We continue to explore Aaron Antonovsky and his work. Today, we delve into his innovative description of health. This brilliant scientist sadly left us too soon. We will examine how Salutogénesis was born and how the Sense of Coherence emerged. Read all about it in today’s article.
Aaron Antonovsky and His Work: An Innovative Description of Health
To understand Aaron Antonovsky and his work, we must start with his first major contribution. He created an innovative description of health. He did not see it as a ‘state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being.’ Instead, he saw it as a continuum seeking balance between maximum and minimum health. He called these points ease and dis-ease. This perspective makes the WHO concept of health much more accessible.
Antonovsky explains that we move through life constantly seeking balance. We balance factors that make us ill (stressors) and factors that heal us (factors that ‘activate’ us).
As he pointed out, stress is omnipresent in our lives. We also mentioned this in our previous post about who Aaron Antonovsky was. Except for stressors that directly destroy the physical body, human health outcomes remain unpredictable.
How the Salutogenic Question Was Born
In 1987, he published the book “Unraveling the Mystery of Health”. Here, Aaron Antonovsky and his work began to show results from a study on menopausal women. The study population was highly diverse in origin and life experiences.
Antonovsky found that 29% of women who survived Nazi concentration camps enjoyed positive health and well-being. In comparison, 51% of a control group of healthy women who did not go through that experience showed similar positive health.
This difference was not surprising. However, instead of settling for data showing how trauma compromises future health, he took a different approach. He focused on the 29% of the group who achieved good health despite everything.
This led him to formulate his famous ‘salutogenic question’: Why do people tend to locate themselves toward the positive end of the health/disease continuum? Why do they move toward this end, regardless of their current location? What makes it possible for a person to move toward the positive end of health?
His perspective on this finding changed everything. Antonovsky focused on the fact that 29% of the concentration camp survivors not only rebuilt their lives, but also declared themselves happy and maintained good health.
Antonovsky wrote: “This was the dramatic experience that consciously set me on the path toward formulating what I have come to call the ‘salutogenic model.'” (“Unraveling the Mystery of Health”)
GRRs, or How Do Humans Overcome Tension?
In “Unraveling the Mystery of Health,” Antonovsky writes that a stressor creates a state of tension. Whether the outcome is pathologically neutral or healthy depends on how well the individual manages this tension. He realized that the factors determining tension management are the key question in health science research.
By studying and observing people, he formulated a tentative answer. He expressed this through the concept of generalized resistance resources (GRRs). These resources include money, knowledge, experience, healthy habits, commitment, and social support. They also include cultural capital, intelligence, meaningful activities, traditions, self-esteem, and a clear outlook on life.
Antonovsky realized he needed a screening measure. He wanted to identify if a factor worked as a GRR without waiting for long-term study results. In other words, he wanted to understand and categorize what factors serve as GRRs. This is how the ‘Sense of Coherence’ was developed to answer the salutogenic question.
SOC (Sense of Coherence): A Predictive Factor of Our Ability to Cope
Antonovsky wrote: “What is common to all GRRs is that they facilitate the understanding of the countless stressors we are constantly bombarded with. By repeatedly providing such experiences, they generate a strong SOC over time.”
In other words, the more resources an individual has, the more easily they can overcome a stressful event and find meaning in it. Conversely, people acquire more resources as they face more stressful events. Thus, he argued that exposure to stressors is not necessarily negative. The outcome depends entirely on the individual’s ‘manageability’ in that specific situation.
People manage better and find meaning more easily when they understand what is happening and how it affects them. This is how we determine the relationships between the three components of SOC defined by Antonovsky and how they reinforce each other.
He defined this core concept of SOC as a global orientation to life. It expresses the extent to which one has a pervasive, enduring though dynamic feeling of confidence. It is the belief that one’s internal and external environments are predictable, and that there is a high probability that things will work out as well as can reasonably be expected.
In our view, the SOC is ultimately a vital attitude. It determines our ability to make good use of GRRs. It represents the personal capacity to manage stressful events effectively rather than just avoiding them. It means knowing our limits while trusting our full potential.
To develop a strong SOC, you must know yourself and your assets. You must also know the resources available in your environment. Self-knowledge means recognizing what you need when you need it. Feeling CONFIDENCE is also the key anchor for Antonovsky in his Salutogénesis theory.
By knowing themselves, individuals can organize their experiences in the world. This is how they find meaning and purpose in life. In this regard, Aaron Antonovsky offers a transcendent vision. It helps make sense of stressful life events and guides individuals toward understanding.
How Do We Learn to Develop This Sense of Coherence?
Finally, following the path of Aaron Antonovsky and his work, we find this quote: “The individual must learn, through education, a satisfactory worldview. They must learn that the world is comprehensible, manageable, meaningful, and worthy of investment.”
He notes that children need a supportive adult nearby. Similarly, adults need someone close to them. Despite ongoing worries and fears, this person should teach them how to cope. They must transmit hope and trust in life.
We develop this SOC through a process of inner growth and maturation. The individual grows alongside the world’s processes through continuous learning and experience. This ongoing self-work strengthens them consciously and progressively. It prepares them to face life’s events in an optimal state of health.
