It's the Second World War and you're imprisoned in a concentration camp. You are tortured and see a lot of people die.

If this were the case, how would you feel? Would you feel helpless or in control?

Vicktor Frankl, a camp survivor and prominent psychologist, found that even in such adversity, he was in control - control over how he chose to react to such terrible conditions.

Instead of being overwhelmed with despair, he helped others, including some guards, find meaning in their suffering and dignity in their prison existence.

Of course, none of us have been in a concentration camp, but we have all experienced unfavourable events, major or minor.

Obviously some people like Frankl respond to unfavourable conditions much better than others do because they have a higher adversity quotient or 'AQ'.

It has been noted that AQ is a measure of how well we withstand adversity and our ability to surmount it. We can all learn to boost our AQ by further examining its four dimensions: control, origin and ownership, reach and endurance.

Control: i.e. how much control we perceive we have over an adverse event. People with higher AQ will perceive greater control over life's events (e.g. Frankl controlled his response to adversity). People with lower AQ will feel helpless over adverse events, for example thinking: "there's nothing I can do about it".

Origin and ownership: i.e. the source of the adversity and holding us accountable for dealing with it. Those with higher AQ take responsibility for that portion of adversity they've caused, learn from it and arrange resolution or action. Those with lower AQ tend to place either undue blame on themselves, or everyone else but themselves. They do nothing to deal with or improve the situation.

Reach: i.e. how far the adversity will infect other areas in our life. High AQ people will limit the reach of the problem to the event at hand (e.g. a bad day is simply a bad day, not a major setback). Low AQ people tend to exaggerate bad events, unduly amplifying them (e.g. perceive criticism from a superior as the end of their career).

Endurance: i.e. how long the adversity and its causes will last. Those with high AQ view positive events as enduring and perceive that adversity and its causes will eventually pass. Low AQ people view positive events as temporary while viewing adversity and its causes as enduring.

REMEMBER, no matter what our AQ is today, it can be improved. This becomes particularly important in view of the changes and challenges all of us face nowadays.

(Information provided by Chief Inspector Cammie Leung, Assistant Force Training Officer, Training Development Bureau.)




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