| The purpose of this study was to investigate resilience from the perspective of individuals who have experienced it. This study was qualitative in nature using Giorgi's descriptive phenomenological psychological method. Purposeful sampling was used to select individuals who had experienced a traumatic motor vehicle accident and had survived and thrived through resilience. Individuals were those who scored as resilient individuals on the CD-RISC resilience scale. Eight victims of traumatic vehicular accidents from the Atlanta, GA and Birmingham, AL area were interviewed for their experience of resilience throughout their recovery. The individuals represented different years of age and gender. Open-ended guided interview questions were used, and the interview was audio recorded and transcribed for gathering data. An examination of data produced findings that were consistent with prior research on components of resilience, specifically spirituality, a sense of coherence, positive adaptation and temperament, locus of control and self-efficacy. |
