Resiliency as a Virtue: Contributions from Humanistic and Positive Psychology Brent Dean Robbins, Point Park University Harris Friedman, University of Florida Abstract Resiliency is defined as the ability to achieve successful outcomes in the face of challenging circumstances. As a positive characteristic of persons, resiliency is a theme that falls within the domain of positive psychology, which is the study of positive human states and traits, as well as social institutions that shape such states and traits. Humanistic psychology has also been animated by similar concerns, with a primary focus upon the self-actualizing person who is striving to become fully human despite the imposition of difficult circumstances. The humanistic movement has been, in part, informed by classical Greek ethics, particularly Aristotle's ethics, despite some disagreements with the Aristotelian worldview. This chapter examines the ways in which humanistic psychology, as informed by Aristotelian ethics and the theory of virtue, can address some of the problematic assumptions of positive psychology's understanding of character strengths and virtues. Once these clarifications are made, it becomes possible to better understand the senses in which resiliency can be legitimately considered a virtue, and also those occasions in which it is inappropriate to refer to resiliency as a virtue. Most importantly, the humanistic approach strongly emphasizes understanding all human behavior as situated within a larger context, and this more holistic perspective is necessary to appreciate the virtues, as is a focus on human agency, as opposed to a deterministic view of human behavior. Introduction Resiliency constitutes one of the core concepts within the emerging frameworks of positive psychology (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). Positive psychology, as a self- proclaimed new movement, focuses on two primary goals: to rectify the over emphasis on pathology and other negative aspects of the human condition prevalent in much of contemporary psychology and to approach the study of the positive aspects of the human condition by employing empirical methods aligned with philosophical positivism. Although positive psychology has tended to position itself as a radical innovation, it is closely related to the humanistic psychology tradition (Friedman, 2008; Robbins, 2008). This chapter explores some of the similarities and differences between humanistic and positive psychology as they pertain to resiliency. Perhaps most noteworthy is that positive psychology understands resiliency as a virtue (or character strength), To understand resiliency as a virtue is, by implication, to also appreciate the relevance of it to a eudaimonic conception of happiness. In this regard, positive psychology tends to see resiliency (as it does other positive traits) as a "signature strength" that can be measured in isolation from other character traits. Humanistic psychology, by contrast, tends to look at resiliency more holistically. From this more holistic perspective, resiliency would be considered a "strength" only in certain contexts of significance (e.g., if one's life project were guided by wisdom and therefore as having proper ends), whereas in other contexts, resiliency would not be considered a strength (e.g., Hitler was very resilient but, in his case, it was hardly a virtue). Our aim is to confront the tendency of positive psychology to de-contextualize supposed "strengths," as we see this as a major limitation of positive psychology. We suggest further that it is precisely in this area that humanistic psychology can be of conceptual assistance. Resiliency as a Virtue Resiliency has been defined in a variety of ways in the literature. Greene (2003) identified "the risk and resilience approach" to psychology as "the study of what