Theoretical Foundations of Health Education: Theories of Stress and Coping

Flashcards on Theories of Stress and Coping

Stress

The response of the body, mind, and behaviors to encountering, interpreting, and making judgments about controlling environmental events.

Life events/Life change events

Discrete, observable, and objectively reportable events that require social and/or psychological adjustment.

Chronic Stressors

Events encountered in everyday life; can be persistent life difficulties, role strains, chronic strains, community-wide strains, or daily hassles.

Nonevents

Desired or anticipated events when they do not occur, desirable events that do not occur even though normative, or not having anything to do.

Fight or Flight Response

Walter Cannon's concept describing the body's automatic response to a perceived threat.

General Adaptation Syndrome

Alarm reaction, stage of resistance and stage of exhaustion.

Eustress

Good stress.

Distress

Bad stress.

Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)

Holmes and Rahe's scale with 43 events to calculate a life change unit (LCU) score.

Coping

Dealing with and attempting to overcome problems and difficulties through thought processes, personality characteristics, and social context.

Transactional Model

Primary appraisal (Am I OK or am I in trouble?) and secondary appraisal (How much control do I have over the threat?).

Problem-focused coping

Coping by altering the environmental event or situation.

Emotion-focused coping

Coping by altering the way one thinks or feels about a situation.

Examples of problem-focused coping at the thought process level

Utilization of problem-solving skills, interpersonal conflict resolution, advice seeking, time management, goal setting, and gathering information.

Examples of problem-focused coping at the behavioral level

Joining a smoking cessation program, compliance with medical treatment, adhering to a diet plan, scheduling and prioritizing tasks.

Examples of emotion-focused coping at the thought process level

Denying the stressful situation, expressing emotions, avoiding the situation, making social comparisons, minimization.

Examples of emotion-focused coping at the behavioral level

Seeking social support, exercise, relaxation, meditation, support groups.

Ways of Coping (WOC) checklist categories

Accepting responsibility, confrontational coping, distancing, escape avoidance, planned problem solving, positive reappraisal, seeking social support, self-controlling.

Coping Orientations to Problems Experienced (COPE) scale

Acceptance, active coping, denial, disengagement, humor, planning, positive reframing, religion, restraint, social support, self-distraction, and suppression of competing activities.

Hardiness

Belief of control, commitment, and challenge.

Sense of Coherence

Comprehensible, manageable, and meaningful.

Optimism

Tendency to look at the brighter side of things and expect positive outcomes.