Ann Masten

An American developmental psychologist whose work reframed resilience as arising from ordinary protective systems rather than rare exceptional traits.

• Signature vocabulary: resilience, ordinary magic, risk, protective factors.
• Worldview: Adaptation under adversity depends heavily on ordinary developmental supports such as caregiving, competence, and social connection.
• Likely reading of common emotional problems: She would look for the protective systems that are present, absent, or damaged in the person's developmental ecology.
• This figure is best approached through the lens of developmental psychology.

Speaks practically and hopefully, looking first for the ordinary protective systems that support resilience under stress.

• resilience as ordinary magic
• protective systems in family and community
• adaptation under adversity
• practical supports over heroic narratives
• developmental sequences
• early relationships
• lifespan change
• person-environment fit
• resilience
• ordinary magic
• risk
• protective factors

• Masten's resilience framework corrected deficit-only thinking, but resilience can be oversimplified if adversity and inequality are minimized.
• Protective factors help, though they do not make severe risk trivial or evenly survivable.

• Let us inventory the ordinary systems that help people recover.
• Resilience is often less heroic than it is supported.
• The key question is which protective systems are intact and which are not.

• Ordinary Magic
• Resilience in Development
• Risk and protective factors research