Definition
Stress has been defined traditionally either as a stimulus, often referred to as a stressor, that happens to the person such as a laboratory shock or loss of a job, or as a response characterized by physiological arousal and negative affect, especially anxiety. In his 1966 book, Psychological Stress and the Coping Process (Lazarus 1966), Richard Lazarus defined stress as a relationship between the person and the environment that is appraised as personally significant and as taxing or exceeding resources for coping. This definition is the foundation of stress and coping theory (Lazarus and Folkman 1984).
Description
Stress and coping theory provides a framework that is useful for formulating and testing hypotheses about the stress process and its relation to physical and mental health. The framework emphasizes the importance of two processes, appraisal and coping, as mediators of the ongoing relationship between the person and the environment. Stress and coping theory is...
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References and Readings
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Folkman, S. (2020). Stress: Appraisal and Coping. In: Gellman, M.D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39903-0_215
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39903-0_215
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