Stress and coping

Question 1

what is stress?

Answer 1

there is no real consensus

Question 2

o Views of stress:

Answer 2

 Stimulus  external environmental demand
 Response  physiological, cognitive, emotional, behavioral reactions
 Process  interaction of situation and response.

Question 3

Transactional model of stress

Answer 3

Cognitive appraisal (perceptions): determines if the stimuli becomes a stressor.

Question 4

there are 2

Appraisals

Answer 4

Primary: Assesess stimuli in environment
 Irrelevant
* Stimulus, no meaning, effect
 Benign-positive
* Stimulus, outcome positive
 Stressful
* Stimulus view negatively
1. Harm/Loss appraisal.
2. Threat appraisal
3. Challenge appraisal.

Secondaryassess what can be done in the situation
 Considers:
* Coping option
o Strategies (plan, talk)
* Outcome Expectancy
o Belief resulting in a certain outcome.
* Efficacy expectation:
o Belief in executing a certain behaviour successfully.

Question 5

What are some stressors?

Answer 5

1. Acute vs chronic
2. Expected vs unexpected
3. competitive vs non-compitative

Question 6

Coping

Answer 6

o Constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to deal with stressors.

Question 7

o Strategies of coping:

Answer 7

 Problem focused coping (pfc) –> controllable stressor
* Efforts to solve the problem.

 Emotion focused coping (efc) –> uncontollable stressor
* effort to change interpretation if situation to maintain emotional equilibrium.

 Avoidance focused coping.
* effort to disengage or distract self-form situation.

Question 8

Strategies to deal with stress:

Answer 8

 Use of both pfc + efc

Question 9

The difference is:

Answer 9

• Coping styles –> personality traits
• Coping strategies –> situation specific use
• The matching hypothesis: “Goodness of fit”

Question 10

Mental Toughness

Answer 10

• (+ve) Adaptation in the face of adversity
• Coping while maintaining high level of performance

Question 11

4 C’s of mental toughness

Answer 11

• Control
  o one’s capacity to remain strong during confrontations with stress.
• Commitment
  o deeply actively involved in what one is doing.
• Confidence
  o Self-belief in the ability to achieve goals because of their traits and skills.
• Challenge:
  o Seeing challenges as opportunities self-improvement