| Summary: | The experience of being diagnosed with HIV/AIDS is extremely stressful
and often depressing. Presently there is a trend to study the
psychological implications of HIV/AIDS. A majority of these investigations
have consisted of quantitative studies that excluded people's "voice" from
within. The present study attempts to bridge this gap. Flanagan's (1954)
Critical Incident Analysis methodology was used in this study to
investigate what facilitates the process of dealing with depressed moods
after an HIV+ diagnosis. Resiliency was also analyzed. A total of 246
critical incidents were collected. Thirteen categories emerged from an
inductive study of the incidents reported by the 11 co-researchers. The
results indicate that the facilitative categories of personal strategies
employed by the participants are the following: (a) physical exercise, (b)
participation in activities, (c) commitment to life, (d) career/work, (e)
alcohol/drugs, (f) connection with self, (g) looking for meaning, (h) helping
others, (i) gaining understanding of the problem, (j) sharing the news,
(k) learning from a role model, (I) spiritual connection, and
(m) establishing social connection. A strong thematic similarity was found between the categories that emerged from this study and the self-reported
resilient aspects of the co-researchers. The validity of the categories was
confirmed by: independent rater, expert rater, co-researchers' crosschecking,
exhaustiveness participation rate, and theoretical agreement.
Resiliency emerged as a viable psychological construct in the analysis of
the data. Counselling implications are discussed, and practical ways of
applying a model of resiliency are suggested. === Education, Faculty of === Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of === Graduate
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