Workshop / Presentation Summary
Two Hour, Half-day or Full-day for Professional Service Providers in Child Welfare, Correctional, Mental Health and Educational Settings

Despite decades of resilience research, there continues to be ambiguity in how to define and operationalize positive development under adversity. In this presentation, Dr. Ungar will use examples from his research collaborations on six continents to explore the nature of resilience when risk factors are plentiful. His work suggests the need for an ecological interpretation of the construct. Michael will present four principles to guide theory development, research, and the design of integrated approaches to intervention that ensure resilience to more likely occur. These principles include: decentrality, complexity, atypicality, and cultural relativity. Employing these four principles informs a definition of resilience that explicitly accounts for the disequilibrium between vulnerable individuals who lack opportunities for growth and the influence of social and physical ecologies that facilitate or inhibit resilience-promoting processes.