The Personality Construct of Hardiness, IV Expressed in Positive Cognitions and Emotions Concerning Oneself and Developmentally Relevant Activities

• Published in: The Journal of humanistic psychology Vol. 49; no. 3; pp. 292 - 305
• Main Authors: Maddi, Salvatore R., Harvey, Richard H., Khoshaba, Deborah M., Fazel, Mostafa, Resurreccion, Nephthys
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-07-2009; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Anxiety-Depression; Commitments; Control; Emotions; Hardiness; Hostility; Personality; Personality traits; Positive thought; Psychology; hardiness; commitment; challenge; control
• ISSN: 0022-1678; 1552-650X
• DOI: 10.1177/0022167809331860

Personality hardiness has emerged as a composite of the interrelated attitudes of commitment, control, and challenge that provides the existential courage and motivation to turn stressful circumstances from potential disasters into growth opportunities. This study contributes to the construct validity of the latest measure of hardiness, the Personal Views Survey III—R (PVS III-R). In a large sample of undergraduates, the PVS III-R measure of hardiness showed adequate internal consistency reliability, the expected intercorrelation of components, and the absence of relationship to socially desirable responding. Furthermore, as expected, hardiness was negatively related to depression, anxiety, and hostility, even though it was also negatively related to avoidance of intrusive, stressful thoughts. Also as expected, hardiness was associated with positive attitudes toward school, instructors, and one's own capabilities and standards as well as expressed satisfaction with life. This pattern of results fits well with those of previous construct-validational studies of hardiness.