General Definition
In 1984, Garmezy, Masten, and Tellegen operationalized resilience in one of their earlier projects as, "manifestations of competence in children despite exposure to stressful events." In 1985, Rutter defined resilience as facing ". . . stress at a time and in a way that allows self-confidence and social competence to increase through mastery and appropriate responsibility." In 1994, Masten defined resilience in this manner: "Resilience in an individual refers to successful adaptation despite risk and adversity." She goes on to say, "resilience refers to a pattern over time, characterized by good eventual adaptation despite developmental risk, acute stressors, or chronic adversities." In 1995, Gordon defined resilience this way: "Resilience is the ability to thrive, mature, and increase competence in the face of adverse circumstances. These circumstances may include biological abnormalities or environmental obstacles. Further, the adverse circumstances may be chronic and consistent or severe and infrequent. To thrive, mature, and increase competence, a person must draw upon all of his or her resources: biological, psychological, and environmental."
These represent some of the best attempts at defining resilience. They are created by some of the leading researchers in the field. The last two are contemporary and take advantage of some of the latest research.