The Hardy Personality

The Hardy Personality 

Kobasa and Maddi (1977) suggested that some people are more psychologically 'hardy' than others. The hardy personality includes a range of characteristics which provide defenses against the negative effects of stress.

Control - hardy people see themselves as being in control of their lives, rather than being controlled by external factors beyond their control. 

Commitment - Hardy people are involved with the world around them, and have a strong sense of purpose. 

Challenge - Hardy people see life challenges as problems to be overcome rather than as threats or stressors. They enjoy change as an opportunity for development. 

Research on the hardy personality:

Kobasa (1979) studies about 800 American business executives, assessing stress using Holmes and Rahe's SRRS. Approximately 150 of the participants were classified as high stress according to their SRRS scores. Of these, some had a low illness record whereas others has a high illness record whereas others had a high illness record. This suggests that something else was modifying the effects of stress because individuals experiencing the same stress levels had different illness records. Kobasa proposed that a hardy personality type encourages resilience. 

Lifton et al (2006) measured hardiness in students at five US universities to see if hardiness was related to the likelihood of their completing their degree. The results showed that students scoring low in hardiness were disproportioning represented among the drop-outs, and students with a high score were most likely to complete their degree. 

Evaluation of the hardy personality:

Hardiness and negative affectivity (NA) - Some critics argue that the characteristics of the hardy personality can be more simply explained by the concept of negative affectivity (Watson and Clark, 1984). High-NA individuals are more likely to report distress and dissatisfaction, dwell more on their failures, and focus on negative aspects of themselves and their world. NA and hardiness correlate responsibly well, suggesting that 'hardy individuals' are simply those who are low on NA.