ABSTRACT
At times the adjustments required by life-events exceed an individual’s motivation resources to cope with them. The result is stress and the life-events are stressors. They pose a challenge, demand, or a threat to an individual. Stress increases when stressors are unpredictable, uncontrollable, of intense magnitude, and long duration. Stress has psychological, physiological, and behavioral characteristics like anxiety, PTSD, and self-medication. In the first stage of coping, a person primarily appraises the life demands and the resources to deal with them. In the second stage or execution stage, a person uses problem-focused coping to intervene with the stressor directly or uses emotion-focused coping to alleviate distress or control emotions. In the third or feedback stage, a person reevaluates the stressor and the effectiveness of coping.
