Paper re: Lazarus' Stress and Coping Theory

[MHume]

My assignment is to research and explain a prominent theory re: stress and coping. It appears that Lazarus' Cognitive Appraisal Theory is one of the most commonly used and respected. After explaining the theory, I then need to relate/apply it to nursing practice and am having trouble with that aspect of the assignment. I still have more reading to do in order to fully understand the theory...it seems very broad and am trying to put it together more concisely. I'm just not sure how it would be applied in practice...this is my first semester in grad school and am needing guidance in thinking in new ways! Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[bhudsonrn]

I was running a search on Lazarus' theory of coping and came upon your request for info on the same thing...I was wondering if you have anything from your research you'd be willing to share? Thank you

....a fellow nursing theory researcher :)

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

Hi. Stress management is one of my favorite things to learn about. Lazarus's theory proposed that people respond to stress and also cope with that stress in individual ways, right? So, if a nurse sees someone experiencing stress, he might work to try to help the person find ways that are personally appropiate to deal with it. For instance, exercise is recommended to cope with stress. However, some people don't like to exercise, so the nurse could do things to encourage exercise and/or help the person find a non-exercise method. Also, what stresses one person might not stress another. For instance, some people are more pain tolerant than others. A tiny bit of pain might overwhelm one person while a large amount might not overwhelm another person. That fits in with nurses saying "pain is what the patient says it is."

I'm rambling....it's a fun topic. My personal favorite researcher on the topic is Hans Selye, the ob/gyn researcher who discovered saline could cause cancer in rats if they got scared enough by being chased to be injected with it....