The science of resilience.

Presenter Sian Williams has recently recovered from breast cancer and investigates resilience. She first visits Dr Michael Pluess, Queen Mary University of London, who is testing for a resilience gene. However, there is no single genetic marker. Williams speaks then to Professor Toni Bifulco who has developed an online tool which reveals people's sensitivity to stress. An important factor in coping with stress is the ability to confide in someone (in fact people often under estimate their need for support). Dr David Westley explains what is happening in the brain when under stress. Training in resilience can be given, although conversely Professor Daniel Kahneman explains that the intensity of stressful, adverse events are designed to train us to react positively (the basis of cognitive behaviour therapy). Daniel Goleman, the author of 'Emotional Intelligence', suggests that the mind has muscles and daily exercises can help. He is clear that this is not a means to invalidate trauma or loss. The father of positive psychology, Professor Daniel Kahneman, and Professor David Clark developed a programme which was first pioneered in schools and then later in the US military. Clark points out that the UK leads the US in offering behaviour modification treatment as an alternative to psychotropic medicine (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Programme). Economic rather than clinical arguments proved the most telling. Professor Lord Richard Layard from the London School of Economics promotes the case for offering parenting courses for where you are in your life in order to prevent the destructiveness of the self- absorption and concerns about body image which he found so destructive in his previous work in education. Williams visits Icknield Community College in Watlington, Oxfordshire, where resilience is being taught by asking the young people to look at the connection between emotions and thoughts. The headmaster, Mat Hunter, identifies an improvement in their academic results as a consequence of this initiative. How To Thrive is an organisation which offers resilience training programmes in schools. Lucy Bailey and Emma Judge from the organisation talk about their results after a few years. The received view regarding psychology has been that the past plus the present equals the future; Martin Seligman talks about a step change in thinking called the 'Hope Circuit' which has a basis in neurology. Williams considers the results of her resilience questionnaire which delivered a positive result regarding her ability to be resilient having not proceeded with the genetic testing.