压力认知评价理论在管理心理学中的应用：场景、方式与迷思

工作场所中, 压力源无处不在; 面对压力源, 个体会如何反应?压力认知评价理论从认知评价和应对角度为这一问题提供了系统解释。在过去的40年里, 该理论已成为阐释个体压力反应的主流框架。然而, 由于提出时间较早, 该理论没有提供各理论要素间的精确关系, 这使得后续实证研究从各自研究问题出发, 对该理论的应用五花八门, 甚至因曲解理论观点而造成不当应用, 不利于对该理论的持续应用和深入发展。在系统回顾理论观点的基础上, 重点梳理了125篇以该理论作为核心理论基础的管理心理学实证研究。总体发现：在应用场景方面, 压力认知评价理论可以用来解释6种压力源对员工工作态度、行为、身心健康和工作-家庭关系的影响; 其应用形式可以从初级评价、次级评价和应对3个方面分别考虑; 一些研究在应用该理论时存在误区。未来研究需要优化理论要素的测量方式, 进一步拓展该理论的应用场景, 同时丰富认知评价过程的影响因素研究。     

The role of neuroticism on psychological and physiological stress responses

This study examined the influence of personality on stressor appraisals and emotional, physiological, and behavioral responses to psychosocial stress. Appraisals were used to classify participants as threatened (they believed their coping resources were inadequate relative to stressor demands) or challenged (they believed their coping resources were commensurate with stressor demands). Neuroticism predicted threat appraisals, and both were related to negative emotional experience and poor task performance. The influence of neuroticism on negative emotions and poor performance was mediated by threat appraisals. High neuroticism confers stress vulnerability, but only when conditions are construed as threatening.     

压力情境认知评价与工作倦怠的关系

为探讨压力情境认知评价与工作倦怠的关系,选取北京、河南两家公司的303名员工进行了调查。分层结果分析发现,在控制了人口统计学因素之后,挑战评价对玩世不恭存在显著正向预测作用,控制评价对情绪衰竭、玩世不恭和成就感低落存在显著负向预测作用;进一步分析发现,控制评价在情绪中心应对和情绪衰竭、问题中心应对与成就感低落之间按的关系上具有调节作用。结果表明,压力情境认知评价是影响员工工作倦怠的重要因素。     

Responses to collective risk: Appraisal and coping among workers exposed to occupational health hazards

Appraisals of occupational health risks and coping alternatives were examined in a study of 670 steelworkers. Three forms of coping were considered: emotion focused, problem focused, and system oriented. Path analysis was used to test a model of coping as a function of primary appraisals of occupational exposures, secondary appraisals of coping options, reappraisal of health concerns, and background characteristics. Results show that each element in the proposed model contributes significantly to all three coping types. In addition, distinctive patterns of secondary appraisal were observed for each type of coping. Future use of the concept of system-oriented coping is suggested for investigating problems not easily solved by individual action.     

Stress appraisals influence athletic performance and psychophysiological response during 16.1 km cycling time trials

ObjectivesWe examined how stress appraisals were associated with emotions, coping behaviours, as well as subjective and objective measures of performance.DesignProspective field- and laboratory-based studies.MethodsIn Study 1, 192 athletes completed process-oriented psychometrics pertaining to the aforementioned constructs throughout a sporting competition. Study 2 utilised an experimental design to assess the causal influence of stress appraisals on performance, cortisol, and psychological variables. Thirty gender-matched athletes were randomly assigned to either a stress appraisal (e.g., challenge, threat, benefit, or harm/loss) or the control group. Participants completed three 16.1 km cycling time trials (TT) on a cycle ergometer, with their appropriate stress appraisal engendered via falsified performance feedback throughout the final TT. Salivary cortisol samples and psychometrics (e.g., appraisals, emotions, and coping) were collected before and after each TT.ResultsThe results of Study 1 revealed a sequential link between challenge stress appraisals and perceived goal attainment via pleasant emotions and task-oriented coping behaviours. Threat stress appraisals inversely related to goal attainment via unpleasant emotions and both distraction- and disengagement-oriented coping. In Study 2, no significant psychophysiological or performance differences were found across genders. The temporal orientation of stress appraisals influenced objective cycling TT performance. Benefit and harm/loss stress appraisals significantly facilitated or inhibited performance, respectively. Cortisol spikes were observed in the stress appraisal group’s threat, challenge, and benefit, with a decline detected within the harm/loss group. Whilst the process of winning is physiologically stressful, the fear of defeat may be more stressful than losing itself.ConclusionStress appraisals influence subjective and objective performance, as well as neuroendocrine and psychological responses to stress.     

Employee adjustment to stress: The role of coping resources, situational factors, and coping responses

Abstract The present study was designed to examine further the stress-adjustment relationship in employees. Specifically, the relations among employees' coping resources (self-esteem, generalized control beliefs, neuroticism, and social support), their appraisals of a recent stressful event experienced at work (appraised stress, self-efficacy, and situational control beliefs), the coping strategies (problem- and emotion-focused coping) used to deal with the event, and levels of employee adjustment (psychological well-being and job satisfaction) were examined. Data were collected from 153 male and female employees in a public sector department, employed in a range of middle-management administrative activities. The data provided support for a modified version of a model that proposed that both situational appraisals and coping strategies are mediating processes in the stress-adjustment relationship. There was evidence that employees' coping responses to the recent stressful event experienced at work were related to concurrent levels of adjustment. As predicted, the use of problem-focused coping, in general, had positive relationships with the measures of adjustment, whereas the effects of emotion-focused coping were generally negative (there was, however, some evidence that the effects of coping were dependent on event controllability). There was also evidence that coping resources had both direct and indirect effects (via coping and via situational appraisals) on employee adjustment. The latter effects were most marked for generalized control beliefs and self-esteem. Situational appraisals (in particular, efficacy expectancies) also had indirect effects on employee adjustment, through their effects on coping responses.     

Self-efficacy moderates the relationship between stress appraisal and quality of life among rescue workers

Abstract

Rescue workers are frequently exposed to highly stressful situations during their everyday work activity. Stress and coping theory emphasizes the interaction between primary and secondary appraisal in determining coping responses to stressful events and quality of life. According to Social Cognitive Theory, stress reactions depend on self-appraisal of coping capabilities.

The present study investigated whether self-efficacy moderates the relationship between stress appraisal and professional quality of life. A self-administered questionnaire was submitted to a sample of 451 Italian rescue workers (firefighters, paramedics, and medical technicians), including the Professional Quality of Life Scale, which measures three dimensions of emergency workers' quality of working life: compassion fatigue, burnout, and compassion satisfaction. Multiple regression analyses indicated that the relationship between stress appraisal and professional quality of life was significant only among rescue workers with low levels of self-efficacy but not among those with higher levels of self-efficacy. These results confirmed the expectations based on Social Cognitive Theory that self-efficacy buffers the impact of perceived stressful encounters on professional quality of life. Results suggest the usefulness of interventions aimed at increasing rescue workers' psychosocial skills.     

Integrating Religious Resources Within a General Model of Stress and Coping: Long-Term Adjustment to Breast Cancer

The purpose of the present cross-sectional study was to explore the role of religious resources in long-term adjustment to breast cancer. A sample of fifty-two survivors was assessed on indices of religious resources (e.g., image of God), nonreligious resources (e.g., cognitive appraisal) and emotional and spiritual well-being. Results indicated that both relationship with God/God image and religious coping behaviour were related to the nonreligious mediator variables of cognitive appraisal and coping in response to the current cancer situation. Various experiences of relationship with God (e.g., Presence) were related to more positive appraisals of the current cancer situation as well as to the greater use of the nonreligious coping behaviour of focusing on the positive. In contrast, religious coping behaviours demonstrated more complex associations with cognitive appraisal and nonreligious coping factors. The same coping behaviour, for example religious avoidance, could be related to both positive and negative appraisals of the cancer situation. Finally, religious resources, but not nonreligious resources predicted emotional and spiritual well-being for these long-term breast cancer survivors.     

Putting appraisal in context: Toward a relational model of appraisal and emotion

According to appraisal theory, emotions result from an individual's meaning analysis of the implications of his/her circumstances for personal well-being, and individual differences in emotion arise when individuals appraise similar situations differently. Relational models of appraisal attempt to describe the situational and dispositional antecedents of appraisals, and should allow one to predict such individual differences. In this article, we review three examples of our efforts toward developing relational appraisal models. In two, we start with a particular appraisal component, motivational relevance and problem-focused coping potential (Smith & Lazarus, 1990), respectively, and describe and test the relational model proposed for that component. In the third, as a precursor to developing a true relational model, we examine another appraisal component, emotion-focused coping potential, from a more dispositional perspective. We conclude by considering both the potential value of relational appraisal models, and future directions in the development of these models.     

Explanatory style and coping with controllable events by student-athletes

Abstract

The present study investigated the relationship between explanatory style and the appraisal and coping of 66 major college football players with respect to stressful but controllable events in the academic and the athletic domains. A path analysis showed that for controllable events, a “pessimistic” explanatory style-in which bad events are attributed to internal, stable, and global causes-predicted appraisals of adequate resources to cope with demands, which in turn predicted increased attempts to cope.     

The relation of coping, appraisal, and burnout in mental health workers.

This study was undertaken as an attempt to determine the relationship between individual coping (in response to stressful work events) and concomitant symptoms of burnout and the relationship between coping and burnout as moderated by secondary cognitive appraisal. Professional mental health workers (N = 234) employed by a state psychiatric facility completed the Ways of Coping Checklist (revised) (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) and a measure of secondary appraisal, after reporting a typical stressful work event. They also completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach & Jackson, 1986) and a demographic questionnaire. Results suggested that individual coping was related to burnout. Escape-avoidance was the primary coping strategy related to all three symptoms of burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and lack of personal accomplishment. Secondary appraisal did not moderate the relation of coping and burnout.     

Relational antecedents of appraised problem-focused coping potential and its associated emotions

The present study examined a relational model of appraisal that specifies the situational and dispositional antecedents of appraised problem-focused coping potential, itself a hypothesised antecedent of the emotions of hope/challenge and resignation. The hypothesised relational antecedents of this appraisal were tested in a quasi-experiment in which individuals varying in self-perceived and objectively assessed math ability attempted to solve math problems on which difficulty was manipulated. Findings for the critical test problem largely conformed to predictions: Under difficult conditions, but not easy ones, increasing math ability was generally associated with elevated appraisals of problem-focused coping potential, increased hope/challenge, reduced resignation, and increased likelihood of solving the problem. However, problem-focused coping potential, hope/challenge, and the likelihood of solving the problem were all lower, and resignation was higher, for the highest ability participants, than would be predicted from their ability levels. Comparable findings were not observed for appraisals of emotion-focused coping potential or its theoretically associated emotion of anxiety, providing evidence of discriminant validity for the examined model. The results of a mediational analysis supported the hypothesis that the effects of the quasi-experimental design on hope/challenge and resignation were mediated by their effects on appraised problem-focused coping potential, lending support to the proposition that appraisals play a causal role in emotion elicitation.     

Passionate hockey fans: Appraisals of,coping with,and attention paid to the 2012–2013 National Hockey League lockout

ObjectivesWe examined if harmonious and obsessive passion for watching hockey were differentially related to stress experiences during the 2012–2013 National Hockey League (NHL) lockout.DesignCross-sectional data were collected from 256 undergraduate hockey fans.MethodParticipants completed questionnaires that measured passion types, stress appraisals, coping, and how they attended to lockout-related information.ResultsObsessive passion was positively associated with stress appraisals, most types of coping, and with avoiding information about the lockout. Harmonious passion was unrelated to stress appraisals, showed few relationships with coping, and was positively related with monitoring lockout-related information. Structural equation modelling supported a model whereby threat appraisal mediated the relationship between obsessive passion and disengagement-oriented coping.ConclusionsAppraising, coping with, and paying attention to the NHL lockout among hockey fans varied to the extent that their passion for hockey was more harmonious or obsessive.     

Appraisal, coping, health status, and psychological symptoms

In this study we examined the relation between personality factors (mastery and interpersonal trust), primary appraisal (the stakes a person has in a stressful encounter), secondary appraisal (options for coping), eight forms of problem- and emotion-focused coping, and somatic health status and psychological symptoms in a sample of 150 community-residing adults. Appraisal and coping processes should be characterized by a moderate degree of stability across stressful encounters for them to have an effect on somatic health status and psychological symptoms. These processes were assessed in five different stressful situations that subjects experienced in their day-to-day lives. Certain processes (e.g., secondary appraisal) were highly variable, whereas others (e.g., emotion-focused forms of coping) were moderately stable. We entered mastery and interpersonal trust, and primary appraisal and coping variables (aggregated over five occasions), into regression analyses of somatic health status and psychological symptoms. The variables did not explain a significant amount of the variance in somatic health status, but they did explain a significant amount of the variance in psychological symptoms. The pattern of relations indicated that certain variables were positively associated and others negatively associated with symptoms.     

Structural Model of Coping,Appraisals, and Emotions After Relationship Breakup

The relationship of coping resources and cognitive appraisals to emotions produced by the end of a romantic relationship at 2 separate times was investigated. Participants were 231 graduate students who completed inventories measuring their coping resources, cognitive appraisals, and emotional reactions. The results of the structural model suggested that preventive coping resources affected the appraised desirability of the event as well as initial emotional reactions and that combative coping resources affected subsequent emotional response. The implications of these findings for stress models of emotions and clinical interventions are discussed.     

Psychological Predictors of Coping Responses Among Greek Basketball Referees

Abstract

The authors examined the effects of situational appraisals (perceived control and intensity), coping styles (monitoring and blunting), and personal dispositions (optimism and self-esteem) on the approach and avoidance coping responses of skilled Greek basketball referees (N = 162) and the consistency of their responses following 3 game-related stressful situations. In an effort to clarify the variables involved in coping and to consider the theoretical principles both within and beyond sports, the authors replicated an earlier study among Australian basketball referees (A. Kaissidis-Rodafinos, M. H. Anshel, & A. Porter, 1997). The results were equivocal: The Greek referees were not consistent in using avoidance and approach coping responses across situations. Approach coping was more predictable than avoidance coping in accounting for both situational and personal variables.     

Antecedents and consequences of coping in the anticipatory stage of an exam: A longitudinal study emphasizing the role of affect

Abstract

A longitudinal study with three periods of data collection has been designed to test a model concerning the antecedents and consequences of coping in the anticipatory stage of an examination stress process. The model tested focuses on the role of positive and negative affect at an early stage as the main antecedents for coping. Primary and secondary appraisal, and dispositional variables (perceived personal competence and optimism) have been related to early affect. Moreover, the consequences of coping, considered as the affect measured after the deployment of coping strategies, and the grade obtained in the exam, are also tested. Results show that early affect is the main antecedent of displayed coping strategies. Dispositional variables and appraisal are related to affect, and differential effects of coping in later affect have been noticed. No relationship between coping and grade has been found. Implications for research on coping with examination stress are discussed.     

The two roads of passionate goal pursuit: links with appraisal,coping, and academic achievement

Background and Objectives: In this research, we tested the role of cognitive appraisals in explaining why harmonious and obsessive passion dimensions are related to distinct forms of coping and explored if performance was impacted by these appraisal and coping processes. Design: Undergraduate students (N = 489) participated in a longitudinal study and completed three surveys throughout the course of an academic year. Methods: Participants completed assessments of both passion dimensions (Time 1), reported how they were appraising and coping with the mid-year examination period (Time 2), and provided consent to obtain their final grade in Introductory Psychology (Time 3). The hypothesized model was tested using structural equation modeling. Results: Harmonious and obsessive passion dimensions were linked with approach and avoidant coping responses, respectively. Cognitive appraisals, particularly appraisals of challenge and uncontrollability, played an indirect role in these relationships. In addition, both appraisals and coping responses had an indirect effect in the relationship between passion dimensions and final grade. Conclusions: These results identify cognitive appraisal as a reason why passion dimensions are linked with distinct coping tendencies and demonstrate the role of appraisal and coping processes in the journey to passionate goal attainment.     

Coping with the loan transition in professional association football

The present study generated a qualitative examination of male professional football players’ experiences of stress during the loan transition using the Demand Resources and Individual Effects (DRIVE) Model. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit participants (M age = 23; SD = 2.5) from various Premier League (n = 2), Championship (n = 8), and League (n = 1) clubs across the UK who have experienced a loan to another club. Guided by a critical realist philosophical orientation, semi-structured interviews were deductively developed based upon the DRIVE model to stimulate contextual discussion about the pre-transition resources (e.g. organizational support), perceived transition demands (e.g. performance pressure) and appraisals. Finally, players were asked to discuss their strategies for coping (e.g. situational coping) with loan demands and if they deemed this coping to be effective. Braun and Clarke’s (2013) thematic content analysis was utilised. Deductive thematic analysis was used to identify and evidence themes that were articulated in relation to the demands experienced, appraisals associated with such demands, and the coping strategies used to manage these demands. An inductive approach was used to code sub-themes from the data, on the basis of players’ specific experiences that had not yet been exemplified in the existing literature. This study presented loan transition demands (performance and organizational), contextual individual differences (situational coping, dispositional coping, and protective factors) and loan resources (transition preconditions and during loan) that may assist individuals’ performance and well-being. Practitioners would be advised to work with players on facilitating pre-transition resources and identify perceived demands they consider important to their transition process. Future research should seek to explore the loan transition within elite female football.     

Situational and dispositional coping: an examination of their relation to personality,cognitive appraisals,and psychological distress

Reliable data on the relationships between situational and dispositional coping strategies are sparse. In order to address this gap in the literature, this study examined the determinants and adaptational outcomes of both types of coping. Two hundred and thirty‐three students completed, along with measures of situational and dispositional coping, measures of personality, cognitive appraisals, and psychological distress, the latter variable being evaluated concurrently and prospectively (10 weeks). Results showed that personality shared as much variance with situational as with dispositional coping, but the patterns of relationships were rather different. In addition, cognitive appraisals were found to add significant incremental validity in predicting situational coping beyond trait coping, but primary appraisals were redundant with personality traits, in particular neuroticism. Finally, in spite of the significant amount of variance shared between the two types of coping, they both accounted for individual differences in concomitant and prospective psychological distress, and the relation between dispositional coping and distress was partially mediated by situational coping. The implications of these findings for understanding the relationships between the two types of coping strategy are discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.