Lazarus' stress model

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Illustration of Richard Lazarus' stress model

The Lazarus Transactional Stress Model is named after the psychologist Richard Lazarus and was published in 1984. This model sees stressful situations as complex interaction processes between the requirements of the situation and the person acting. In contrast to earlier stress theories , Lazarus assumed that it is not the (objective) nature of the stimuli or situations that is important for the stress reaction , but their (subjective) evaluation by the person concerned. People can be susceptible to a certain stressor in very different ways: what stress means for one person is not yet perceived as stress by another. The model is transactional, as an evaluation process is interposed between the stressor and the stress reaction.

history

In several experiments in the 1960s, Lazarus was able to demonstrate the - mostly dampening - influence of cognitions on the intensity of emotions . He showed test subjects a film about ritual genital mutilation among Aborigines ( initiation rituals such as the bora ). Even the film shown without sound generated stress - measured as changes in skin conductivity . However, if an intellectualizing, belittling comment was added to the screening, the stress response was weaker. It was even less pronounced when the comment was made before the actual film began, so that the subjects' expectations dampened their stress reactions. Lazarus calls this short-circuiting the threat of cognitive evaluation .

Three levels of evaluation

Everyone evaluates situations and their stress differently, and thus also their threat. Lazarus distinguishes between three levels.

Primary Appraisal

Simplified representation of the primary and secondary assessment in the Lazarus stress model

According to Lazarus, situations can be assessed as positive, irrelevant or potentially dangerous (stressful). If a situation is experienced as stressful, this assessment can be made in three different levels:

  1. as a challenge ( challenge ) in situations that appear manageable,
  2. as a threat ( threat ) with an anticipated loss or
  3. as harm / loss if the damage has already occurred.

Secondary Appraisal

The secondary assessment checks whether the situation can be managed with the resources available. If the resources are rated as insufficient, then a stress response is triggered. A coping strategy is designed, which depends on the situation as well as on the characteristics and cognitive structures of the person. This way of dealing with a threat is called coping . Usable behaviors are e.g. B. aggression , flight , behavior alternatives, changing the condition or denying the situation. Through feedback on success or failure, the person concerned learns over time to use possible coping strategies selectively.

Reappraisal (reassessment)

In the third step, the success of the coping strategy is assessed in order to ensure dynamic adaptation to the new situation. If a stress patient learns how to deal with a threat (primary assessment of the situation), it may only present itself as a challenge. Likewise, a challenge can become a threat if it cannot be adequately dealt with. Lazarus describes this possibility of changing the initial assessment as "reappraisal" (German re-assessment).

Three types of coping (coping with stress)

Lazarus differentiates between three types of stress management: problem-oriented, emotion-oriented and assessment-oriented coping .

Problem-oriented coping

This is understood to mean that the individual tries to overcome problem situations or to adapt to the circumstances by looking for information, taking direct action or by failing to act. This coping strategy relates to the level of the situation or stimulus.

Emotional coping

The emotion-oriented coping is also called "intrapsychic coping". The main aim is to reduce the emotional excitement caused by the situation .

Assessment-oriented coping

Lazarus uses the term “reappraisal” (re-evaluation) in two contexts: on the one hand, with regard to the evaluation process, as mentioned above. On the other hand, the reassessment of a stressful situation is at the same time a coping strategy, as the following quote makes clear: "I also used the term cognitive coping to express this idea that coping can influence stress and emotion merely by a reappraisal of the person-environment relationship" (Lazarus , Stress and Emotion, 1999, p. 77).

The affected, "stressed" person can cognitively reevaluate their relationship to the environment in order to deal with it adequately. The main goal of assessment-oriented coping is to see stress as a challenge, because such a living situation is assessed positively and resources are freed up to react appropriately. This can only succeed if concrete problem-solving approaches are found (see problem-oriented coping). So different coping strategies have to be combined.

literature

  • Richard S. Lazarus: Emotion and Adaptation. Oxford University Press, New York NY et al. 1991, ISBN 0-19-506994-3 .
  • Richard S. Lazarus: Stress and Emotion. A new synthesis. Free Association Books, London 1999, ISBN 1-85343-456-6 (reprint).
  • R. Lyons: Future challenges for theory and practice of joint stress management. In: Petra Buchwald, Christine Schwarzer, Stevan E. Hobfoll (eds.): Coping with stress together. Resource management and multiaxial coping. Hogrefe, Göttingen et al. 2004, ISBN 3-8017-1679-1 , pp. 199-204.
  • Christine Schwarzer, Birgit Meißen, Petra Buchwald: Stress management in everyday parenting. Caritas Association for the Diocese of Aachen, Aachen 2001.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lazarus & Alfert (1964): The short-circuiting of threat by experimentally altering cognitive appraisal . Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 69, pp. 195-205
  2. ↑ Lazarus et al. (1965): The principle of short-circuiting of threat: Further evidence . Journal of Personality, 33, pp. 622-635
  3. ^ Stress model according to Lazarus: this is how stress arises. In: StressTreff. Retrieved July 28, 2020 .