The three types of resources

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An integrative view of mental health

Recent research converges on a central idea: positive mental health is not an isolated psychological state, but an emergent property arising from the dynamic interaction between biological, cognitive, psychological and environmental resources. This is the idea organised by the three families of resources framework.

It is not simply defined as the absence of a mental disorder. The most strongly supported model today is the two-continua model, according to which psychological well-being and psychopathology are two partially independent dimensions: a person may have no psychiatric disorder yet function at a low level, or conversely live with a mental illness while developing resources that support their well-being.

Positive mental health therefore corresponds more to a capacity for adaptation, regulation and flourishing than to a merely pleasant emotional state.

1. Biological resources: the foundation of mental functioning

Biological resources encompass all the physiological mechanisms that allow the brain and the body to maintain adaptive functioning.

Scientific evidence highlights in particular the role of:

• neurochemical balance;
• brain plasticity;
• autonomic (neurovegetative) regulation;
• the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (stress) axis;
• sleep and circadian rhythms;
• the immune system;
• cardiovascular health;
• the brain-gut-microbiome axis.

The most recent research emphasises that people with strong resilience often have biological profiles characterised by:

• better emotion regulation;
• lower inflammation;
• more efficient activity of the prefrontal networks involved in cognitive control;
• favourable interactions between the brain and the gut microbiome (An et al., 2024; Jeste et al., 2026).

These mechanisms are now described in some detail. Three levels stand out (Rao et al., 2024):

• The stress response: the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which regulates cortisol production, together with the brain's chemical messengers (serotonin, dopamine, noradrenaline, glutamate, GABA, endocannabinoids);
• A genetic terrain always in dialogue with the living environment: several genes, including BDNF, the serotonin transporter, neuropeptide Y and COMT, modulate resilience, but only in interaction with the environment. There is no such thing as a "resilience gene";
• Three major brain circuits: reward, fear and social behaviour. When their tuning is disrupted, vulnerability to disorders increases.

Epigenetics adds a further layer: what we live through, including the hardest experiences, can alter how genes are expressed without changing the genes themselves (Rao et al., 2024). Chemically, positive mental health is recognisable less by any single substance than by an overall balance, in which messengers linked to pleasant emotions outweigh those of prolonged strain (Sirgy, 2019).

These resources do not determine mental health on their own, but they create a biological terrain that is more or less favourable to adaptation (Garcia-Garcia et al., 2026).

2. Cognitive resources: making sense of experience

Cognitive resources correspond to the processes that allow us to interpret the world.

They influence:

• how we appraise situations;
• our expectations about the future;
• the sense of control;
• problem-solving ability;
• mental flexibility;
• the search for meaning.

Among these, positive cognitive reappraisal is one of the best-documented mechanisms today.

A systematic review of 99 studies (Riepenhausen et al., 2022) shows that this ability:

• reduces the psychological impact of stressful events;
• fosters resilience;
• explains the effects of other protective factors.

A sense of control, the meaning given to events and optimism also act as protective beliefs that ease adaptation during difficult events or chronic illness (Taylor et al., 2000).

A second cognitive anchor stands out clearly in recent work: the sense of coherence. It brings together three feelings: understanding what is happening to us, feeling able to cope with it, and finding meaning in it. Among young adults followed over time, it emerges as the single strongest predictor of low levels of psychological symptoms (Baschab et al., 2026). Studies comparing many protective factors with one another likewise place it at the centre of the network (Schäfer et al., 2023).

How we handle our emotions matters as much as how we think: reappraising a situation goes together with greater resilience, whereas systematically holding back the expression of what we feel goes together with less resilience (Brites et al., 2023).

These frames of mind reach as far as physical health. Among older people, positive mental health and a favourable outlook on ageing are each independently associated with better recovery after illness (Wu et al., 2025).

The meaning given to one's life is not merely an inner comfort. Among the dimensions of psychological well-being, purpose in life is one of those whose association with reduced mortality is best established (Trudel-Fitzgerald et al., 2019). Transcendence, the capacity to connect with something larger than oneself, goes together with greater life satisfaction and a stronger sense of meaning (Konishi et al., 2025).

3. Relational resources: mobilising one's coping capacities

Relational resources are the skills that make it possible to cope with difficulties.

The most studied are:

• resilience;
• self-efficacy;
• emotion regulation;
• self-compassion;
• mindfulness;
• positive emotions;
• coping;
• savouring;
• hope;
• optimism.

These resources do not work in isolation: research shows that they interact constantly. For example:

• resilience improves well-being mainly because it fosters self-efficacy, self-esteem or emotion regulation (Heinz et al., 2025);
• self-compassion reduces the transformation of negative emotions into psychopathological symptoms (Trompetter et al., 2016; Kotera et al., 2021);
• overall psychological capital predicts well-being better than any of its components taken separately (Sood and Puri, 2022).

These resources form a coherent whole: resilience, self-efficacy, optimism and the sense of coherence rise together, and go together with fewer psychological symptoms (Baschab et al., 2026). This is what psychological capital describes, bringing together hope, self-efficacy, resilience and optimism: twenty-five years of research link it to better well-being and more flexible ways of coping (Moreno-Montero et al., 2024; Youssef-Morgan, 2024).

A French study conducted during the 2020 lockdown followed these resources over time and found that they protected well-being: self-efficacy, optimism and hope, gratitude, acceptance and personal wisdom each played a part (Pellerin and Raufaste, 2020).

They do not all carry the same weight, however. Among nearly 12,000 adults over 50 followed for eight years, the effects of psychological resilience on health proved 4 to 10 times larger than those of mastery or optimism, once these resources were compared within a single model (Taylor and Carr, 2020).

Pleasant emotions hold a particular place: they are at once an outcome of the resilience process and a resource that protects, buffering the effect of stress on depressive and traumatic symptoms (Egan et al., 2024). As for the quality of relations with others, it is one of the six dimensions of psychological well-being identified long ago (Ryff and Keyes, 1995).

Resources interact constantly

One of the major conclusions of this literature is that resources are never isolated. A biological improvement, for example better sleep, supports cognitive abilities.

Better cognitive abilities then foster:

• better emotion regulation;
• more protective behaviours;
• greater engagement in social life.

An integrative model describes this sequence: resources feed ways of coping, which in turn produce positive adaptation (Fullerton et al., 2021).

In turn, these behaviours gradually strengthen the biological mechanisms. Positive mental health therefore rests on a dynamic of positive feedback loops between several levels of organisation.

Context remains decisive

Individual resources are never enough on their own. Their effectiveness depends heavily on:

• social support;
• economic conditions;
• cultural context;
• the family environment;
• access to care;
• safety.

In other words, a psychological resource only takes full effect when it can be mobilised in a sufficiently favourable environment (Ungar and Theron, 2019; Heinz et al., 2025).

External resources: what the environment makes possible

This context has a name. Alongside the resources of the person (the body, the mind, the bonds), research describes external resources: the support of those around us, community life, housing, transport, access to care, social protection. They are not acquired through work on oneself, and yet they condition everything else (Ungar and Theron, 2019; Jeste et al., 2026).

They do not, however, form a fourth family: the three families describe what the person deploys, while external resources describe the world in which they are deployed. These are two nested levels, not four categories of equal standing.

Lire la fiche complète sur les ressources externes (full page in French) →

What the literature actually says

Literature reviews converge on several points:

• positive mental health is a multisystemic phenomenon;
• the biological, cognitive and psychological dimensions are interdependent;
• resources are modulated by the social context;
• no single measure can currently capture the full complexity of positive mental health (Iasiello et al., 2024), even though some instruments seek to bring several facets together at once, such as global well-being, coping, savouring capacity, resilience and self-regulation (Zábó et al., 2022).

Researchers also stress the heterogeneity of findings depending on age, culture, the type of adversity and the populations studied. Any simplistic or universal view of protective mechanisms should therefore be avoided.

A dynamic reading of resources

The scientific literature mainly describes three broad families of resources (biological, cognitive and psychological), to which environmental resources are almost always added. It says much less, however, about how these resources are built, depleted, restored and interact over time.

This is precisely the contribution of the approach developed by Elisabeth Bélot-Grimaud, PhD: moving beyond a simple inventory of resources to propose a dynamic view of how they work, organised around four complementary processes:

• identifying one's resources;
• mobilising the resources suited to the context;
• preserving those that durably support functioning;
• restoring those that are impaired or depleted.

This process-based approach, still little developed in the current literature, bridges scientific knowledge about protective factors and an operational reading of positive mental health.

Scientific references

• An, E., et al. (2024). Stress-resilience impacts psychological wellbeing: evidence from brain-gut microbiome interactions. Nature Mental Health, 2, 935-950. doi:10.1038/s44220-024-00266-6
• Baschab, J. F., et al. (2026). Tracing psychological resources and mental health: the role of sense of coherence, resilience and self-efficacy in young adulthood. Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 5, 1759711. doi:10.3389/frcha.2026.1759711
• Brites, R., et al. (2023). Emotion regulation, resilience, and mental health: a mediation study with university students in the pandemic context. Psychology in the Schools, 61(1), 304-328. doi:10.1002/pits.23055
• Egan, L. A., et al. (2024). Resilience to stress and adversity: a narrative review of the role of positive affect. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 17, 2011-2038. doi:10.2147/prbm.s391403
• Fullerton, D. J., Zhang, L. M., & Kleitman, S. (2021). An integrative process model of resilience in an academic context. PLOS ONE, 16(2), e0246000. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0246000
• Garcia-Garcia, I., et al. (2026). The nine hallmarks of mental health and wellbeing as a watershed framework for resilient living and healthspan optimization. Frontiers in Psychology, 17. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1749193
• Heinz, S., et al. (2025). Mediating pathways between resilience, mental health and wellbeing: a scoping review of individual, social, and systemic factors. BMC Public Health, 25. doi:10.1186/s12889-025-24897-1
• Iasiello, M., et al. (2024). What's the difference between measures of wellbeing, quality of life, resilience, and coping? An umbrella review and concept map of 155 measures of positive mental health. International Journal of Wellbeing, 14(2). doi:10.5502/ijw.v14i2.3621
• Jeste, D. V., et al. (2026). Report from the WPA Section on Positive Psychiatry 2015-2025. World Psychiatry, 25. doi:10.1002/wps.70025
• Konishi, N., et al. (2025). Psychological richness as a distinct dimension of well-being: links to mental, social, and physical health. PLOS One, 20(6), e0326528. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0326528
• Kotera, Y., Green, P., & Sheffield, D. (2021). Positive psychology for mental wellbeing of UK therapeutic students: relationships with engagement, motivation, resilience and self-compassion. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 20, 1611-1626. doi:10.1007/s11469-020-00466-y
• Moreno-Montero, E., Ferradás, M. del M., & Freire, C. (2024). Personal resources for psychological well-being in university students. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education, 14(10), 2686-2701. doi:10.3390/ejihpe14100177
• Pellerin, N., & Raufaste, E. (2020). Psychological resources protect well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal study during the French lockdown. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 590276. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.590276
• Rao, G. P., et al. (2024). Developing resilience and harnessing emotional intelligence. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 66(suppl. 2), S255-S261. doi:10.4103/indianjpsychiatry.indianjpsychiatry_601_23
• Riepenhausen, A., et al. (2022). Positive cognitive reappraisal in stress resilience, mental health, and well-being: a comprehensive systematic review. Emotion Review, 14, 310-331. doi:10.1177/17540739221114642
• Ryff, C. D., & Keyes, C. L. M. (1995). The structure of psychological well-being revisited. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(4), 719-727. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.69.4.719
• Schäfer, S. K., et al. (2023). Interrelations of resilience factors and their incremental impact for mental health. Translational Psychiatry, 13(1), 328. doi:10.1038/s41398-023-02603-2
• Sirgy, M. J. (2019). Positive balance: a hierarchical perspective of positive mental health. Quality of Life Research, 28, 1921-1930. doi:10.1007/s11136-019-02145-5
• Sood, S., & Puri, D. (2022). Psychological capital and positive mental health of student-athletes. Current Psychology, 42, 21759-21774. doi:10.1007/s12144-022-03272-y
• Taylor, M. G., & Carr, D. (2020). Psychological resilience and health among older adults: a comparison of personal resources. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 76(6), 1241-1250. doi:10.1093/geronb/gbaa116
• Taylor, S. E., et al. (2000). Psychological resources, positive illusions, and health. American Psychologist, 55(1), 99-109. doi:10.1037/0003-066x.55.1.99
• Trompetter, H., De Kleine, E., & Bohlmeijer, E. (2016). Why does positive mental health buffer against psychopathology? An exploratory study on self-compassion as a resilience mechanism and adaptive emotion regulation strategy. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 41, 459-468. doi:10.1007/s10608-016-9774-0
• Trudel-Fitzgerald, C., et al. (2019). Psychological well-being as part of the public health debate? Insight into dimensions, interventions, and policy. BMC Public Health, 19, 1712. doi:10.1186/s12889-019-8029-x
• Ungar, M., & Theron, L. (2019). Resilience and mental health: how multisystemic processes contribute to positive outcomes. The Lancet Psychiatry. doi:10.1016/s2215-0366(19)30434-1
• Wu, J., Li, Y., & Chao, Q. (2025). Psychological resources and illness recovery in later life. BMC Geriatrics, 25(1), 749. doi:10.1186/s12877-025-06449-9
• Youssef-Morgan, C. M. (2024). Psychological capital and mental health: twenty-five years of progress. Organizational Dynamics, 53(4), 101081. doi:10.1016/j.orgdyn.2024.101081
• Zábó, V., Oláh, A., & Vargha, A. (2022). A new complex mental health test in a positive psychological framework. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.775622

Further reading

• The Three Families of Resources for Positive Mental Health;
• What is positive mental health?

This page is for general information and overview. It does not replace the advice of a healthcare professional. If you are going through a difficult time, please speak to your doctor or, if you are in France, call the 3114 (suicide prevention, free, 24/7). Outside France, contact your local emergency services.