Stress in our lives is quite common. Almost all people experience them, feel them, and talk about them. The reason for this phenomenon today is everything that a person faces every day, from work and family relationships to the situation in the country and in the world in general. But the human body is designed in such a way that it constantly needs balance. And what happens in life, including the relationship of people to each other, systematically violates this balance, as a result of which the body is simply forced to work to the limit of its capabilities, while trying, at the same time, to maintain the balance of all physiological and mental processes, in other words, to function practically without rest. The good news is that a person is able to overcome stressful situations of almost any severity, neutralizing the pressure exerted on him by external circumstances. But before we talk about how this usually happens, let's say a few more words about stress.
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General characteristics of stress
A stressful state is characterized as a tense physical and mental state of the body. In general, in minimal doses, stress is needed by the body to maintain its optimal operating mode, but in excessive quantities it has an extremely negative effect on a person’s well-being and efficiency, thus causing psychosomatic diseases.
The founder of the doctrine of stress is the Canadian pathologist and endocrinologist Hans Selye, according to whose ideas stress is a stimulus for the body to achieve resistance in response to negative factors.
Selye identified two types of stress:
- Eostress – stress that causes a positive effect
- Distress is stress that causes a negative effect
Stress consists of three phases:
- Alarm phase
- Resistance phase
- Exhaustion phase
It is interesting that people with a stable psyche are able to overcome the stage of anxiety, thereby avoiding stress.
If we talk about the present time, then stress is divided into emotional and informational. The first is associated with the emotional component of a person’s life, and the second is associated with the huge amount of information that bombards him. But, whatever the stress, its impact on the individual is in most cases the same. In the process of studying the influence of stress on a person, the question arose about his coping with difficult life situations, and the theory of coping appeared.
Stress, coping, social support - components of human adaptation to the demands of society
Authors: N.A. Sirota, V.M. Yaltonsky
The first part of the work is devoted to the transactional theory of stress and coping and the research of foreign authors in the field of coping behavior.
Transactional theory of stress and coping
One of the leading modern researchers of coping behavior, Rudolf Muss o.
Historical attempts to answer this question arose when the concept of health and illness arose. Nineteenth-century medicine was greatly influenced by Claude Bernard's views on illness as an attempt to restore homeostasis, which turned into another type of life activity that ultimately disrupted homeostasis. Following Claude Bernard, Ivan Mikhailovich Sechenov proved that the body’s ability to adapt is regulated by the nervous system through changes in the human brain. However, it was only in the second half of the twentieth century that theories and concepts of the psychological field, systems approach, social learning, locus of control, etc. appeared. created a theoretical basis for the development of a broad cognitive movement in psychology, in the depths of which the first works on coping behavior by Janis, Arnold Lazarus, and Rudolf Muss were born. The attempts of these researchers to determine why, under the influence of psychological stressors in the same environmental conditions, some people get sick and others do not, led them to the following two conclusions. Firstly, in the gap between the stressor and the response of the body and personality to stressful situations lie the processes of coping with stress, determined by the individual’s experience. These processes were called coping processes. Secondly, the study of the answer to the question “how people cope with stressors” is even more important for society, its morality, social functioning of a person and his physical health than the study of the nature and causes of stressors, the frequency of their impact.
Developed since 1966 at the University of California (Berkeley) by Richard Lazarus and his research group, the original cognitive approach led to the fact that from a modest footnote, an application to the theory of stress, which Hans Selye made in one of his last works, the concept of coping grew and took center stage. place in the modern theoretical model of stress and emotions.
The transactional theory of stress and coping by R. Lazarus considers emotional stress and coping as two sides of the same coin, and stress as a special connection between the individual and the environment. The stress experienced by a person is regulated by both his personality and the environment in which he functions. It is assessed by the individual as testing or exceeding her resources, threatening her well-being. The individual is viewed as an active organizer of experience and an active responder to the demands of the environment, and the individual's behavior is the result of interaction (transactions) between the person and the environment. Transactions occur when a stressor and a person mutually influence each other. Stress has both a damaging and deteriorating effect on health, as well as promoting health, improving response, adaptation, and developing more advanced and effective forms of behavior. The result is determined by various forms of coping with stress. In other words, there are different types of coping behavior.
So, human behavior is the result of connections and transactions between him and the environment. We need a language of communication with the help of which the two main systems - personality and environment - are connected and considered at a new stage of analysis.
Two main constructs are central to R. Lazarus's approach - cognitive assessment and coping.
Cognitive assessment
Cognitive appraisal processes are central to people's behavior in stressful situations. People constantly evaluate what happens to them in terms of the impact of events on their well-being. Through assessment, it is determined whether and in what way to cope with the demands of the social environment arising from this assessment. The quality and intensity of the emotions we experience also depend on the assessment. It is important to distinguish between two types of cognitive activity that affect the emotional process. Information activity is concerned with what we know and what we think about the world, how it functions, and what it means to us. In social psychology, this process is called attribution. Evaluative activity is associated with the selection from all information of that which is important for the well-being of the individual. It arises from the premise “What does this mean for me”? It is necessary to distinguish between two types of assessment - primary and secondary, since they have different functions and deal with different sources of information.
The primary assessment is related to motivation. How important is what is happening to me? If the initial assessment of a stressful event is included by the individual, then this means that the stressful impact begins to be recognized. The question arises: “Am I all right or am I in trouble, problems, trouble”? There are three possible answers.
- The situation is considered to be of no significant significance to the individual and has no consequences regarding emotions, decisions, behavior or well-being.
- The situation is seen as positive. In this case, positive emotions arise and the feeling of well-being increases.
- The situation is considered stressful. A stressful situation can be assessed as: damage (harm), a threat reflecting anticipated damage (harm), a challenge addressed to the potential resources of the individual.
This or that assessment of a stressful situation will determine what emotions will be experienced. Anxiety is an experience that occurs when a person perceives a situation as stressful or threatening. Cognitive assessment is based on the degree of perceived threat, the type of stressor, and the psychological characteristics of the individual.
The emotional and motivational experience of an individual gives rise to action. This occurs through a process of secondary evaluation, which leads to the question: “What can I do in this situation”? Secondary assessment can be considered the basis for coping, as an assessment of efforts oriented towards action or intrapsychic management of external and internal demands, conflicts, requests that test or exceed the resources of the individual. Secondary assessment is a complement to the primary assessment, it determines by what methods we can influence negative events, their outcomes and the process of choosing a mechanism and processes for coping with stress.
Coping
Coping is seen as attempts to overcome a state of harm, threat or challenge, when usual or automatic responses are difficult to achieve, and the demands of the environment must be met with new behavioral solutions, or old behavioral solutions must be adapted to meet the stressors that have arisen. From the perspective of the cognitive-behavioral approach, stress is considered as a cognitive activity, including an assessment of the upcoming threat (primary assessment) and an assessment of the consequences of coping action (secondary assessment). Based on this, the coping process is defined as the cognitive use of primary and secondary assessments of what is happening, and coping strategies are defined as actual responses to a perceived threat.
Coping behavior is organized by cognitive processes that lead to a specific emotional response. It can be chosen for various purposes. For example, socialization is a coping behavior aimed at combating physical isolation, the cause of which may be the breakdown of a social group (for example, family or group of friends) or depression, loneliness. Attending a party, for example, as a means of eliminating physical isolation, can simultaneously improve low mood.
R. Lazarus and S. Volkman identify two main functions of coping. The function aimed at destroying the stress connection between the individual and the environment is called problem-focused. The coping function aimed at managing emotional distress is called emotion-focused. We use both of these functions during virtually any coping with a stressful situation. This confirms the inadequacy of the simplified conceptualization of coping as a psychological defense or as a problem-solving or problem-solving action. Stress can be experienced cognitively, emotionally, and behaviorally, but there are usually multiple, unique combinations of all three. Therefore, when assessing coping, both of its functions must be determined. The proportional representation of each of these functions varies depending on how stressful situations are assessed. Emotion-focused coping is defined as cognitive, emotional, or behavioral efforts by which an individual attempts to reduce emotional tension, the emotional component of distress. The efforts with which an individual tries to eliminate a threat (the influence of a stressor) are defined as problem-focused coping. His action is aimed at actually changing the situation. Effective coping produces a desired outcome, which is reinforced by a sense of competence and encourages future coping attempts. Ineffective coping often causes additional stress and leads to a feeling of dissatisfaction.
According to R. Lazarus and S. Volkman, the linear model (stimulus - response) is inadequate for studying the influence of stressors on human health and behavior. Stress is a complex system of interaction between a number of variables, so stressors are not always equally significant for an individual.
Stressors are divided into central ones, affecting vital and subjectively significant goals, values, interests, and peripheral ones, which are of little significance and therefore do not have a special impact on health. For long-term effects, only central stressors are significant. Emotional distress and psychopathological, but not somatic, symptoms are associated with stressor centrality. Psychosomatic disorders are often associated not only with central, but also with peripheral stressors that have a long-term everyday impact on a person.
Attempts to explain coping behavior in addition to the cognitive psychological school are also being made by representatives of other theoretical schools. The concept of coping is not directly related to traditional psychoanalysis, although the idea of defense mechanisms associated with coping seems to be very important. These mechanisms can have both pathological and adaptive functions. According to S. Freud's interpretation, these processes serve to resolve the conflict between the impulses of the individual and the coercion of the external environment. Their function is to reduce emotional tension, giving the individual the opportunity to express sexual or aggressive impulses indirectly. Ego processes are cognitive mechanisms, although in the case of defense mechanisms they can have behavioral expression. In this case, psychological defense is implemented - a subjective distortion of reality in order to reduce emotional stress.
Representatives of the neo-psychoanalytic direction clearly define the differences between coping and psychological defense. According to N. Haan, coping and psychological defense are based on the same, identical ego processes, but differ in the polarity of their focus on productive adaptation and weak adaptation. Coping processes begin with the perception of a challenge. The perception of a challenge triggers cognitive, value and motivational structures, the action of which is fundamental for an adequate response. When a situation occurs in which a person is faced with new demands of the social environment, for which the existing response is not suitable, a coping process occurs. Thus, from the point of view of N. Haan, the coping process is the search and implementation of an adaptive response of the individual to the stressful demands of the social environment, taking into account existing experience, but new circumstances. From the point of view of traditional psychoanalysis, defense mechanisms make it possible to eliminate mental trauma or reduce emotional stress due to distortion of reality. However, N. Haan came to the conclusion that there is a group of defense mechanisms that allow one to overcome a problematic situation without distorting reality and abandoning reality. She characterizes classical defense mechanisms as rigid, emotionally inadequate processes that do not correspond to reality.
The life cycle theory, based on the works of E. Erikson, describes 8 stages of life, each of which is a new crisis or challenge that must be overcome successfully in order for the individual to adequately adapt to the next stage of development (adequately cope with it). Personal coping resources accumulated during adolescence, influencing the self-concept, influence the process of coping with stress in adulthood and old age. This theory assumes that adequate crisis resolution, which occurs at each point in the life cycle, leads to the accumulation of resources (coping resources or coping resources from the point of view of the coping concept) that can help resolve subsequent crises.
Successfully coping with environmental stressors builds a sense of self-sufficiency. A. Bandura more clearly calls this feeling self-efficacy. It is obvious that it occurs when the stress resulting from new demands imposed by the social environment is successfully overcome. It is self-efficacy that allows a person to successfully accumulate experience in overcoming stress and improve and develop their adaptive capabilities. Coping resources can influence both the assessment of a potential stressful situation and the choice of a coping response to manage this situation. For example, a sense of competence may lead an individual to perceive a potential stressor as less threatening and choose a realistic coping response to achieve a successful outcome. Coping resources can help people anticipate and take actions that promote avoidance of perceived stressors.
The biocybernetic model of coping, proposed by S. Schönpflug and colleagues, is based on an understanding of variability among individuals and individuals. In the logic of reasoning about the variability of the environment and personality, it is obvious that processes of mutual influence occur between them. That is, the requirements of the environment have a pronounced influence on the individual, and at the same time, the nature of the individual’s response to the demands of the environment influences it. According to this concept, as a result of such mutual influence, old regulatory processes are reprogrammed, and the development of new regulatory processes begins, which leads to the development of new forms of behavior regulation. However, it is difficult to agree that psychological processes are a consequence of only cybernetic regulation.
In addition to the division of coping into problem-focused and emotion-focused coping proposed by R. Lazarus and S. Volkman, there are other variants of types of coping behavior. L. Perlin et al describe the following three types of coping behavior.
1. Stimulus-oriented coping. It is aimed at eliminating or mitigating the root cause of stress (its trigger). As an example, the authors cite fire extinguishing during a fire in the kitchen.
2. Coping aimed at an emotional response. In this case, coping with stress is aimed primarily at reducing emotional stress. At the same time, the authors do not exclude that this coping may be aimed at some other facets of the emotional response. Examples include the use of physical exercise, meditation, and autogenic training to reduce or eliminate emotional stress.
3. Coping aimed at assessment. It includes various cognitive coping mechanisms. The individual copes with the stressor by changing the perception or assessment of the threat. A person may try not to dwell on the problem and reduce the significance of certain stressful situations for himself. This type of coping also includes such traditional psychological defense mechanisms as denial and regression.
A longitudinal study of personality development in childhood allowed G. Murphy and S. Moriarty to identify two types of coping, called by the authors “coping-1” and “coping-2”. Coping 1 is characterized by active problem solving and taking advantage of opportunities to achieve effective responses to environmental demands. When using coping-2, internal equilibrium and balance, the mobilization of resources to maintain internal integration under the influence of stress, are of particular importance. G. Murphy defines coping as certain attempts to cope with a new situation that is potentially threatening, challenging or enjoyable.
T. Wills and S. Shifman proposed a division of coping into anticipatory and restorative. Anticipatory coping is viewed as an anticipatory, anticipatory response to a stressful event, the occurrence of which is expected as a means of managing the events that will occur. Restorative coping is considered as a mechanism that helps to regain psychological balance after unpleasant events have occurred. Quite often this type of coping can deal with the consequences of stress.
Since the 70s of the twentieth century, the then new concept of coping has been successfully introduced into research concerning the processes of family adaptation and family stress. Family coping is defined as the management of stressful events and situations by a group of people united by family relationships. Family coping resources are defined as individual or group forces that come into play during the process of coping with a stressful event. Examples include economic base, health, intelligence, professional or work communication (interpersonal) skills, developed social networks and social support. Family resources, therefore, are the personal, social, economic, and physical assets that family members can draw upon in response to a simple stressful event or complex of stressors. However, the presence of resources in itself does not mean that the family will use them effectively. This requires developed strategies for the adaptive behavior of family members and their coordinated (resulting) use. Each family member may have developed individual coping resources and coping skills, but not have developed motivation for their coordinated strategic and tactical use or cannot use them in a family group to solve family problems and overcome family stress.
The areas of scientific and practical research on coping conducted abroad are so diverse that it is difficult to determine the areas of health and illness, no matter where they were conducted. Thus, a Dutch study of the mutual connection between aggression, psychological defense and coping behavior showed that a person’s defensive behavior can be aimed at suppressing aggression, and can also intensify aggression and contribute to the emergence of cruelty as the main radical of interpersonal relationships. In humans, defensive behavior more often consists of perceptual and cognitive strategies that are not directly related to aggression. The authors identified two main factors of coping behavior and two protective factors. Factors of coping behavior: actual mastery of the situation and emotion-oriented strategies. Factors in protective behavior: cognitive defense and defensive violence. The defensive cruelty factor includes anger, violence, and psychological mechanisms such as projection. This factor is closely related to aggressive behavior and the emergence of cruelty as the main radical of interpersonal relationships.
Development of the concept of coping behavior in the works of Russian researchers
The rapid growth of interest in the problem of adaptation to the requirements of the social environment is reflected in the works of Russian researchers concerning both adults and children.
Within the framework of the concept of coping behavior V.A. Tashlykov conducted a study of personal mechanisms of coping and defense in patients with neuroses and psychosomatic disorders.
In the work of R.K. Nazyrov found that healthy adults use behavioral coping strategies “cooperation”, “distraction”, cognitive coping strategies “active avoidance in thoughts”, “fatalism” and emotional coping strategy “optimism” to cope with difficulties. The coping behavior of patients with neuroses is characterized by the use of less adaptive coping strategies of “denial”, “compensation”, “isolation”, the lack of specificity of coping behavior in the cognitive sphere and the frequent use of inadequate coping behavior “narcissism” in the emotional sphere.
E.I. Chekhlaty, studying personal and interpersonal conflict and coping behavior in patients with neuroses and their dynamics under the influence of group psychotherapy, comes to the following conclusions. Patients with neuroses use adaptive forms of coping behavior, such as “cooperation,” “optimism,” and “appeal,” much less often than healthy people. This applies primarily to emotional and behavioral coping mechanisms. For men suffering from neuroses, in the cognitive sphere of coping behavior it was significantly more often about, and for women – “establishing one’s own value.”
In the study by G.Ya. Kosheleva studied the influence of subjective control as a personal resource for overcoming life’s difficulties. The author comes to the conclusion that the consequence of an individual’s reaction to illness is a violation of self-regulation of one’s activities, a decrease in self-confidence and the ability to control various life situations. Patients' attitude towards removing responsibility for the outcome of all life events and attributing it to external factors prevents them from overcoming life's difficulties, worsens resistance, and creates a feeling of helplessness and the need for care.
A study of emotional and behavioral activity in patients with various forms of coronary heart disease, conducted by N.Ya. Pritykina, identified four ways for patients with coronary heart disease to overcome a traumatic situation: 1) actively changing the situation (changing jobs, abandoning unwanted goals and actions, etc.); 2) adaptation to the situation, reorientation; 3) discomfort regardless of changes in the situation; 4) a combination of multidirectional tendencies (hetero-aggressive emotional response, oriented towards a break; getting out of the situation; refusal of a decision or an unproductive solution at the behavioral level).
One of the sections of the work of V.V. Nikolaeva is devoted to psychological mechanisms for effectively overcoming a critical life situation of chronic somatic illness in children and adolescents. According to her data, mental means of coping with the disease depend on the age of the sick child and his leading activity. Without sufficient life experience, the child discovers a desire to get help from adults. The latter, by establishing certain educational relationships with the child caused by the illness, can interfere with this process... In adolescence, the following coping methods are most often used: withdrawal from the world, autism, intense focus on the future despite a serious illness, fantasies as a way of escaping difficult reality.
A stressful situation, as noted by L.K.
Kitaev-Smyk, makes demands on a person that are perceived by him either as exceeding his capabilities, which leads to distress, or as allowing him to realize his capabilities and thereby achieve the desired consequences. “Extreme situations that arise in life can have an adverse effect on a person. Such situations can stimulate in him potential capabilities that are indispensable in ordinary, non-stressful conditions.” adaptation coping behavior personal resources coping social environment stress
Coping theory
The theory of coping, as a question about a person’s interaction with problems in life, appeared in psychological science in the second half of the 20th century. And the very concept of “coping” (from the English “to cope” - to cope, cope) was introduced by the famous American psychologist Abraham Maslow.
Coping is usually understood as a person’s constantly changing behavioral and cognitive attempts to cope with special internal or external demands that are assessed as tension or exceed the individual’s ability to overcome them. In simpler terms, coping is a form of behavior that reflects a person’s readiness to solve life’s problems; behavior that is aimed at adapting to circumstances and which implies an already formed ability to use specific means to cope with stress. Choosing active actions increases the likelihood of a person eliminating the impact of sources of stress on his personality.
The details of this skill are intertwined with self-concept, empathy, environmental conditions, and locus of control. According to Abraham Maslow, coping behavior is the opposite of expressive behavior.
Where did the term come from?
Dr. Richard Lazarus
Coping strategies are everything that helps a person overcome stress. A stressful situation is characterized by anxiety, complexity, and uncertainty. Coping strategies provide an opportunity to cope with a difficult problem. The strategy can be emotional or behavioral. The Russian psychological school uses the concept of “experience” or coping behavior. The essence of coping is to enable a person to overcome life’s difficulties or reduce their impact on the body.
The term appeared in psychology in the early sixties of the last century. It was used by L. Murphy; he used it to describe how to overcome childhood developmental crises. A few years later, cognitive psychologist Richard Lazarus described strategies for coping with stressors in his book.
Problem Resolution
Problem solving can also include avoiding problems and seeking social support. Coping behavior here is implemented through the use of strategies that take as a basis the resources of the individual and the environment. One of the most important environmental resources is social support, and personal ones include positive self-esteem, an optimistic worldview, the potential for empathy, an internal locus of control, the ability for interpersonal interaction and some other psychological structures.
When a source of stress affects a person, a primary assessment occurs, based on which the type of situation is determined - favorable or threatening. From this moment, individual protection mechanisms begin to form. The processes that characterize a person’s coping with an unfavorable situation are part of the emotional reactions on which emotional stability depends. They are aimed at removing, eliminating or reducing the current source of stress, which at this stage is assessed secondarily. The result of the secondary assessment is that the person chooses one of three further behavioral strategies.
Coping
Coping occurs, as a rule, without the participation of the emotional component, but only in the case when the threat to a person is not assessed by him as real, for example, when he does not come into contact with objects, does not interact with people, etc.
Whatever the protective process, it will always be aimed at ridding a person of the mismatch of his motives and disunity of feelings, protecting him from receiving and realizing painful and negative emotions and eliminating tension and anxiety.
Maximum protection, which gives the greatest result, at the same time is only a tiny fraction of what coping behavior is generally capable of. Effective use of coping strategies can increase a person’s ability to adapt, but only when coping strategies are applied consciously, actively and depending on the specific situation.
Historical reference
The exact date of the beginning of the use of the terms “coping behavior” and “coping strategy” is not known:
- According to some sources, this phenomenon began to be considered in the framework of children overcoming age-related crises, then the author was D. Murphy.
- According to other sources, the authorship belongs to A. Maslow and the term began to be used in relation to extreme situations.
One way or another, the term gradually began to be used in relation to any difficult life situations, and a little later within the framework of everyday psychology (overcoming everyday stress, conflicts, contradictory situations).
Thus, a coping strategy is a variant of a person’s conscious response to stress. The opposite of this behavior is unconscious psychological defense mechanisms. In psychology, coping behavior is considered within the framework of the resource approach.
Criterion for success or failure
A coping strategy, based on the third criterion, can be successful - use constructive behavior to overcome a stressful situation, or unsuccessful - use unconstructive behavior that does not allow one to overcome a stressful situation.
Any coping strategy that a person uses can be assessed based on the above criteria, even for the simple reason that a person who finds himself in a stressful situation can use either one or several coping strategies at once.
Based on all this, we can assume that there is a direct relationship between those personality patterns through which people form their attitude towards the difficulties and problems that arise in life, and which coping strategy they choose. And in order to understand which coping strategy is best for you personally, you need to know yourself as best as possible and understand your reactions to certain events happening in life.
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Key words:1Psychoregulation
