Practical interests arise in how the findings of the present study could be addressed
in psychological service. The results generally confirmed the assumption of interrelation
between developmental outcomes and individual’s tendency to cope well with
misfortunate life events. The results indicated that outcomes of core developmental
crises, as found in adults, predicted resilience at both general as well as more refined
level of analysis. In particular, the results provided converging evidence to the findings
from mid 70s on (Bernard 1999; Murphy and Moriatry 1976; Werner 1984) that
confidence, autonomy, and independence accounted for resilience - suggesting that
Erikson’s theory dating back in the 1960s was likely to fit to findings of later resilience
research (Pearce 2011; Zolkoski and Bullock 2012).
The findings indeed have broad implications, going beyond populations experiencing
adversity: when we speak about individual’s ability to cope with adversity, we also
seem to speak about individual’s ability to cope with developmental tasks. At one hand,
Erikson’s model might be too complex and that the same problems might be addressed
with seemingly more parsimonious mechanisms such as self regulation or parental
support (Zolkoski and Bullock 2012). Indeed, these mechanisms were found to play
crucial role in resilience development, but the current attempt goes a step ahead with
framing resilience into the context of basic, normative, universal developmental mechanisms.
These mechanisms are not meant as a replacement for but rather an addition to
protective elements such as self regulation, family conditions, or community support
(Loughran 2011; Pearce 2011; Sternberg 2006; Willoughby et al. 2003; Zolkoski and
Bullock 2012). For these purposes, Erikson’s theory, regardless the fact it is more than
half century old, might offer us a new challenge in resilience research.