DEALING WITH STRESS

A. Cognitive Aspects of Coping: Appraisals
1. Dealing with uncertainty
  a. Labels and guesses
  b. Explanatory styles and attributions
  c. Anticipations and expectancies
2. Foundations of cognitive science
  a. The Information processing Model
  b. Personal Construct theory
  c. The role of perception: interpretation and organization
    (1) Biases and distortions
    (2) Vigilance and attention
    (3) Stimulus deprivation and overload
  d. The role of memory
    (1) Redintegration and reconstruction
    (2) The recovered memories controversy
3. Appraisals
  a. Emotions and primary appraisal
    (1) Emotionality
    (2) Emotions as signals/stimuli
    (3) Emotions and interpretation
    (4) Emotions as motivators
  b. The effect of uncertainty
    (1) Tolerance for ambiguity
    (2) Information seeking as a skill
  c. Self-efficacy and secondary appraisal
    (1) Bandura’s contribution
    (2) Outcome expectancies and efficacy expectancies
  d. Reappraisal and interpretations of meaning
    (1) Rationalization and denial
    (2) Magnification and minimization
4. Attributions and beliefs
  a. The 3 dimensions of attributions
    (1) Global-specific
    (2) Internal-external
    (3) Stable-unstable
  b. Pessimism and optimism
    (1) As attributional styles
    (2) Effects on health and adjustment
  c. The Health Belief Model
    (1) Personal perceptions
    (2) Modifying factors
    (3) Taking action

B. Personality and Coping
1. Linking personality with health and adjustment
  a. Theories of personality
    (1) Psychoanalytic and psychodynamic
    (2) Dispositional: traits and types
  b. The concept of biotypes
2. Specific personality-disease/disorder links
  a. Type A behavior pattern and CHD
    (1) Characteristics
    (2) Is it a risk factor, and for what?
    (3) What is the toxic core?
    (4) Modifying Type A
  b. Essential hypertension
  c. The depression-prone personality
    (1) The mood disorders
    (2) Stress and depression
    (3) Depression and health
  d. The cancer-prone personality
    (1) Characteristics
    (2) Is it a risk factor, and if so, how?
  e. Personality and smoking
  f. The alcoholic personality
    (1) Diathesis-stress models
    (2) Personality characteristics
    (3) Alcohol, aggression and health risks

C. Resources for Coping and Vulnerability
1. Evaluating the role of personality
  a. Specific biotypes
  b. An alternative: the disease-prone personality
2. Social support
  a. Defined
  b. Linking support with health and adjustment
    (1) Explaining the link
    (2) Maximizing support
3. Control, hardiness and self-esteem
  a. Rotter and locus of control
  b. The Langer and Rodin studies
  c. Hardiness: control, commitment and challenge
  d. Self-concept and self-esteem
    (1) The “sick” identity and taking on the role of patient
    (2) Self as victim

Copyright ©1998 Beverly J. Volicer and Steven F. Tello, UMass Lowell.  You may freely edit these pages  for use in a non-profit, educational setting.  Please include this copyright notice on all pages.