Adaptation, coping and control

Chapter 68 Adaptation, coping and control


It has frequently been suggested that there is a link between the manner of adaptation to, and coping with, the external environment and physical and mental health. It is, therefore, of considerable importance that we understand the way in which humans respond to external and internal stimuli.


Coping can mean any general adaptive process. It can also mean the mastery or control of major events. The behavioural sciences have developed two complementary ways of describing coping and adaptation – the first concerned with how people manage ordinary everyday things, and the second with the way they deal with major life events. These two approaches have been brought together in what has been called the stress-coping paradigm.



The stress-coping paradigm


The stress-coping paradigm was originally developed by Lazarus (1980). Lazarus starts from the position that the social (and biological) worlds are ubiquitously stressful. People have to cope with and adapt to different things, large and small, all the time. The degree to which this produces stress is determined by the extent to which these external stimuli are perceived to exceed the ability of the person to deal with them and, therefore, to endanger well-being. People have to appraise the extent to which the stimuli do this. They will then act or react accordingly.


According to Lazarus, when confronted by a stimulus that is potentially stressful, an individual engages in two processes of appraisal. These are called primary and secondary appraisal. Primary appraisal is the means whereby people determine whether a stimulus is dangerous or not. If individuals decide it is not dangerous, they may conclude that it is irrelevant to them. Alternatively, they may view it as benign or positive. If the stimulus is appraised as irrelevant, or benign or positive, it is not regarded as a stressor (Fig. 1).


image

Fig. 1 The stress-coping paradigm


(from Kelly & Sullivan, 1992, with permission).


If a stimulus is regarded as stressful, this is because it is perceived to represent harm or loss or threat (anticipated harm or loss). The secondary appraisal process is about mastering the conditions of harm or threat. This can take several forms: seeking out information; taking direct action to confront the stressor; doing nothing and attempting to ignore it; or worrying about it (Fig. 1).


The importance of this model is that it recognizes that stimuli are not in themselves stressful. Stress arises as a consequence of the cognitive or thinking process which people bring to bear on particular stimuli (the appraisal processes) and on the extent to which they can control these stimuli by doing various things. It is when they are not able to control things, because they do not have the resources to do so, that stress arises. It is important to note that researchers have observed that positive feelings can arise even in the most difficult and stressful of experiences. People find meaning and purpose in the difficulties they face, and this helps them deal with the problems they are trying to cope with (Folkman & Moscowitz, 2000, 2004). The observation of positive feelings is a relatively common, if somewhat surprising finding in the case of people coping with illness, especially chronic illness. This stress-coping paradigm emphasizes, therefore, the social context within which coping takes place. A very important resource is the social support from others. Social support may come from family members, friends or the caring services. It seems that social support makes coping easier, although in itself social support will not solve all the problems a person has to deal with. Support can come in a variety of forms. It might include practical things like minding children, or providing aids and devices to make life easier around the home. The support might be emotional, in the form of talking and listening. There is no simple recipe, but where support networks are stronger, people seem to be able to withstand difficulties better than those without such support.



Coping and illness

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Jun 10, 2016 | Posted by in PSYCHOLOGY | Comments Off on Adaptation, coping and control

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