Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Cognitive hardiness and stress resilience
How does cognitive hardiness promote resilience to stress and adversity?
Overview
[edit | edit source]
 Case study You are new manager of a new team. You recently hired two new people to fill in critical roles in the team. Both new employees do not have much experience in the role so you are aware there will be a steep learning curve for the both of them. As time goes on, you notice that one employee has been able to keep up with the pace of the work and the learning demands on her. As for the second employee, you are noticing that he is struggling. He is not able to keep on top of his workload, and on top of that, he is displaying anxious behaviour, stress and showing lack of control over his performance. You wonder why the two of them are different in their performance. |
- This case study illustrates what is perhaps on a lot of our minds "what makes others deal better with stress and adversity and in fact, thrive in it. Is it a function of their personality, intelligence, social support, upbringing or any other external factors?" This is a question that Kobasa (REF) sought to answer when he observed a group of intelligent people under extremely stressful situation. He found that people who thrived in adversity and stressful situation shared similar personality traits and coined the term "cognitive hardiness" to describe it. Cognitive hardiness enabled individuals to view stress and adversity with a sense of control and an opportunity for growth rather than something to fear.
- Stress and adversity are part of human life but we can better manage this by developing cognitive hardiness (cite studies where cognitive hardiness has contributed to success (academic performance at university - Maddi et al. 2009) and improved mental health state (Sadeghpour et al. 2021).
- In this book chapter, we will look more into this term "cognitive hardiness" and answer the question of how hardiness promote resilience in the face of stress and adversity.
- Understanding the function of cognitive hardiness and the characteristics that make up the construct, will help us understand how we can be better resilient in the face of stress and adversity across many context such as education performance, work performance and maintaining general mental wellbeing (Chuning et al., 2024).
| Focus Questions
1. What is "cognitive hardiness" and "resilience"? 2. What is the role of hardinesss in promoting resilience? 3. What is the relationship between resilience and stress and adversity? 4. How do we build cognitive hardiness? |
Headings
[edit | edit source]Use this heading structure:
- Overview
- 3 to 6 major headings tailored to the topic; can have sub-headings, but:
- avoid having only one sub-heading
- provide an introductory paragraph before breaking into sub-sections
- Conclusion
- See also
- References
- External links
**
Let's talk Definition
[edit | edit source]What is "cognitive hardiness"?
[edit | edit source]1. What is cognitive hardiness
- Kobasa while examining high stress individuals with a low incidence of illness, coined the term ‘cognitive hardiness’ to described the adaptive behaviours of resilient individuals. For Kobasa these individuals demonstrated 3 c’s (Biggs et al., 2023; Sherrica Senewiratne et al., 2025).
- Control – perceived level of mastery over the stressor
- commitment – level of persistence to overcome the stressor
- challenge – ability to perceive the stressor as a challenge and opportunity for growth as opposed to a threat to be removed
- ‘Cognitive hardiness is a psychological resource that enables individuals to proactively engage in a mental appraisal of a potential stressor against their perceived level of commitment, control and challenge to determine the coping response which augments their opportunities for personal growth’ (Sherrica Senewiratne et al., 2025).
- Used interchangeably with ‘grit’ and ‘resilience’ as they have similar characteristics, however, they are different constructs. Grit – persistence and constancy rather than adaptability. The tendency to persist despite difficulty but many not do so with grace. Whereas cognitive hardiness refers to ability to accept difficulty, persisting and directing efforts productively. This exhibits flexibility and adaptability (Biggs et al., 2023; Sherrica Senewiratne et al., 2025).
What is "resilience"?
[edit | edit source]- A person ability to bounce back and move forward following an adversity (Biggs et al., 2023; Sherrica Senewiratne et al., 2025).
What is "stress"?
[edit | edit source]- ‘Stress is defined in terms of a disruption of the equilibrium of the cognitive-emotional-environmental system by external factors’ (Demerouti et al., 2001)
What is the relationship between resilience and stress and adversity?
[edit | edit source]- Stress and adversity can come from different forms and level - the point at which a person can no longer handle their stress and adversity is when it has reached more than their mental capacity to cope.
- Cite studies - covid19 (Song et al., 2021), mothers with disabled children (include reference - from Journal of Psychopathology, pg 40 onwards)
- Include how people deal with stress and adversity by going over the different coping strategies o Cognitive appraisal – how people evaluate stress and adversity which triggers their fight or flight response
What is the role of cognitive hardiness in promoting resilience?
[edit | edit source]- Include the theoretical history of hardiness and growth of positive psychology - talks about the capacity of humans to grow and develop in the face of adversity.
Antecedents to cognitive hardiness
[edit | edit source]- Higher internal locust of control
- Cognitive flexibility
- Personality
How do we build cognitive hardiness?
[edit | edit source]- While it may seem like cognitive hardiness is fixed throughout a lifetime, research have identified that it can change with experience. Consider the roles of the following:
- How do we stress-test our cognitive hardiness?
- Role of personality
- Role of biological gene
- Role of environment
- Psychological theories??
Key points
[edit | edit source]For the topic development, for each heading and sub-heading:
- Provide at least three bullet-points, including for the Overview and Conclusion
- Include key citations
Figures
[edit | edit source]
- Use figures to illustrate concepts, add interest, and to serve as examples
- Figures can show photos, diagrams, graphs, video, audio, etc.
- Embed figures throughout the chapter, starting with the scenario in the Overview section
- Caption figures (use Figure #. and explain the relevance of the image to the text)
- Images must be embedded from Wikimedia Commons
- Images can be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons if they are openly licensed
- Cite each figure at least once in the main text (e.g., see Figure 2)
Learning features
[edit | edit source]Interactive learning features help to bring book chapters to life and can be embedded throughout the chapter.
- Scenarios
- Scenarios, case studies, or examples describe concepts in action
- Can be real or fictional; if real, provide citations
- Can be split into multiple boxes throughout a chapter (e.g., to illustrate different theories or stages)
- Present using feature boxes
- Feature boxes
- Highlight key content using feature boxes, but don't overuse, otherwise they lose their effect
- Consider using feature boxes for:
- Scenarios, case studies, or examples
- Focus questions
- Tips
- Quiz questions
- Take-home messages
- Embedded links
- When key words are introduced, use interwiki links to:
- Wikipedia articles (e.g., "An early psychological view dreams) of dreams was provided by Sigmund Freud") or
- Related book chapters (e.g., "If you're feeling stuck, check out the chapter about writer's block")
- Tables
- Use to tables to organise and summarise information
- Cite each table at least once in the main text (e.g., see Table 1)
- Tables should be captioned
- More example tables which can be adapted
Table 1
A Descriptive Caption Which Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g.,
The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing Knowing x Self/Other
| Known to self | Not known to self | |
|---|---|---|
| Known to others | Open area | Blind spot |
| Not known to others | Hidden area | Unknown |
- Quizzes
- Using one or two quiz questions for each main section is better than a long quiz at the end
- Quiz conceptual understanding, rather than trivia. Ask about important information such as take-home messages
- Ask easy rather than hard questions
- Different types of quiz questions are possible; see Quiz
Example simple quiz questions. Choose your answers and click "Submit":
Conclusion
[edit | edit source]- The Conclusion is arguably the most important section
- Draft clear take-home message(s), even at the topic development stage
- Together, the Overview and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing it
- Recommended length: 150 to 330 words
|
|
See also
[edit | edit source]Provide internal (wiki) links to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. related motivation and emotion book chapters) and Wikipedia articles. Use sentence casing and alphabetical order. For example:
- Collaborative authoring using wiki (Wikiversity)
- Light triad (Book chapter, 2021)
- Self determination theory (Wikipedia)
|
|
References
[edit | edit source]This section lists the cited references in APA style (7th ed.) or wiki style.
APA style example:
Chuning, A. E., Durham, M. R., William D.S. Killgore, & Smith, R. (2024). Psychological resilience and hardiness as protective factors in the relationship between depression/anxiety and well-being: Exploratory and confirmatory evidence. Personality and Individual Differences, 225, 112664–112664. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2024.112664
Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., Nachreiner, F., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2001). The job demands-resources model of burnout. The Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 499–512. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11419809/
Sherrica Senewiratne, Sen Sendjaya, Asanka Gunasekara, & Newman, A. (2025). Cognitive hardiness in the workplace: a systematic review and call for future research. Management Review Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11301-025-00512-w
Song, S., Yang, X., Yang, H., Zhou, P., Ma, H., Teng, C., Chen, H., Ou, H., Li, J., Mathews, C. A., Nutley, S., Liu, N., Zhang, X., & Zhang, N. (2021). Psychological Resilience as a Protective Factor for Depression and Anxiety Among the Public During the Outbreak of COVID-19. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.618509
|
|
External links
[edit | edit source]Provide external links to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use sentence casing and alphabetical order. For example:
- Six top tips for writing a great essay (University of Melbourne)
- The importance of structure (skillsyouneed.com)
|
|