Title: Studying Employee Resilience Following Significant Adversity in High Risk Occupations
The Graduate Students in Social Psychology (GSSP) are pleased to bring Dr. Thomas Britt to campus for a colloquium. Dr. Britt is a professor of psychology at Clemson University. His research examines factors that affect employee resilience and thriving and mental health treatment seeking among employees in high stress occupations. Dr. Britt’s colloquium will address how an indoctrinated social psychologist detoured into the applied world of occupational health to conduct research on employee resilience following traumatic events. Conceptual distinctions in the study of resilience will first be addressed, including the important distinction between the demonstration of resilience, capacity for resilience, and processes linking capacity-related factors to the demonstration of resilience. Recent research involving military personnel exposed to combat will highlight the importance of social connection following adversity. Unfortunately, many military personnel fail to show resilience when exposed to traumatic events and develop mental health problems that require treatment. Given the emphasis placed on resilience in the military, there is heightened stigma associated with receiving treatment among service members as well as concerns regarding how treatment will affect fellow unit members. The talk will conclude with a description of unit training designed to improve supportive behaviors towards service members suffering from mental health problems. More information about Dr. Britt’s research may be found here.