Celebrating an awesome Fall 2022 semester at our holiday lunch!
MISSION
In our lab, we aim to magnify the strengths of populations that are often characterized in terms of their vulnerabilities. In other words, we want to draw attention to the ways that individuals respond to adversity with growth and resilience. Focusing on growth and resilience both 1) gives voice to the lived experiences and entire personhood of the populations we study and 2) tells us what positive factors, characteristics, and traits we might want to enhance in individuals and families that are suffering. Guided by this mission to magnify strengths, we study benefit-finding and growth among individuals and families experiencing medical or mental illness, or stressful events.
WHAT IS BENEFIT-FINDING AND GROWTH (BFG)?
Benefit-finding and growth (BFG) is rooted in theories focused on coping with stress and emerges when individuals try to make meaning of a distressing situation. One strategy for making meaning is to derive benefit from the stressor. In other words, individuals in the face of adversity have been shown to find tremendous personal growth or positive change (i.e., benefit-finding) because of these difficulties. BFG is sometimes considered synonymous with post traumatic growth, but encompasses growth from events that may not always be considered discrete traumas. BFG involves an individual’s perception of positive change or growth following adversity. These changes often involve perceptions of the self, interpersonal relationships, and life philosophy.
COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY AND EQUITY
In this lab, we work together to develop a learning community that is inclusive and respectful. Our team celebrates diversity as central to our mission and affirm our solidarity with those individuals and groups most at risk. Our specific research aims to amplify the voices of individuals with a disability. Almost 50 million individuals in the United States (20% of our population) are people with disabilities. So often individuals with disabilities are represented in overly simplistic or unidimensional ways. It is our hope that our emphasis on self-perceived strengths and growth among these individuals gives voice to their lived experiences and enriches our understanding of the impact of a disability on a person.
