Training Module on the Right to Mental Health for the Security Sector Kobasa introduced the concept of hardiness, which has been defined as a stable personality resource consisting of three psychological attitudes and cognitions: • Commitment refers to an ability to turn events into something meaningful and important, something worth working for and seeing through. • Control refers to the belief that, with effort, individuals can influence the course of events around them, that they are not helpless, but effective influencers of their fate and the responses of others. • Challenge refers to a belief that fulfillment in life results from the growth and wisdom gained from difficult or challenging experiences, a realistically confident but not reckless bring-’em-on attitude. Similarly, Antonovsky has proposed a stress/health-mediating personality construct termed sense of coherence, or SOC, which is expressed in the form of three component orientations or beliefs: • Comprehensibility refers to the events deriving from a person’s internal and external environments in the course of living that are structured, predictable, and explicable. Things make sense and therefore are less overwhelming. • Manageability refers to the idea that the individual possesses the resources to meet the demands posed by the adverse events. The person feels realistically in control, not helplessly adrift. • Meaningfulness refers to the idea that the person conceptualizes the adversity as a challenge worthy of his or her investment and engagement. There is an intellectual and emotional satisfaction in tackling a tough problem and seeing it through to the conclusion. The higher a person’s SOC, the better he or she will be to clarify the nature of a particular stressor, select the resources appropriate to that specific situation, and be open to feedback that allows the adaptive modification of behavior when necessary. Strategies for Building Resilience Developing resilience is a personal journey. People do not all react the same to traumatic and stressful life events. An approach to building resilience that works for one person might not work for another. People use varying strategies. The 7 C’s of Resilience: 1. Competence 5. Contribution 2. Confidence 6. Coping 3. Connection 7. Control 4. Character 19