Page 58 - JSOM Spring 2018

The Myth of Hyperresilience

Evolutionary Concept Analysis of Resilience in Special Operations Forces

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Kate Rocklein Kemplin, DNP, RN* ; Olimpia Paun, PhD, PMHCNS-BC ;
Noel Sons ; Jonathan Brandon 4
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ABSTRACT
Despite many resilience studies and resilience-building initia- individual and/or community ability and capability of adap-
tives in the military, resilience as a concept remains granularly tation, survival, and growth. Such emphasis on performance
unexamined, vague, and inconsistently interpreted throughout leads to efforts to quantify resilience as an element one pos-
military-specific research literature. Specifically, studies of mili- sesses or does not possess; once quantified, operationaliza-
tary suicide and related mental health constructs assert that Ser- tion of the concept dissembles into whether one has enough
vicemembers in Special Operations Forces (SOF) possess higher resilience or is lacking. Ambiguity surrounding the concept of
levels of resilience without providing an empirical basis for these resilience prevents accurate comprehension and implies that
statements. To provide rigorous evidence for future studies of interventions can be designed to increase, augment, or some-
resilience in SOF, a concept analysis was performed via Rodgers’ how build resilience and reduce consequences of its absence.
evolutionary method to contextualize resilience in the SOF com-
munity and provide accurate redefinitions on which theoretical Researchers differ widely on what constitutes resilience. Re-
and methodological frameworks can be constructed reliably. silience is conceived by some to include elements of control,
commitment, and challenge, or as a process by which trauma
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Keywords: resilience; military; concept analysis; Special Op- is effectively “negotiated and adapted to.” Resilience is
erations Forces; suicide thought to imply an elastic property by which people bounce
back from traumas of the highest severity humans can experi-
ence, 11,12 and still others interchange resilience with hardiness
and/or invulnerability. All definitions suggest some level of
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Introduction
inherent resolve, an ability to withstand, and, in contradictory
The concept of resilience has been studied in myriad ways, terms, a rigid elasticity: capable of bending with the wind but
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from community resilience to resilience after disasters and, of also being completely impenetrable.
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late, resilience in military and veteran populations. Despite
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the plethora of evidence across interdisciplinary research of At its core, resilience is a concept of change and ability to
what constitutes resilience, as an applied concept, resilience is cope, though over the last decade, fundamental elements
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often misinterpreted and confused with elements of personal- of resilience have been discarded by researchers in favor of
ity traits like hardiness and bravery, and, therefore, is attrib- conceptual definitions indicating resilience is an inherent, ac-
uted to individual capacity of being resilient. Thus, resilience tive protective factor against stress and trauma. 15,16 Despite
is at risk of being inflated to a status in which many mental decades of study, current conceptual definitions of resilience
health issues presumably are mitigated by it: The more resil- raise more questions. Is resilience becoming a catch-all solu-
ient a person is, the more adaptable and capable they are as- tion rather than a contributory element? Are Soldiers with
sumed to be. Such overestimation of what resilience inherently expected combat stress reactions or mental health issues mar-
is conceptually presents issues for researchers and clinicians, ginalized as weak, or labeled not resilient? If doctrinal and
particularly those who work with military, veteran, and mili- policy foci remain on resilience, will physiological causes of
tary dependent and family populations. neuropsychiatric sequelae be ignored?

The concept analysis reported here follows the evolution of In response, this analysis reexamines the concept of resilience
previous concept analyses on resilience, in addition to syn- within a contextual framework and with a critical lens on the
thesizing extant literature that defines resilience in current literature. The method of conceptual analysis is Rodgers’ evo-
military contexts. An evolutionary perspective is used to dem- lutionary framework to enable appropriate contextualization
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onstrate the morphology of resilience as an applied concept. for application within communities at risk: specifically, mili-
Specifically, the evolutionary perspective is used to highlight tary and military family populations in the Special Operations
the agreement and disagreement between previous analyses of Forces (SOF) community.
resilience and to analyze the concept within a particular con-
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temporaneous context. Critical appraisal of resilience litera- In January 2012, the vice chief of staff of the Army declared re-
ture reveals that past analyses couched resilience in terms of silience training effective in improving Soldiers’ mental health.

*Address correspondence to kate-kemplin@utc.edu
1 Dr Rocklein Kemplin is an assistant professor of nursing research and statistics at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; a Jonas Foun-
dation Veterans’ Healthcare Scholar; academic editor, Journal of Special Operations Medicine; and research program chair, Special Operations
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Medical Association. Dr Paun is associate professor and Inaugural Kellogg Faculty Scholar, Rush University College of Nursing, Chicago, IL.
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3 SO1 (SEAL) Sons, SOCM, is with US Navy Special Warfare. SFC (ret) Brandon is a medical degree candidate at the University of California,
San Francisco, School of Medicine, San Francisco, California.
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