The transactional model of stress

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238 HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY
They incorporated these factors into their measure (the Life Stressors and Social
Resources Inventory, LISRES), which represented an attempt to emphasize the chronic
nature of life experiences and to place them within the context of the individual’s
coping resources. Moos and Swindle (1990) argued that life events should not be
evaluated in isolation but should be integrated into two facets of an individual’s life:
their ongoing social resources (e.g. social support networks, financial resources) and
their ongoing stressors.
A ROLE FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS IN STRESS
Both Cannon’s and Selye’s early models of stress conceptualized stress as an automatic
response to an external stressor. This perspective is also reflected in versions of life
events theory, which suggests that individuals respond to life experiences with a stress
response that is therefore related to their health status. However, the above criticisms
of the life events theory suggest a different approach to stress, an approach that includes
an individual who no longer simply passively responds to stressors but actively interacts
with them. This approach to stress provides a role for an individual’s psychological
state and is epitomized by Lazarus’s transactional model of stress and his theory of
appraisal.
The transactional model of stress
The role of appraisal
In the 1970s, Lazarus’s work on stress introduced psychology to understanding the
stress response (Lazarus and Cohen 1973, 1977; Lazarus 1975; Lazarus and Folkman
1987). This role for psychology took the form of his concept of appraisal. Lazarus argued
that stress involved a transaction between the individual and their external world, and
that a stress response was elicited if the individual appraised a potentially stressful event
as actually being stressful. Lazarus’s model of appraisal therefore described individuals as
psychological beings who appraised the outside world, not simply passively responding to
it. Lazarus defined two forms of appraisal, primary and secondary. According to Lazarus,
the individual initially appraises the event itself – defined as primary appraisal. There are
four possible ways that the event can be appraised: (1) irrelevant; (2) benign and positive;
(3) harmful and a threat; (4) harmful and a challenge. Lazarus then described secondary
appraisal, which involves the individual evaluating the pros and cons of their different
coping strategies. Therefore, primary appraisal involves an appraisal of the outside world
and secondary appraisal involves an appraisal of the individual themselves. This model is
shown in Figure 10.2. The form of the primary and secondary appraisals determines
whether the individual shows a stress response or not. According to Lazarus’s model this
stress response can take different forms: (1) direct action; (2) seeking information; (3)
doing nothing; or (4) developing a means of coping with the stress in terms of relaxation
or defence mechanisms.
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