ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on one phase of the problem, namely that dealing with the importance of individual differences in coping processes that arise in response to threat and which influence the observable reaction pattern. It aims to underscore two main themes: that stress reactions are reflections or consequences of coping processes intended to reduce threat, and that these coping processes depend, in part, on cognitive activity very similar in kind to the process of threat appraisal. Stress theory speaks of anxiety alone as the culprit, while in practice, any emotional state is presumed to have behavior-organizing properties. The motor-behavioral correlates of different forms of coping will obviously differ, as will the affects experienced and physiological stress reaction observed. The point is that the stress reaction is the effect of these cognitive appraisal processes and the conditions that determine them. Close analogies to the can be found in certain experiments within the American literature on psychological stress.
