ABSTRACT
Internal events such as physiological discomfort, disease or illness and, as we shall see later, internal psychological processes as well, become part of the complex stimuli that impose demands on the person's coping resources. However, just as with external events, its stress impact will be determined by the person's appraisal of their total life situation. The most important distinction is that personality perspectives tend to assume that the individual difference traits or characteristics are relatively stable over time and across situations, and at their most extreme assume that these traits are genetically inherited. While personality theories focusing specifically on stress are relatively recent in origin, the relationship between personality and both mental and physical illness have been around for a much longer time. The psychometric approach to personality is predicated on the assumption that personality types or traits range from normal to abnormal, with some traits such as psychoticism being developed specifically to describe and explain abnormal behaviour.
