Resilience and Health in a Fast-Changing World draws on theoretical investigation as well as empirical research to provide answers to key questions concerning psychological resilience. What decides whether a person suffering misfortune bounces back quickly or falls into despair for years? Which processes and mechanisms constitute psychological resilience? Is there a particular model of human adaptation shaped by evolutionary processes that would enable a person to maintain mental health in unfavorable and changing circumstances? This volume is informative for both academics and practitioners.
The metaphor in which the accumulation of life experiences by a human being is
compared to the act of packing luggage before a long, difficult and
unpredictable journey is well known. All negative, painful life experiences
constitute the overwhelming weight of metaphorical luggage; while positive
experiences are meant to make this load lighter, and the travel safer and more
predictable. The presented metaphor indirectly describes the basic premise of
the monograph, illustrating how the greatest simplification can characterize
the formation of self-esteem and resilience in man, identifying them with the
synergistic effect of experience (including primarily the impact of family and
social environment) and biologically conditioned features. The reviewed texts
offer a lot of interesting information, based on solid empirical studies, and
introduce new, relatively little-known methods of psychological research. All
texts also have a practical dimension (). In particular, they relate to the
issues of resilience, autism, coping with stress and quality of life. The
edited collection may be of particular interest to psychologists dealing with
health issues or working in the field of clinical psychology, but also to
people associated with educational and developmental psychology. It may be
helpful to psychology graduates, as well as to some students of social
sciences including psychology, health sciences and, in a way, pedagogy. dr
hab. Krzysztof Mudyń, prof. Jesuit University in Kraków
