A Quantitative Investigation Exploring the Psychological and Physiological Aspects of Individual Resilience, Rumination and Recovery

The psychological resilience literature has identified the need for clarity aboutwhether individual resilience should be considered a stable character trait or a dynamicprocess, and if there are biological markers of resilience. This thesis addressed the gaps in theliterature by assessing changes in resilience over time and psychological, physiological andwork-related factors associated with resilience.A systematic review and four quantitative research studies were conducted. Thefindings from most papers in the systematic review suggested resilience remains relativelystable over time with some minor fluctuations. This finding was partially supported in Study1, using a three-wave longitudinal study utilising the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CDRISC) and the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA) (N = 134). The model identified items ofthe CD-RISC were more trait based and the RSA contained a comparable percentage ofresidual trait and state factors. In Study 2, results from a two-wave study conducted duringthe Covid-19 pandemic and two years prior identified no group changes in employee’sresilience over time (N = 137) but identified individual fluctuations in resilience. In Study 3,results from a cross-sectional study suggested employee’s resilience mediates the associationbetween psychological job demands and work-related rumination (affective rumination anddetachment, N = 377) when working from home. Finally, Study 4 identified those with highresilience demonstrate enhanced cardiovascular recovery (heart rate variability, bloodpressure) following acute stress (N = 72).In summary, the results of this thesis suggest that the complexity of resilience may notbe able to be captured using psychometric resilience scales and the content of these scalesshould be explored further. The importance of resilience in recovery from work and acutestress has been highlighted amongst the need for additional support in the workplace toensure employees are happy and healthy at work