Stress and Coping

Definition

Stress occurs when an individual perceives that the demands of a personally important situation tax or exceed his or her capabilities and resources. The situation can be a major event such as the death of a loved one, an interaction with another person such as a disagreement with a coworker, or even an internal event such as a realization that one is aging but has not accomplished important life goals. Stress, especially if experienced chronically, can have serious negative physical and psychological consequences. Coping consists of the individual's thoughts and behaviors aimed at eliminating the source of the stress, reducing the negative emotions associated with the stress, or increasing positive emotion in the context of stress. The study of coping is important because adaptive coping can be taught, which can help short-circuit the potentially harmful effects of stress on mental and physical health.

History and Background

Stress is a ubiquitous term that is commonly used to describe a wide range of situations, experiences, and states of being. Practically everyone has had personal, often daily, experience with stress, and the idea that stress is harmful to mental and physical well being is well ensconced in popular culture. Empirical studies of stress began early in the 20th century with research focused on the biological aspects of the stress response. In 1932, Walter Cannon outlined the fight-or-flight response in which the organism reacts to a threat by releasing catecholamines that ready the organism physically to respond to the stressor. Increased heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar, and respiration are among the physiological results of catecholamine release. The fight-or-flight response is adaptive in the sense that it provides the necessary physical resources for the organism to react to acute stress. When the fight-orflight response is repeatedly or chronically triggered, there are likely to be harmful physical consequences. Hans Selye discovered that a variety of stressors such as extreme cold or fatigue caused enlarged adrenal glands, shrinking of the thymus, and bleeding ulcers in rats. Selye outlined a three-stage process called the General Adaptation Syndrome in which prolonged stress leads to a breakdown of bodily resistance leaving the organism vulnerable to what he called diseasesof adaptation such as cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, or arthritis.

Early biological theories of stress led researchers to investigate the types of occurrences or events that resulted in biological changes. A natural outgrowth of the research of Cannon and Selye was stressful life events research. Researchers in this tradition were interested in quantifying the impact of various life events by their effects on psychological and physical well-being. Initially, the idea was that those individuals who experienced life events that required some sort of adjustment (such as marriage, death of a close family member, pregnancy, or changing to a different line of work) would be more likely to experience distress, depression, and physical illness than would those who experienced fewer life events. Results of these studies indicated that although there is a significant association between life events and well-being, the link is not particularly strong. Even among those individuals who are categorized as high risk for deleterious effects based on the number of stressful life events they experience, a substantial number do not show increased illness. Thus, the research focus in stressful life events turned from an emphasis on the stressful events per se to the study of other factors that play a role in the association between stressful events and physical or psychological wellbeing. Coping is one such factor. Two people who experience the same objectively stressful event can have very different psychological and physical outcomes depending on how they cope with the event.

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