Print Imagine a friend has just lost his job which helped him cover tuition cost

Question

Print Imagine a friend has just lost his job which helped him cover tuition costs. Apply Lazarus and Folkman's cognitive theory of stress and describe his potential reactions to this job loss. In your answer, be sure to describe the following: Stressful Event, Primary Appraisal, Secondary Appraisal, and Stress Response.

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Explanation / Answer

Lazarus and Folkman's cognitive theory of stress explains the behavior of an individual on generation of a stressful situation in their surrounding environment and the response of the individual to the stress. According to this theory the behaviour of an individual is controlled by two aspects:

1) The threat of the stress to the individual's well being quoted as primary cognitive appraisal

2) Once in a stressful situation, how the individual reacts to it , i.e., coping mechanism of the person comprises the secondary appraisal.

Here the stressful event is a friend loses a job that helped him cover his tution fees.

On loosing his job the first eminent threat in this condition is the loss of a source of income to pay his tution fees. This constitutes the primary appraisal. The relevance of the situation to his personal goals. The apparent question in his mind would be: how will he pay his tution fees? Will he be able to continue his studies? etc. After this, the second part of the primary appraisal would be whether he views the situation as a threat or a challenge.

Once faced with the situation, the friend will now think of ways to cope with the situation. This response is the secondary appraisal. His personal evaluation as to the cause of the loss of his job, whether he blames someone else for this loss and the steps he takes to minimize the effect of the loss of his job on his tution fees will be the secondary appraisal in the current stressful condition. This will determine if he tries to minimize or eradicate his loss of tution fees by generating other source or will he give in to the situation and be depressed.

The stress response under this condition can be either positive or negative. The friend may in the beginning feel threatened by the sudden change in his condition and its effect on his financial situation. However, he may take it as a challenge and see it as an opportunity to find a better employment. In case of a negative response, he may feel worried regarding his fees and this may further lead him to believe that he is good for nothing or doomed. He may lack the motivation to find a new job or find another solution his problem which might further lead him to a more depressed state as the stress may increase.

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