Conceptual analysis constitutes a methodological support tool in psychology, even though the group of psychologists generally dismisses it. This has brought with it that the importance of knowing where the terms come from (from ordinary language or if they are correctly technical) is often overlooked, but also of being competent when proposing their correct definition and subsequent measurement. Regarding the latter, recent history in our discipline has given us reliable evidence of how the logical confusion that underlies the theoretical approaches of many authors translates into a conceptual confusion, another methodological one and, finally, one of interpretation. Examples on the matter abound in the literature: intelligence, personality, motivation, self-efficacy and resilience; are a few who have perpetuated these consecutive confusions in which authors tend to incur (see Ribes, 1989, 2004, 2010), without necessarily realizing their discursive inconsistencies around the phenomenology of what is presumed to be the psychological. Here the last of these terms has been analyzed, showing that at the same time that it is a term that comes from ordinary language -which otherwise and unjustifiably has been defined as a concept, that is as if it were a technical term-, it is alien to psychology itself.
When Ribes (1990) denounced that psychology had become a Tower of Babel, he ensured that each psychologist gave the terms a different meaning, causing them to be not only the victim of conceptual confusion but also a terminological one. Suppose resilience, as it has been analyzed throughout this work, is not a term that refers to or applies to psychological phenomenology. In that case, it cannot for any reason and under no circumstances legitimize its use without first understand that conceptual analysis is a sine qua non-requirement to eliminate the conceptual and terminological errors that have dominated psychology, particularly that of the twentieth century. Without fear of being wrong, we would say that it is time to close Pandora’s Box. Otherwise, as proposed at the end of the previous section, who could question the author of this work’s existence, usefulness and relevance of concepts or expressions such as psychological malnutrition?
Let us conclude by quoting Ribes (1990) at length: Functionally analyzing ordinary speech allows the demolition of old mythologies and provides a first distinction of the various types of events and processes that make up human behaviour. This conceptual distinction becomes a priority for two reasons: first, because it allows us to notice that there are no univocal correspondences between terms and expressions of ordinary language and types of psychological processes or events: the same term has different functional meanings [...]; second, because from the available delimitation of the use of "mental" terms in ordinary language, it is possible to build a technical language that has univocal correspondence with equivalent levels of functional meaning in that language.Santos’ team works based on the self-knowledge of capacities and vulnerability of each person through the application of a resilience scale based on ten dimensions and concepts.
The results in each case help put in place an individualized program that focuses on the most vulnerable areas to strengthen the person. These ten pillars are:- Introspection: ability to observe oneself, know oneself and give an honest answer about the outside world
- Essential motivation: ability to give meaning to life by creating your transcendent project.
- Emotional self-regulation: coping with stress without victimhood as part of life, weakening the stress response.
- Independence and emotional autonomy: the ability to maintain emotional and physical distance from conflicts without falling into isolation and knowing how to set limits between oneself and the environment with problems.
- Confidence in himself and his resources: adequate self-esteem, initiative and responsibility to achieve personal autonomy.
- Ability to relate: the ability to establish effective bonds with other people, create healthy relationships, and balance your own need for affection with the attitude of helping others.
- Positive attitude and optimism: the ability to solve problems creatively, de-dramatizing
- Sense of humour and creativity: to solve problems relativizing and knowing how to find the comic in the tragedy itself.
Poverty is an evil that must be eradicated, but it is presumed that exclusions will worsen in the 21st century. When each suffering comes from another suffering, as in a waterfall, it will be necessary to act on each moment. Here we agree with Cyrulnik that there are different moments: a political moment, to fight against the causes that produce these evils; a philosophical moment to discuss the theories that produce the acts that generate evil; a therapeutic moment to heal wounds; And there is a resilient moment, which is when one does something to make life continue in the most favourable way possible. Modestly located in that place and in that space, I believe that resilience has its meaning in psycho-pedagogical work, teachers, health workers, social workers and other adults who have the responsibility to care for and protect children and adolescents.
In conclusion, the conceptual analysis of ordinary language does not constitute a psychological theory, but it is indispensable for its formulation. Its usefulness lies in the fact that, firstly, it makes it possible to identify the definite errors and confusions that come from the transmutation of ordinary language into technical language, since, secondly, it helps to delineate the terrain of everyday psychological events at its various levels of functional meaning, a sine qua non condition for formulating a specific taxonomy and technical language suitable for a scientific analysis of the behaviour
Not only are entrepreneurs living those emotions that I mentioned before, but society and the system itself, however, let us remember that we can be resilient as human beings.
Resilience is understood as the ability of the human being to face life’s adversities, overcome them and be positively transformed by them.
