Chapter 12 – Stress and Illness Moderators

What are the five main coping functions?

(1) Reducing harmful external conditions

(2) Tolerating or adjusting to negative events

(3) Maintaining a positive self-image

(4) Maintaining emotional equilibrium

(5) Maintaining satisfactory relationships with others or the environment.

What is factor analysis?

A statistical method that reduces relationships between many correlated items into meaningful groups or factors.

What’s the difference between coping strategies and coping styles?

Coping strategies are context- and stressor-specific, while coping styles are personality- and individual-specific.

What is adaptive coping?

Coping strategies that effectively reduce distress and promote adjustment depending on the context, timing, and controllability of the stressor.

What is the goal of problem-focused coping?

To tackle the stressor itself through active, instrumental actions.

What is the goal of emotion-focused coping?

To manage the emotions caused by the stressor.

What is the goal of approach (attentional) coping?

To face the stressor directly using active cognitive or behavioural management.

What is the goal of avoidant coping?

To escape or reduce the perceived threat through distraction or disengagement.

What are the two components of emotional-approach coping?

Emotional processing (understanding emotions) and emotional expression (constructive communication of feelings).

What outcomes are linked to emotional-approach coping?

Positive psychological adjustment and improved survival outcomes (“fighting spirit”).

What is meaning-focused coping?

Finding personal meaning in stressful events through values, beliefs, and reappraisal.

Define personality.

The dynamic organization of psychophysical systems that determine characteristic behavior and thought.

What are the three dimensions of Eysenck’s model?

Neuroticism, extraversion, and psychoticism.

Name the Big Five personality traits.

Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Openness.

What is dispositional optimism?

A stable expectation that good outcomes will occur.

What is unrealistic optimism?

Believing bad things happen more to others than oneself; can buffer emotion but may be maladaptive.

What are the three components of hardiness?

Commitment, control, and challenge.

What is resilience?

The ability to bounce back after adversity, linked to better psychological and physical health.

What are key features of Type A personality?

Competitive, time-urgent, hostile, achievement-driven, high stress reactivity.

What are features of Type B personality?

Relaxed, patient, calm, low stress reactivity.

What are traits of Type C personality?

Compliant, unassertive, represses emotions—especially anger; linked to poor cancer outcomes (weak evidence).

What are traits of Type D personality?

Negative affectivity and social inhibition; associated with poor cardiovascular prognosis.

What is locus of control?

A belief about whether outcomes are controlled by one’s own actions (internal) or by external forces (external).

What are the main types of control?

Behavioural, cognitive, decisional, informational, and retrospective.

What is the difference between self-efficacy and locus of control?

Self-efficacy = belief in one’s ability to act effectively; LoC = belief that one can influence outcomes in general.

What are the three dimensions of Health Locus of Control?

Internal, external, and powerful others.

What are the two main components of hope?

Agency (goal-directed energy) and pathways (routes to achieve goals).

What is emotional disclosure?

Expressing rather than suppressing emotions, often through writing or talking about trauma.

What are the three main types of social support?

Emotional, instrumental (practical), and informational.

What are the two main hypotheses about how social support affects health?

The direct effect (always beneficial) and the buffering hypothesis (especially protective under high stress).