PSYC 314 - Chapter 5: Coping with and Reducing Stress

Coping

The process by which people try to manage the perceived discrepancy between the demands and resources they appraise in a stressful situation.

Emotion-Focused Coping

A coping method aimed at controlling the emotional response to the stressful situation.

Problem-Focused Coping

A coping method aimed at reducing the demands of a stressful situation or expanding the resources to deal with it.

Relationship-Focused Coping

A coping method that involves emotion or problem focused coping intended to manage or maintain social relationships during stress.

Time Management

A coping strategy consisting of three elements: (I) setting goals that are attainable, (II) making daily to-do lists to prioritize goals, (III) setting a schedule for the day in order to allocate estimated time periods to each item in the list.

Stress Management

A program of behavioural and cognitive techniques that is designed to reduce psychological and physical reactions to stress.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

A way people can learn to control their feelings of tension in which they focus their attention on specific muscle groups while alternatively tightening and relaxing these muscles.

Systematic Desensitization

A useful method for reducing fear and anxiety, in which classical conditioning is used to reverse fears.

Biofeedback

A technique in which an electromechanical device monitors the status of a person’s physiological processes, such as heart rate or muscle tension, and immediately reports that information back to the individual.

Modelling

A kind of learning where people learn by observing what others do and the consequences of the behaviours these models perform.

Cognitive Restructuring

A process by which stress-provoking thoughts or beliefs are replaced with more constructive or realistic ones that reduce the person’s appraisal of threat or harm.

Cognitive Therapy

A widely used cognitive restructuring approach to change maladaptive thought patterns.

Problem-Solving Training

A cognitive approach designed to help clients solve problems in their lives; clients learn a strategy for identifying, discovering, or inventing effective or adaptive ways to address problems in everyday life.

Stress-Inoculation Training

An approach that uses a variety of methods that are designed to teach people skills for alleviating stress; involves three phases in which the person (I) learns about the nature of stress and how people react to it, (II) acquires behavioural and cognitive skills, such as relaxation and seeking social support, and (III) practises coping skills with actual or imagined stressors.This training aims to equip individuals with techniques to manage stress effectively, thereby enhancing their resilience in challenging situations.  

Mindfulness

Simple awareness of one’s experiences, unencumbered by cognitive or emotional distortions.