Stress, Appraisal, and Coping (Lazarus, Folkman, 1984)

Stress, Appraisal, and Coping (Lazarus, Folkman, 1984)

Here is a monumental work that continues in the tradition pioneered by co-author Richard Lazarus in his classic book Psychological Stress and the Coping Process. Dr. Lazarus and his collaborator, Dr. Susan Folkman, present here a detailed theory of psychological stress, building on the concepts of cognitive appraisal and coping which have become major themes of theory and investigation.
As an integrative theoretical analysis, this volume pulls together two decades of research and thought on issues in behavioral medicine, emotion, stress management, treatment, and life span development. A selective review of the most pertinent literature is included in each chapter. The total reference listing for the book extends to 60 pages.

This work is necessarily multidisciplinary, reflecting the many dimensions of stress-related problems and their situation within a complex social context. While the emphasis is on psychological aspects of stress, the book is oriented towards professionals in various disciplines, as well as advanced students and educated laypersons. The intended audience ranges from psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, nurses, and social workers to sociologists, anthropologists, medical researchers, and physiologists.

p.1 It is virtually impossible today to read extensively in any of the biological or social sciences without running into the term stress... "It is as though, when the word stress came into vogue, each investigator, who had been working with a concept he felt was closely related, substituted the word stress... and continued in his same line of investigation" [JLJ - oops, guilty as charged...]

p.11 Stress depends, in part, on the social and physical demands of the environment... Environmental constraints and environmental resources (Klausner, 1971) on which the possibilities for coping depend are also important factors.

p.157 We have stated that coping is determined by cognitive appraisal.

p.158 the ways people actually cope also depend heavily on the resources that are available to them and the constraints that inhibit use of these resources in the context of the specific encounter... Antonovsky (1979) has used the term generalized resistance resources to describe characteristics that facilitate the management of stress. [JLJ - excellent idea, note to self, use the term generalized resistance resources in current paper]

p.166 Constraints exist as much in the environment as they do in the person.

p.170 We have argued that the relationship between resources and coping is mediated by personal and environmental constraints and level of threat.

p.179 Coping is also determined by constraints that mitigate the use of resources... Environmental constraints include demands that compete for the same resources and agents or institutions that thwart coping efforts. High levels of threat can also prevent a person from using coping resources effectively. [JLJ excellent ideas for game theory]

p.185-186 In any encounter with the environment, the key problem for the person is to make a series of realistic judgments about its implications for his or her well-being. An appraisal that leads to appropriate and effective outcomes must match or at least approximate the flow of events. [JLJ we must be able to predict the general outlines of how things will proceed in the future]

p.226 society is viewed as making stressful demands on the individual and as imposing constraints on the ways such an individual might deal with these demands