Stress, Coping, and Health: A Situation-Behavior Approach : Theory, Methods, Applications

This book presents a satisfying combination of thoughtful research on the management of stress, together with specific techniques which are developed to actually help individuals reduce stress in day-to-day situations.The first section describes the authors' approach, in which stressors are considered to be coping tasks, each embedded within specific situational realities. The second part of the book develops two practical tools for measuring and controlling stress. The third section applies these specific techniques to important areas of clinical and health psychology, and in the final chapter a new conceptual system to analyze adequate coping behavior is presented. In this intriguing and new framework a response to stress is considered as appropriate if it is rational, effective, and consistent with cost-benefit relationships.The principles developed here can be used to help both clinicians and informed lay people analyze and reduce the level of stress experienced by individuals.