The concept of stress has received considerable theoretical and empirical attention in recent years, yet much confusion and controversy remain. Attempts have been made to integrate various points of view. While the concept of coping is intimately tied to that of stress, it has been largely neglected by researchers until rather recently. There was a growing conviction that all coping processes, including those traditionally considered undesirable such as defense mechanisms, have both positive and negative consequences for an individual, and that any evaluation of coping and adaptation must take into account diverse levels of analysis and the specific nature of the situation in question.
This study attempted to integrate two theoretical approaches for the stress-coping model: the cognitive approach and the cognitive phenomenological approach. The traditional approach was structure-oriented model. It was emphasized structural and stable aspects such as general coping traits, styles, or dispositions, and focused on individual difference.
The cognitive phenomenological approach was transactional and process-oriented model. It was centered on a process approach to the assessment of coping. The term transaction means that the person and the environment are in dynamic and mutually reciprocal relationship. Coping is constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person(Lazarus & Folkman, 1984a).
Integrated model based on two representative approaches to stress-coping process was implied that personal cognitive characteristics, situational factors, and coping behaviors have to be considered together. Nursing has a unique opportunity to develop a scientific base for stress, coping, and related health outcome. Integrated model was helpful to understand client’s stress and useful for effective and efficient stress management.
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