1. Cognitive Theories: Lazarus & Folkman - Appraisal & Coping3b
Cognitive Theories: Lazarus & Folkman - Appraisal & Coping
PSY 708: Cognitive Assessment & Psychotherapy

2. Stress, Appraisal, & Coping
(Lazarus & Folkman, 1984)
Chapters 2 & 6

3. Ch. 2: Cognitive Appraisal Process
Cognitive appraisal is a mediator between the event and the response
Cognitive Appraisal
Appraisal of the situation requires mental activity involving judgment, discrimination, and choice of activity, based largely on past experience
Process of evaluating whether a particular encounter with the environment is relevant to well-being, and if so, in what ways
EVENT
Cognitive Appraisal
RESPONSE

4. Cognitive Appraisal Process
Primary Appraisal
“Am I in trouble or being benefited, now or in the future, and in what way?”
Irrelevant – When an encounter with the environment carries no implication for a person’s well-being
Nothing is to be lost or gained in the transaction
Benign-Positive – The outcome of an encounter is construed as positive; it preserves or enhances well-being or promises to do so
May still have some level of apprehension

5. Cognitive Appraisal Process
Primary Appraisal
Stressful—Harm/Loss – Some damage to the person has already been sustained
The most damaging life events are those in which central and extensive commitments are lost
Even when a harm/loss has occurred, it is always fused with threat
Stressful—Threat – Harms or losses that have not yet taken place but are anticipated; characterized by unpleasant emotions (e.g., fear, anxiety, anger)
The primary adaptation component of threat is that it permits anticipatory coping
Stressful—Challenge – Focuses on the potential for gain or growth inherent in an encounter and is characterized by pleasant emotions (e.g., eagerness, excitement, exhilaration)

6. Cognitive Appraisal Process
Primary Appraisal
Although threat and challenge appraisals are distinguished from one another by their cognitive component (i.e., potential harm or loss vs. mastery or gain) and their affective components (negative emotions vs. positive emotions), they can occur simultaneously
i.e., not mutually exclusive; not poles of a single continuum
The relationship between threat and challenge appraisals can shift as an encounter unfolds
People who are disposed or encouraged by their circumstances to feel challenged probably have advantages over easily threatened people in morale, quality of functioning, and somatic health
i.e., many events can be perceived as a threat or a challenge

7. Cognitive Appraisal Process
Secondary Appraisal
“What, if anything, can be done about it?”
An evaluation if anything can be done to overcome or prevent harm from the threat; and/or improve the prospects for benefit
Takes into account which coping option will accomplish what it is supposed to, and the likelihood that one can apply a particular strategy or set of strategies effectively
Outcome expectancy – the person’s evaluation that a given behavior will lead to certain outcomes
Efficacy expectancy – the person’s conviction that he or she can successfully execute the behavior required to produce the outcomes
Secondary appraisals of coping options and primary appraisals of what is at stake interact with each other in shaping the degree of stress and the strength and quality (or content) of the emotional reaction

8. Cognitive Appraisal Process
Reappraisal
A changed appraisal on the basis of new information from the environment, which may resist or nourish pressures from the person, and/or information from the person’s own reactions
A reappraisal is simply an appraisal that follows an earlier appraisal in the same encounter and modifies it
i.e., appraisal and reappraisal do not differ

9. Ch. 6: The Coping Process Coping
The person’s constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the person’s resources
Three key features:
Process oriented – focuses on what is actually thought and done in the stressful encounter
Contextual – considers the appraisal of the demands during the stressor and available resources
Adaptive (changes) – coping is a shifting process from one form of coping to another as the status of the person-environment relationship changes
Coping is a major factor in the relationship between stressful and adaptive/maladaptive outcomes (e.g., depression, somatic illness)

10. Ch. 6: The Coping Process
Emotion-focused coping – regulating emotional response to the problem
Typically used when the stressor/event is seen as unchangeable
Lessing emotional distress – e.g., avoidance, minimization, distancing, selective attention, positive comparisons, looking for the positive
Cognitive reappraisal – changing the meaning of the situation
Distracting – e.g., engaging in physical exercise, meditating, drinking, venting anger, seeking emotional support
Emotion-focused coping is used to maintain hope and optimism, to deny both fact and implication, to refuse to acknowledge the worst, to act as if what happened did not matter, and so on
These processes lend themselves to an interpretation of self-deception or reality distortion

11. Ch. 6: The Coping Process
Problem-focused coping – managing or altering the troubled person-environment relation causing the distress
Typically used when the stressor/event is seen as changeable
Problem-oriented strategies directed at the environment
Altering environmental pressures, barriers, resources, or procedures
Problem-oriented strategies directed at the self
Motivational or cognitive strategies such as shifting the level of aspiration, reducing ego involvement, finding alternative channels of gratification, developing new standards of behavior, or learning new skills or procedures
That the definition of problem-focused coping strategies is to a certain extent dependent on the types of problems being dealt with means that transsituational comparisons of problem-focused strategies are more difficult than transsituational comparisons of emotion- focused strategies

12. Ch. 6: The Coping Process
Both forms can facilitate and impede (each other) in the coping process
Although one form of coping (problem vs. emotional) is not necessarily better than the other, problem focused coping is often more effective in reducing stress in the long term
Stated differently: The most effective strategy is problem-solving if the individual has a realistic chance of changing the stressor or the aspects that lead to the stressor
Sometimes emotion-focused coping is needed first, before moving on to problem-focused coping
*But… there may be other times when problem-focused is needed first, followed by emotion-focused coping