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Lazarus's Stress and Coping Theory Explained

Why does the same event feel stressful to one person and unremarkable to another? Psychologists Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkman's transactional model explains it through the process of appraisal and coping.

Primary appraisal

Primary appraisal is the first judgment a person makes when facing a situation: whether it's harmless, threatening, or a challenge. The theory's core premise is that the same event can be appraised as more or less threatening depending entirely on the person facing it.

Secondary appraisal

Once a situation is judged threatening, secondary appraisal evaluates whether you have the resources and ability to cope with it. The same stressful situation can be experienced very differently depending on how someone evaluates the resources available to them -- time, ability, social support, and so on.

Problem-focused coping

Problem-focused coping means directly addressing or trying to change the source of the stress itself. Making a plan to solve the problem, gathering information, and asking for help are typical examples, and this style tends to dominate when the situation is judged to be changeable.

Emotion-focused coping

Emotion-focused coping means managing the emotional distress a problem causes rather than addressing the problem directly. Reframing the situation, temporary avoidance, and seeking emotional support fall under this category, and it tends to be used relatively more when the situation is judged hard to change.

Reappraisal

Reappraisal is the ongoing process of revising an initial appraisal as time passes or new information comes in. It illustrates that coping with stress isn't a one-time event but a continuous, circular process where the situation and a person's evaluation of it keep interacting.

What the transactional model actually claims

Psychologists Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkman proposed this model in 1984, arguing that stress arises not from a stimulus by itself but from the transaction between a person and their environment. The central idea is that the exact same event can become stressful for one person and not for another, depending entirely on how it's appraised.

Is one coping style better than the other?

Neither style is consistently superior -- the theory suggests flexibly shifting between the two depending on whether the situation can actually be changed. Insisting on problem-focused coping in a situation that genuinely can't be changed tends to increase frustration rather than resolve it, which is why matching the coping style to the situation matters more than picking a single "better" approach.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does avoidance count as emotion-focused coping?

Yes, temporary avoidance or distraction is generally treated as a form of emotion-focused coping. That said, continuing to avoid a problem indefinitely can let stress build up over time, which is worth keeping in mind.

What kind of coping is seeking social support?

It depends on the purpose. Seeking practical help is typically classified as problem-focused coping, while seeking comfort or empathy is typically classified as emotion-focused coping.