ethnic and cultural factors, and relationships to the community. Early chapters discuss the biological foundations of resilience and its opposite - stress vulnerability - and then go on to consider cognitive, emotional, temperamental, and spiritual dimensions of resilience and their role in shaping personality and psychopathology in the context of ethnicity, culture, and community norms.
But does a person who is resilient at one age retain that quality over time? The book goes on to consider resilience across the lifespan, including the role of early childhood and later adult experiences, as well as the broader social environment in shaping resilience to different kinds of adversity. The emerging lesson seems to be that, like intelligence, resilience is not a static, monolithic characteristic. Just as some individuals can be more or less skilled and clever in math or reading or art, so there may be many different kinds of resilience that are applicable to a variety of challenges, and at different points across the lifespan. The resilience that gets you through the death of a loved one may not be nearly as effective for buffering your reaction to rejection at work, and so on.
For me, the measure of a book like this is the "so-what" factor: How is all this empirical research, theoretical scholarship, and clinical wisdom going to help people deal with the practical challenges of managing stress in the real world. Happily, the final chapters tackle this subject, describing a variety of formal programs for inculcating, shaping, and reinforcing stress resilience on the individual, group, and commuunitycommunity levels. I would have liked to see a chapter on resilience-based individual psychotherapy modalities and perhaps another chapter devoted to critical incident stress. Also, there is a whiff of trendiness detectable in the frequent evocation of the new darlings of stress research: mindfulness, happiness, and transcendent coping. One problem with studying stress in university clinics is that we academic types typically assume self-actualization as an entitlement, and are therefore often opaque to the sheer grubbiness of the ordinary lives eked out around us every day, wherein happiness and transcendence are dreams deferred for basic survival and sustenance.
Overall, Handbook of Adult Resilience is a solid work that makes a substantial contribution to the field of stress, coping and resilience. The many references in each chapter will whet the reader's appetite to learn more about how some people do manage to rise above their adversities, and how we can help others aspire to do the same.
- Laurence Miller, PhD, International Journal of Emergency Mental HealthHandbook of Adult Resilience Overview

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Breaking the Poverty Cycle: The Human Basis for Sustainable Development Review

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Breaking the Poverty Cycle: The Human Basis for Sustainable Development ReviewWith the recent celebration of the Mexican Bicentennial and the Summit of the UN Millennium Development Goals on the progress made toward eradicating poverty by 2015, this book is both timely and highly recommended. Pick and Sirkin present a well-referenced and highly engaging read that applies to Mexico's particular experience with development, but their theories can also be applied internationally.
Consider one of the examples that the authors relate in Breaking the Poverty Cycle:
A woman in Puebla, Mexico is afraid to have a pap smear despite seeing public announcements in her village encouraging the local women to be tested for cervical cancer. Her husband says he will leave her because it would be unfaithful and indecent of her to expose herself to a doctor. She eventually does go behind his back to have an exam but is terrified that he will find out (43).
Here, some of the key points presented in the book are illustrated. Most notably, this woman did not have "psychological access" to preventative health care even though the social service was both available and promoted in her community. She lacked crucial knowledge, not being aware that she did not need her husband's permission to receive a wellness visit. She faced barriers in the form of socio-cultural norms such as fear, shame and sexist attitudes within the family. She lacked the communication skills to speak with her husband and others about the importance of health care. Finally, she lacked support, decision making skills to take initiative, and feelings of entitlement to take control of her own life.
This book presents the solution to these types of circumstances with similar empirical evidence. In order to bring about sustainable behavior changes, the authors propose life skills training and the development of personal agency so that vulnerable members of society can gain a better understanding of their rights and responsibilities and have the capabilities to seek them out for their own wellbeing and for the wellbeing of their families.
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The Myth of Self-Esteem: Finding Happiness and Solving Problems in America (Contemporary Social Issues) Review

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The Myth of Self-Esteem: Finding Happiness and Solving Problems in America (Contemporary Social Issues) ReviewThe Myth of Self-Esteem, by author and social psychologist, John P. Hewitt, offers a dispassionate, although slightly spirited, discourse on self-esteem in American society. Hewitt begins by stating, "the object of this book is to unravel the assumptions that are built into the contemporary usage and understanding of the idea of self-esteem and to build a more complete picture of this phenomenon and the importance we attribute to it." He goes on to state of his subject, "to learn something about the reality of self-esteem, we must first consider it as a myth - a set of beliefs contemporary people hold about themselves and their social world, stories they tell about themselves and their lives." Through focusing on the cultural rather than scientific significance of this uniquely western/American phenomenon, Hewitt challenges our assumptions about how we achieve success in the midst of despair and how we use this non-universal, in one respect, concept to buttress our identity in our daily interactions.
Hewitt asks questions that cause one to wonder, "what exactly is meant when we say 'self-esteem'?" Do we mean what we intend, or have we fallen into the trap of engaging in empty dialogue without critically analyzing our intent. The Myth of Self-Esteem offers various vignettes that illustrate the varied ways not only that the term is used, but also its lack of solidity as to a definitional meaning. Also, given that many cultures around the globe focus more on humility as an admirable trait, how have Americans come to value two words that seemingly defy a single sufficient definition upon critical analysis?
Strengths and Weaknesses
Overall, the book is well written in that it provides the reader an opportunity to examine what is meant by "self-esteem" and the social structures that maintain such a myth.
The strength of Hewitt's argument comes from his ability to illustrate, via the use of vignettes, the imprecise nature of a definition among many of the term "self-esteem." However, the weakness, although delineated earlier in the work, is that he does not relay on "scientific" studies. Although he chose to focus solely on the cultural component of the created phenomenon, adding to the discourse the positions of scientific research would quite possibly shed additional light on the subject and make his already strong argument stronger.
What does it all mean?
Hewitt, has done an admirable job of presenting considerable information, although not scientific, that yield many questions regarding self-esteem. While reading the book, many questions arose in my mind as to how I have come view myself in relation to others and my surroundings. It soon became apparent that such is due in part to my acceptance of many of the present social structures and limited concepts that attempt to define them. Given that I have undergone a shifting of consciousness, as it relates to my surroundings and my role in the creation and sustaining thereof, many of the previously accepted concepts have begun to whither away. For instance, as a child and young adult, growing up in and attending church "religiously" was an accepted, although unquestioned, way of life. As a result of delving into ontology, my view on the nature of being has shifted to a differing perspective; one which is more inclusive as opposed to exclusive. Not necessarily, "better," just different. The end result is that I now think more critically about information that is presented to me, be it in literature or lectures. Given Hewitt's offering for discussing "self-esteem," many will be in a more advantageous position to recognize a portion of their being and its functioning that they may have not previously considered.
As humans prepare to move to the next phase of physiological/psychological evolution, such concepts as self-esteem must be challenged in order to provide a clean slate upon which to erect the forthcoming reality. Questioning the very essence of our beliefs and abilities and upon which such is based, causes many to have an even greater insight into their complete nature. In one instance, Hewitt eludes to the potential of creating individual realities by thought. In this instance, he touched on a key point that warrants further consideration. As humans come to realize that they possess the ability to create and destroy "worlds" by thought, the potential then exists to journey into realms of the "little known" and begin serious critical inquiry into the human essence and its "higher" potential. As this journey begins, the evolution not only of human conscious continues, but the physical evolution of humans continue as well. With this in mind, Hewitt's "Myth of Self-Esteem" is a wonderful addition to the ongoing discourse.
Note: the above is part of a work presented in a course on Deviant Behavior and Social Control.The Myth of Self-Esteem: Finding Happiness and Solving Problems in America (Contemporary Social Issues) Overview

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Mood Matters: From Rising Skirt Lengths to the Collapse of World Powers Review

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Mood Matters: From Rising Skirt Lengths to the Collapse of World Powers ReviewMood Matters is great fun to read as Casti's writing throughout is smooth, intelligent and humorous. The message of the book - that the mood of a society dictates what will happen rather than the reverse - is counterintuitive at first sight, but supported by many quite surprising and convincing examples. Using various indicators, in particular stock-market prices, to measure the mood of a society, Casti explores the correlation between the "mood of the crowd" and a range of other trends (skirtlengths, car colour - sounds bizarre but is actually remarkable!) and events, including the fall of nations and the outbreak of war. It is a hugely interesting and wide-ranging study. As someone with only a moderate interest in economics, I read this book for stimulation and entertainment. For those involved in assessing trends and in predicting future events, whether social, political or economic, this book might just change the whole way they ply their trade.Mood Matters: From Rising Skirt Lengths to the Collapse of World Powers Overview

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