Transactional Model of Stress and Coping

Stress, as you ll remember from week 5, is a physiological and emotional reaction experienced when the demands of a situation exceed an individual s ability to meet them. Stress is usually not measured directly, but instead by assessing an individual s exposure to stressors. As a result, we see only a moderate relationship between exposure to stressors and poor physical and mental health outcomes. Likely this is because it is not exposure to stressors, but the experience of stress itself that is relevant for health. Different individuals may react differently to stressors for a number of reasons - they may have differential access to social support, there may be personality differences, individuals may have different belief and value systems, etc. Some individuals may cope well and experience few adverse outcomes, while others are profoundly affected.

The transactional model of stress and coping is a framework that aims to evaluate the process of coping with stressful events. This framework considers the significance of the person s appraisal of the situation and the social, psychological, and cultural resources available to that person as crucial for understanding how a person comes to experience a situation as stressful or not, and in turn whether or not it has an impact on well-being. The model argues that when an individual is faced with a stressful situation, she first evaluates the potential threat posed by the situation (primary appraisal), as well as her ability to regulate the situation and manage negative emotional reactions (secondary appraisal). This secondary appraisal is a consideration of what she can actually do about the situation. The coping efforts that the individual puts forth in light of these appraisals will result in the outcomes of the coping process.

Key Components of the Transactional Model

The transactional model poses that, when faced with stressors, individuals will experience those stressors in more or less positive ways depending on a number of factors, including:

Primary Appraisal: Evaluation of the significance of a stressor or threatening event; typically include assessment of the severity of the threat as well as of susceptibility to the threat.
Secondary Appraisal: Evaluation of the controllability of the stressor and a person s coping resources.
Coping efforts: Actual strategies used to mediate primary and secondary appraisals.
Meaning-based coping: Coping processes that induce positive emotion, which in turn sustains the coping process by allowing reenactment of problem- or emotion focused coping.
Outcomes of coping: Emotional well-being, functional status, health behaviors.
Dispositional coping styles: Generalized ways of behaving that can affect a person s emotional or functional reaction to a stressor; relatively stable across time and situations.

When first faced with a stressful situation, an individual will make a primary appraisal, assessing how severe the threat is and how likely it is to affect him. This primary appraisal prompts the individual to cope with the stressor. The type of coping, though, depends on characteristics of the individual and of their coping resources. The secondary appraisal assesses coping resources as the individual determines whether he believes he can change the situation and whether he believes he can manage his emotional reactions to the threat. Given this assessment, the individual embarks on some coping strategies. Some may take action to overcome the stressor, believing they have control over the situation and can manage their emotional reactions. Others may choose avoidance, having come to the determination that they cannot manage either the situation or their emotional reactions. Individuals who take avoidant coping strategies tend to have higher rates of emotional distress and poorer quality of life. Individuals who enact adaptive coping strategies (action-oriented coping, aimed at overcoming the stressor), on the other hand, have been documented to have more positive health outcomes.

Transactional Theory in Application

Unlike SNT, transactional theory does provide insight into possible interventions. Transactional theory emphasizes the importance of coping. As such, techniques that help individuals to manage stress and improve coping have the potential to reduce the negative effects of stress on physical and emotional health. Biofeedback, relaxation techniques, yoga and the like have all been used successfully to promote healthy coping with stressors. Likewise, cognitive-behavioral therapy also helps to improve coping with stress; CBT draws very closely on the key concepts central to the transactional model.