Factors Facilitating Constructive Coping with Stress

IntroductionThe issue of stress is a subject of both theoretical analysis and clinical practice. Growing focus may be currently observed on resources which facilitate constructive coping with stress, fighting crises and staying mentally healthy (1).The current prevailing approach to stress is the relational approach. The popularization of this approach is mostly credited to Lazarus, who together with his colleagues created the transactional model of stress and coping (2-4). This model had a considerable impact on research in the field of stress. It is still accepted by researchers, just as its modified version proposed by Folkman (5-9). Stress is seen as a relationship between a person and the environment which is considered by a given individual to be burdening or exceeding their resources and threatening their well-being (3). The stress is not a result of objective conditions only, neither does it depend on the individual only but is conditioned by both the environment as well as the characteristics of a given person. The criterion for the occurrence of stress is the cognitive assessment of the situation made by an individual. It consists of identifying relations between requirements related to a given situation and characteristics of an individual and their coping abilities.Another concept worth mentioning that is essential for the contemporary understanding of stress is the Conservation of Resources Theory by Hobfoll (10). Hobfoll treats stress as an objective phenomenon as he believes that resources, being the key element of his stress theory, are defined in an objective way. Their conservation, retention, promotion and obtaining are the purpose of human activity. The resources may include: objects, conditions, skills, personal characteristics, knowledge, money etc. Stress is related to the loss of resources, risk of losing resources, as well as a situation when investing resources does not bring the expected results. An important implication of Hobfoll's theory (10) is the fact that the risk of resources loss affects particularly those people whose resources are scarce. This regularity may be an explanation for the passivity of some people in stressful situations. Their passivity may result from the tendency to protect resources. The fact that Hobfoll ascribes objectivity to the phenomenon of stress by adopting the assumption concerning the objective value of resources is arguable. The opposing approach to this issue is connected with the Relational Model of Values (11). According to this model, the value of individual resources results from the relation between needs and goals of an individual and characteristics of the situation existing at a given moment. It shows a high dynamics of valuating individual resources and the multidimensionality of valuations. Additionally, the perception of losing or obtaining given resources may change over time. It is the result of a number of psychological mechanisms e.g. defense mechanisms notably rationalization (12), the phenomenon of affective adaptation called the hedonic treadmill (13), as well as meaning-focused coping (7,9). The dynamics may be illustrated by a situation when an individual loses a given resource to which he/she attributed special sense, ascribed positive value to a given event and has for some time treated this experience as a resource facilitating for example his/her personal development and reorganization of priorities.An additional issue concerns the awareness of having certain resources or them being available. There have been situations in clinical practice where passivity of a given person is not so much the result of a lack of appropriate resources to handle a difficult situation, but rather not being aware of possessing them, in which case therapeutic activities may change the perception of one's own coping abilities (14).Coping with stressCoping strategies may have various forms. Relevant literature presents a number of various classifications related to coping with stress. …