Stoic Grit and Resilience

2021 ◽  
pp. 101-128
Author(s):  
Nancy Sherman

The Stoics argue, contrary to popular belief, that resilience and grit depend on strong social supports. Marcus Aurelius paints a chilling image in the Meditations: Without each other, individuals are like severed body parts strewn on a battlefield. They can’t function well or at all. Social connection works through shared reason and through emotions, which are themselves kinds of cognitions. Seneca’s Letters, based on an intimate epistolary relationship with young Lucilius, exemplifies the important role of emotional attachments for good living. Hierocles pictures bringing distant others into one’s orbit through repeated acts of empathy and imagination. In Hercules Rages, Seneca shows that grit depends on more than physical strength or inner toughness. In the face of a horrific tragedy, Hercules learns that to sustain his heroic courage he needs mercy that he can’t show himself. Others must model it for him. He must lean on them for his own sanity and strength.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dunigan Parker Folk ◽  
Karynna Okabe-Miyamoto ◽  
Elizabeth Warren Dunn ◽  
Sonja Lyubomirsky

In two pre-registered studies, we tracked changes in individuals’ feelings of social connection during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both studies capitalized on measures of social connection and well-being obtained prior to the COVID-19 pandemic by recruiting the same participants again in the midst of the pandemic’s upending effects. Study 1 included a sample of undergraduates from a Canadian university (N = 467), and Study 2 included community adults primarily from the United States and the United Kingdom (N = 336). Our results suggest that people experienced relatively little change in feelings of social connection in the face of the initial reshaping of their social lives caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Exploratory analyses suggested that relatively extraverted individuals exhibited larger declines in social connection. However, after controlling for levels of social connection prior to the pandemic (as pre-registered), the negative effect of extraversion reversed (Study 1) or disappeared (Study 2).


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dunigan Folk ◽  
Karynna Okabe-Miyamoto ◽  
Elizabeth Dunn ◽  
Sonja Lyubomirsky

In two pre-registered studies, we tracked changes in individuals’ feelings of social connection during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both studies capitalized on measures of social connection and well-being obtained prior to the COVID-19 pandemic by recruiting the same participants again in the midst of the pandemic’s upending effects. Study 1 included a sample of undergraduates from a Canadian university (N = 467), and Study 2 included community adults primarily from the United States and the United Kingdom (N = 336). Our results suggest that people experienced relatively little change in feelings of social connection in the face of the initial reshaping of their social lives caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Exploratory analyses suggested that relatively extraverted individuals exhibited larger declines in social connection. However, after controlling for levels of social connection prior to the pandemic (as pre-registered), the negative effect of extraversion reversed (Study 1) or disappeared (Study 2).


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
Ellen Prima

One of the developmental psychopathology types that often occur in childhood is Tourette's syndrome which begins with mild symptoms such as mild tic movements on the face, head or hands. Tic will often arise when the children feel under pressure (stress) and their emotion is unstable. It increases simultaneously with ones age including legs and other body parts. Tourette's syndrome may infect every one of all ethnic groups. The aim of this study was to identify and describe the role of social acceptance towards the developmental psychopathology of Tourette's syndrome in children. Therefore, this study uses a descriptive qualitative method. The results of this study indicate that the social acceptance (environment) helps a person to adapt well and be able to use his full potential, especially for the person suffering from developmental psychopathology of Tourettes syndrome.Salah satu jenis psikopatologi perkembangan yang sering terjadi pada masa kanak-kanak yaitu sindrom tourette yang diawali dengan gejala ringan seperti gerakan tik ringan pada wajah, kepala atau tangan. Tik sering muncul jika anak merasa tertekan (stres) dan adanya ketidakstabilan emosi. Hal itu semakin meningkat seiring dengan bertambahnya usia seseorang yang mencakup beberapa bagian tubuh lain seperti kaki dan anggota tubuh yang lain. Sindrom tourette dapat terjadi pada setiap orang dari semua kelompok etnis. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui dan menjelaskan peran penerimaan sosial terhadap psikopatologi perkembangan sindrom Tourette pada anak. Oleh karena itu, penelitian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif jenis deskriptif. Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa penerimaan secara sosial (lingkungan) sangat membantu seseorang dalam beradaptasi dengan baik dan dapat menggunakan potensinya secara maksimal terutama bagi orang yang mengalami penyimpangan perkembangan salah satunya adalah sindrom tourette.


2020 ◽  
Vol 99 (4) ◽  
pp. 379-383
Author(s):  
Vasily N. Afonyushkin ◽  
N. A. Donchenko ◽  
Ju. N. Kozlova ◽  
N. A. Davidova ◽  
V. Yu. Koptev ◽  
...  

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a widely represented species of bacteria possessing of a pathogenic potential. This infectious agent is causing wound infections, fibrotic cystitis, fibrosing pneumonia, bacterial sepsis, etc. The microorganism is highly resistant to antiseptics, disinfectants, immune system responses of the body. The responses of a quorum sense of this kind of bacteria ensure the inclusion of many pathogenicity factors. The analysis of the scientific literature made it possible to formulate four questions concerning the role of biofilms for the adaptation of P. aeruginosa to adverse environmental factors: Is another person appears to be predominantly of a source an etiological agent or the source of P. aeruginosa infection in the environment? Does the formation of biofilms influence on the antibiotic resistance? How the antagonistic activity of microorganisms is realized in biofilm form? What is the main function of biofilms in the functioning of bacteria? A hypothesis has been put forward the effect of biofilms on the increase of antibiotic resistance of bacteria and, in particular, P. aeruginosa to be secondary in charcter. It is more likely a biofilmboth to fulfill the function of storing nutrients and provide topical competition in the face of food scarcity. In connection with the incompatibility of the molecular radii of most antibiotics and pores in biofilm, biofilm is doubtful to be capable of performing a barrier function for protecting against antibiotics. However, with respect to antibodies and immunocompetent cells, the barrier function is beyond doubt. The biofilm is more likely to fulfill the function of storing nutrients and providing topical competition in conditions of scarcity of food resources.


Author(s):  
Ronald Hoinski ◽  
Ronald Polansky

David Hoinski and Ronald Polansky’s “The Modern Aristotle: Michael Polanyi’s Search for Truth against Nihilism” shows how the general tendencies of contemporary philosophy of science disclose a return to the Aristotelian emphasis on both the formation of dispositions to know and the role of the mind in theoretical science. Focusing on a comparison of Michael Polanyi and Aristotle, Hoinski and Polansky investigate to what degree Aristotelian thought retains its purchase on reality in the face of the changes wrought by modern science. Polanyi’s approach relies on several Aristotelian assumptions, including the naturalness of the human desire to know, the institutional and personal basis for the accumulation of knowledge, and the endorsement of realism against objectivism. Hoinski and Polansky emphasize the promise of Polanyi’s neo-Aristotelian framework, which argues that science is won through reflection on reality.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (11) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Harith Qahtan Abdullah ◽  
Abbas Fadel Atwan

The borders of Kurdistan represent an important point in Kurdish thought. They represent the hope of establishing their national state. The circumstances of the war on terrorism in Iraq and Syria have led to the emergence of what is known as a "propaganda" and the formation of a global front in its struggle. And with the signs of the collapse of the Syrian state and the weakness of the Iraqi state in the face of the "dashing" in the beginning. These circumstances led to the emergence of the role of the Kurdistan region in the confrontation "ISIS" and maintain the administrative border in the three provinces of Kurdistan in addition to the province of Kirkuk. That the circumstances of the war on terrorism created new international conditions on the Middle East arena, which will generate many problems between the Kurdistan region and the central government of Baghdad, as well as other problems between the region, Syria, Turkey and Iran. The war on terrorism has made countries free to fight the opposition groups under the name Terrorism by their classification. The Turkish side is fighting the PKK within the borders of the Kurdistan region, and this war can develop in a post-"warlike" phase. The war in Syria is also contradictory to vision and not resolved to a specific side and Iran's position on developments is encouraging.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Landman

A majority of the black community of Dullstroom-Emnotweni in the Mpumalanga highveld in the east of South Africa trace their descent back to the southern Ndebele of the so-called ‘Mapoch Gronden’, who lost their land in the 1880s to become farm workers on their own land. A hundred years later, in 1980, descendants of the ‘Mapoggers’ settled in the newly built ‘township’ of Dullstroom, called Sakhelwe, finding jobs on the railways or as domestic workers. Oral interviews with the inhabitants of Sakhelwe – a name eventually abandoned in favour of Dullstroom- Emnotweni – testify to histories of transition from landowner to farmworker to unskilled labourer. The stories also highlight cultural conflicts between people of Ndebele, Pedi and Swazi descent and the influence of decades of subordination on local identities. Research projects conducted in this and the wider area of the eMakhazeni Local Municipality reveal the struggle to maintain religious, gender and youth identities in the face of competing political interests. Service delivery, higher education, space for women and the role of faith-based organisations in particular seem to be sites of contestation. Churches and their role in development and transformation, where they compete with political parties and state institutions, are the special focus of this study. They attempt to remain free from party politics, but are nevertheless co-opted into contra-culturing the lack of service delivery, poor standards of higher education and inadequate space for women, which are outside their traditional role of sustaining an oppressed community.


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