Alston Yan

Social work theory · Volume C: Ecological & Contextual

Stress and coping theory

Stress and coping theory explains how people experience and respond to demands that challenge their resources. Early physiological research described stress as the body's response to any demand.

1. What it is

Stress and coping theory explains how people experience and respond to demands that challenge their resources. Early physiological research described stress as the body’s response to any demand. Later psychological theory defined stress as a relationship between the person and the environment, in which the person judges that demands tax or exceed their resources and threaten their wellbeing (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Coping refers to the efforts people make to manage those demands. Resource-based theories add that stress arises when valued resources are lost or threatened (Hobfoll, 1989). For social work, the theory explains why the same event affects people differently and identifies points for intervention in appraisal, coping and resources.

Hans Selye and the general adaptation syndrome. Selye (1936, 1956) described a non-specific physiological response to noxious demands, which he called the general adaptation syndrome. It has three stages: an alarm reaction, in which the body mobilises; a stage of resistance, in which it adapts to continued demand; and a stage of exhaustion, in which prolonged demand depletes adaptive capacity and illness can follow. Selye built on Cannon’s (1932) account of the fight-or-flight response. His work established stress as a biological concept, and later research on allostatic load extended it to the cumulative wear on the body of chronic stress (McEwen, 1998).

Lazarus and Folkman’s transactional model. Lazarus (1966) and Lazarus and Folkman (1984) argued that stress cannot be defined by events or by responses alone. It depends on a transaction in which the person evaluates the significance of what is happening and their capacity to deal with it. This explains why life events checklists, such as the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (Holmes & Rahe, 1967), predict outcomes only modestly. The model places cognitive appraisal at the centre of the stress process and treats coping as a dynamic process that changes as the situation unfolds.

Primary appraisal. Primary appraisal is the evaluation of what is at stake. An encounter may be judged irrelevant, benign-positive or stressful. Stressful appraisals take three forms: harm or loss that has already occurred, threat of future harm or loss, and challenge, where there is potential for growth or mastery (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984).

Secondary appraisal. Secondary appraisal is the evaluation of what can be done. The person considers available coping options, the likelihood that they will work, and their own ability to use them. Primary and secondary appraisal interact, and reappraisal occurs as new information emerges. A situation appraised as threatening may become manageable once resources are identified.

Problem-focused coping. Problem-focused coping is directed at managing or changing the problem causing distress. It includes gathering information, planning, negotiating and taking direct action. It tends to be used when people appraise a situation as changeable (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984).

Emotion-focused coping. Emotion-focused coping is directed at regulating the emotional response to the problem. It includes seeking emotional support, reframing, acceptance, distraction and avoidance. It tends to be used when a situation is appraised as unchangeable. Neither form is inherently better, and effective coping usually combines both. Folkman (1997) later added meaning-focused coping, in which people draw on values and goals to sustain wellbeing during chronic stress.

Hobfoll’s conservation of resources theory. Conservation of resources (COR) theory proposes that people strive to obtain, retain and protect the things they value. Resources include objects (such as housing), conditions (such as employment and relationships), personal characteristics (such as self-efficacy) and energies (such as money, time and knowledge). Stress occurs when resources are threatened, lost, or not regained after investment (Hobfoll, 1989). Resource loss is more powerful than equivalent gain. People with few resources are more vulnerable to further loss, which produces loss spirals. COR theory places stress within community and cultural contexts, which makes it particularly useful for understanding poverty and disaster (Hobfoll, 2001).

2. Historical development

Period Development
1915–1932 Cannon describes the fight-or-flight response and homeostasis
1936–1956 Selye describes the general adaptation syndrome; The Stress of Life (1956)
1966 Lazarus’s Psychological Stress and the Coping Process introduces cognitive appraisal
1967 Holmes and Rahe publish the Social Readjustment Rating Scale
1978 Pearlin and Schooler analyse the structure of coping in everyday life roles
1984 Lazarus and Folkman’s Stress, Appraisal, and Coping sets out the transactional model
1989–2001 Hobfoll develops conservation of resources theory
1997–2004 Meaning-focused coping and positive emotion in chronic stress (Folkman, 1997; Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004)

Stress research began in physiology and medicine. Selye’s work showed that diverse demands produced a common bodily response, and the idea of stress spread rapidly into psychology and popular culture. Research on life events in the 1960s treated stress as a property of external events. Lazarus’s cognitive approach established stress and coping as a distinct psychological theory by showing that appraisal mediates between events and outcomes.

Social work drew on stress and coping theory from the 1960s through crisis intervention and from 1980 through Germain and Gitterman’s life model, which uses Lazarus’s concepts of life stressors and coping (see Ecological perspective in social work). Sociologists such as Pearlin and Schooler (1978) showed that coping resources are socially distributed. COR theory extended the model to collective and material resources, which aligned it with social work’s concern for poverty and structural disadvantage (Hobfoll, 2001).

3. Practical guidance

Stress and coping theory helps practitioners understand distress and design interventions that support adaptation.

4. Critical evaluation

Strengths. Stress and coping theory explains individual variation in response to adversity and identifies clear intervention points: appraisals, coping strategies and resources. The transactional model is consistent with the ecological perspective and supports collaborative practice. It has generated extensive research and practical tools, and COR theory has proved useful in disaster recovery and community work (Hobfoll, 2001).

Limitations. Coping is difficult to measure, and checklists may not capture its dynamic nature (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004). The transactional model has been criticised for emphasising individual cognition and underplaying structural sources of stress, such as poverty and racism. Its categories of coping are culturally specific, and collectivist cultures may emphasise shared or relational coping. Selye’s model has been criticised for treating stress responses as non-specific, since different stressors produce different physiological patterns.

Overall importance. Stress and coping theory provides much of the explanatory content of the ecological perspective and underpins crisis intervention, grief work and trauma-informed practice. It links individual experience with environmental demands and resources. Combined with social support (C4) and resilience (C6) theory, it gives social workers a coherent account of how people respond to adversity and how they can be helped.

5. References

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