chapter 7 (moderators of stress)

Question 1

stress moderators

Answer 1

internal and external resources and vulnerabilities that modify how stress is experienced and its effects.

Question 2

coping

Answer 2

the process of trying to manage demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding one’s resources.

Question 3

negative affectivity

Answer 3

a personality variable marked by a pervasive negative mood, including anxiety, depression, and hostility; believed to be implicated in the experience of symptoms, the seeking of medical treatment, and possibly illness.

Question 4

pessimism

Answer 4

a relatively stable dispositional characteristic to expect negative outcomes in the future.

Question 5

pessimistic explanatory style

Answer 5

a chronic tendency to explain negative events as due to internal, stable, and global qualities of the self and to attribute positive events to external, unstable, and nonglobal factors; believed to contribute to the likelihood of illness.

Question 6

perfectionism

Answer 6

a tendency to experience frequent cognitions about the attainment of one’s own or others’ ideal standards.

Question 7

dispositional optimism

Answer 7

a general expectancy that good things, not bad, will happen in the future.

Question 8

self-compassion

Answer 8

treating oneself with kindness, feeling connected with humanity, and being mindfully aware of distressing experiences.

Question 9

gratitude

Answer 9

having an orientation toward noticing and appreciating the positive in life; gratitude is a dispositional characteristic that is related to a variety of well-being indicators.

Question 10

psychological control

Answer 10

the perception that one has at one’s own disposal a response that will reduce, minimize, eliminate, or offset the adverse effects of an unpleasant event, such as a medical procedure.

Question 11

coping style

Answer 11

an individual’s preferred method of dealing with stressful situations.

Question 12

avoidant (minimizing) coping style

Answer 12

the tendency to cope with threatening events by withdrawing, minimizing, or avoiding them; believed to be an effective short-term response to stress, but not an effective long-term response.

Question 13

approach (confrontative, or vigilant) coping style

Answer 13

the tendency to slope with stressful events by tackling them directly and attempting to develop solutions; may ultimately be an especially effective method of coping, although it may produce accompanying distress.

Question 14

problem-focused coping

Answer 14

an attempt to do something constructive about the stressful conditions that are harming, threatening, or challenging an individual. appears to emerge during childhood.

Question 15

emotion-focused coping

Answer 15

an effort to regulate emotions experienced because of a stressful event. skills develop in late childhood or early adolescence.

Question 16

dyadic coping

Answer 16

the interplay of the stress experienced and expressed by one partner and the coping reactions of the other.

Question 17

coping outcomes

Answer 17

the beneficial effects that are thought to result from successful coping; these include reducing stress, adjusting more successfully to it, maintaining emotional equilibrium, having satisfying relationships with others, and maintaining a positive self-image.

Question 18

social support

Answer 18

information from other people that one is loved and cared for, esteemed and valued, and part of a network of communication and mutual obligation.

Question 19

tangible assistance

Answer 19

the provision of material support by one person to another, such as services, financial assistance, or goods.

Question 20

informational support

Answer 20

the provision of information to a person going through stress by friends, family, and other people in the individual’s social network; believed to help reduce the distressing and health-compromising effects of stress.

Question 21

emotional support

Answer 21

indications from other people that one is loved, valued, and cared for; believed to be an important aspect of social support during times of stress.

Question 22

invisible support

Answer 22

when one receives help from another, but is unaware of it; support that is most likely to benefit a person.

Question 23

implicit social support

Answer 23

social support that originates from social networks without being directly targeted at a specific problem.

Question 24

direct effects hypothesis

Answer 24

the theory that coping resources, such as social support, have beneficial psychological and health effects under conditions of both high stress and low stress.

Question 25

buffering hypothesis

Answer 25

the hypothesis that coping resources are useful primarily under conditions of high stress and not necessarily under conditions of low stress.

Question 26

matching hypothesis

Answer 26

hypothesis that social support is helpful to an individual to the extent that the kind of support offered satisfies the individual’s specific needs.

Question 27

mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR)

Answer 27

systematic training in meditation to assist people in self-regulating their reactions to stress and any negative emotions that may result.

Question 28

stress management

Answer 28

a program for dealing with stress in which people learn how they appraise stressful events, develop skills for coping with stress, and practise putting these skills into effect.

Question 29

stress inoculation

Answer 29

the process of identifying stressful events in one’s life and learning coping skills for them, so that when events come up, one can put those coping skills into effect.

Question 30

time management

Answer 30

skills for learning how to use one;s time more effectively to accomplish goals.

Question 31

stress carriers

Answer 31

individuals who create stress for others without necessarily increasing their own level of stress.