ABSTRACT
In this book there has been an attempt to understand the effects of stress in terms of the implications for strategies for achieving control. It could be argued that people use strategies to achieve desired goals in all aspects of problems in daily life. Stressful circumstances merely create additional and vital problems for the individual. Whether these problems are seen as challenging and positive or distressing and negative depends on circumstance. A particular feature of circumstance is the perception of control: If control is possible, the stress will be seen as demanding and challenging; if control is not possible but the stress is threatening, high distress is a likely outcome. Yet the perception of control is a demanding and complex cognitive process which either depends on noting contingent relationships between action and outcome or on noting progress made.
