Adam DeLeeuw

Marci Campbell
Psychology 1010
February 12, 2016
How to Manage Stress
Introduction
There are countless ways to manage or cope with the stress of everyday life, but how do
you manage something if you dont understand it? Of course you have the stressors that you
know are there such as getting let go from a job or career that you have been in for a few years
or having a research paper due in a college class. But what about the stressors you dont even
notice? Say instead of getting fired from that job you get a promotion or you just graduated with
that degree you had been working so hard to complete. Most of us dont look at these as
stressful events, but they most definitely are. In this paper Im going to break down for you
some stressors, both positive and negative, and a few ways to deal with them.

Literature Review
Stressors are specific events or chronic pressures that place demands on a person or
threaten the persons well-being (Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner, Nock, 2014). As you can see from
this definition there is nothing specifically pointing out that a stressor is something from a
negative situation. A promotion will definitely place demands on a person. What about a new
addition to your family or getting married? These can be just as stressful as having car trouble or
getting a divorce. So how do you deal with these stressors?

Everybody has their own ways of dealing with or managing stress. Some people go to the
gym or maybe go for an afternoon jog. Others might play an instrument or even simply listen to
their favorite band. To truly cope with stress we should try to define coping.

Chris L. Kleinke starts just that by using the work of Richard S. Lazarus and Susan
Folkman. He defines coping as the efforts we take to manage situations we have appraised as
being potentially harmful or stressful. He explains that there are two kinds of appraisal:
primary appraisal and secondary appraisal. When humans are faced with a potential challenge
or stress, we first determine whether we are in jeopardy or danger. We ask ourselves whether
this is something worth getting upset about. This is primary appraisal. If we determine that we
are in jeopardy or danger, we ask ourselves whether there is something we can do about it and, if
so, what? This is secondary appraisal.
Lazarus and Folkman narrowed coping strategies down to two general forms. Problemfocused coping and emotional-focused coping. If you are using the problem-focused strategy you
can use it to try and alter the situation or other peoples behavior. This is called outer-directed
problem-focused coping. There is also inner-directed problem-focused coping which is trying to
reconsider our own attitudes and needs and change our responses instead. Emotion-focused
coping is the one I feel we as Americans do more habitually. This involves attempting to manage
our emotional distress by physical exercise, meditation, expressing our feelings, and seeking
support. I see it more as dealing with the consequences of stress rather than dealing with the
problem itself. One of my favorite quotes is by Henry Ford when he said, Most people spend
more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them.

Application
The other day I was at work and my boss was making accusations about a situation that I
could have handled better, my coworkers were making jokes at my expense, my subordinates
werent giving me the respect I felt I deserved, and I had only slept about two hours the night
before due to my four month old baby crying and fussing all night. It turned out to be a really
stressful day. So I went to the gym and worked out for about two and a half hours. I felt great
afterward. It felt like all of the problems from the day had been taken from me. The next day
started out about the same. So had I dealt with the stress? No, I had dealt with the emotions
from the stress. Thats emotional-focused coping. If I had taken the problem-focused coping
approach I could have eliminated some of the stress rather than just hitting the mute button.
Maybe I could have approached the situation with my boss and change the way I would handle
things in the future or maybe talked to him to get an idea of how he would like to see it
addressed next time. With the jokes from the coworkers I could have easily shrugged the
comments of knowing that these are just jokes and laughed with them, and with my subordinates
call them into my office one at a time and go over with them what I expect from them in the
future and the attitudes I would like to see.

So I know there are a lot of different stressors out there and there are even more ways to
deal with them. Sometimes the stressors keep piling on and we feel overwhelmed, but if we
keep in mind the two general types of coping, problem-focused and emotional-focused, there
isnt a stressor we cant handle.

I have learned a lot about the types of coping and what specific methods help in which
situations while researching the topic of stress. I am actually very excited to apply these
principles to my life. I am going to continue to research more coping skills and I know theres
not one person out there that doesnt have stress. Managing it is the part that a lot of people
dont know how to do. Make sure you arent one of them.

References
Cohen-Charash, Y., Lazarus, R. S., Monat, A., & Reevy, G. (2007). The Praeger handbook on
stress and coping (Vol. 1). Westport, Conn.: Praeger.
Cohen-Charash, Y., Lazarus, R. S., Monat, A., & Reevy, G. (2007). The Praeger handbook on
stress and coping (Vol. 2). Westport, Conn.: Praeger.
Schacter, D. L., Gilbert, D. T., Wegner, D. M., & Nock, M. K. (2014). Psychology (3rd ed.).
New York, NY: Worth.