The Component

Analysis
of Coping
 Component Analysis of
Coping
• The effects of stress is directly
linked to coping.
• The study of coping has evolved
to encompass large variety of
disciplines beginning with all
areas of psychology such as:
•
Evolution of the study of
Coping
Definition:
• Dissecting coping strategies into
three broad components will provide
a better understanding of what the
seemingly immense area is about.
•

• STRATEGIES:
– Biological/Physiological Component
– Cognitive Component
– Learned Component
 Biological / Physiological
Component
• The body has its own way of coping
with stress.
•

• Any threat or challenge that an

individual perceives in the
environment triggers a chain of
neuroendocrine events.
•

• Events can be conceptualized as two

separate responses, that being of
sympathetic/adrenal response and the
pituitary/adrenal response.
 Sympathetic/ adrenal
response
• Its general action is to mobilize the
body's resources under stress; to
induce the fight-or-flight response.
It is, however, constantly active at a
basal level in order to maintain 
homeostasis.
• It is where our heart rate quickens and
the blood pressure rises.
Pituitary/Adrenal
Response
• the hypothalamus is
stimulated and produces
the corticotrophin
releasing factor (CRF) to
the pituitary gland
through the blood veins,
then the adrenal
corticotrophin hormone
(ACTH) is released from
the pituitary gland to the
adrenal cortex.
•

• The adrenal cortex in turn

secretes cortisol, a
hormone that will report
back to the original brain
centers together with
other body organs to tell
Biological / Physiological
Component
• Social support has also been
established by studies to be linked
to stress. This can be seen as a
dimension of the biological
component since it is closely
linked to the biological
environment of that individual.
There are many aspects to social
support, the major categories would
be of emotional, tangible, and
informational.
 Personality types
• Type A
• - defined to have such characteristics
as competitive, impatient and hostile.
Hostility has been linked to coronary heart
disease which is thought be caused by stress.
•

• Type C
• - Eysenck (1988) has coined the term
Type C Personality for those who are known to
be repressors and are prone to cancer.
•

• Hardy Personality
• - Hardiness also is a personality that
seems to have much to do with how an
individual handles stress. Hardiness is
defined as having a sense of control,
commitment, and challenge towards life in
general. They are way mentally and emotionally
better off than the others.
 Cognitive Component
• The cognitive approach to coping is
based on a mental process of how
the individual appraises the
situation.
• It is where the level of appraisal
determines the level of stress and
the unique coping strategies that
the individual partakes.
• There are two types of appraisals, the
primary and the secondary.
Primary Appraisal
• A primary
appraisal is
made when the
individual
makes a
conscious
evaluation of
the matter at
hand of
whether it is
either a harm
or a loss, a
threat or a
challenge.
 Secondary Appraisal
• It takes place when the individual
asks him/herself "What can I do?"
by evaluating the coping resources
around him/her.
• These resources include:
• physical resources, such as how
healthy one is, or how much
energy one has.
• social resources, such as the
family or friends one has to
depend on for support in
his/her immediate
surroundings.
• psychological resources, such
as self-esteem and self-
efficacy.
• material resources such as how
 Self Efficacy
• Described as the belief in one's
effectiveness in performing
specific tasks.
• "People who regard themselves as
highly efficacious act, think, and
feel differently from those who
perceive themselves as
inefficacious. They produce their
own future, rather than simply
foretell it." Albert Bandura
• Self-efficacy theory is an important
component of Bandura's 
social cognitive theory, which
suggests high inter-relation between
individual's behavior, environment,
and cognitive factors.
Conflict