Table 1 Definitions of concepts in alphabetical order
Variable | Definition | |
|---|---|---|
Chronic stress | The repeated occurrence of the stress response over an extended period of time, i.e. several hours per day during weeks to months [2]. | |
Cognitive bandwidth | Relates to the working memory, includes cognitive capacity, i.e. those psychological processes that govern capability to “solve problems, retain information, engage in logical reasoning, and so on”, and executive control, i.e. those psychological processes that govern capability to “manage [ … ] cognitive activities, including planning, attention, and initiating and inhibiting actions” [23, 25]. | |
Controllability | A person’s assessment of whether their behavioural responses could considerably alter the outcomes of the stressor [1, 58]. Controllability therefore only exists relative to a person. | |
Coping resources | Those immaterial individual differences that can increase capability to manage stressors, which can be seen as “antecedents of specific coping strategies” [34], affecting which coping strategy is invoked under stressor exposure. | |
Mastery/self-efficacy/locus of control/fatalism | Are intertwined with control: each pertains to the self-perceived influence on own behaviour, the situation and the future [59, 60]. There are subtle differences: mastery, locus of control and fatalism are descriptive of a general sense of control, whereas self-efficacy is often used to refer to a sense of control in a specific situation [59]. | |
Neuroticism | Often referred to as a character trait resulting from inter-individual variation in “negative emotional response to threat, frustration, or loss” and typified by “irritability, anger, sadness, anxiety, worry, hostility, self-consciousness, and vulnerability” [47]. It can, in contrast, also be defined as a tendency to be subjected to strong negative emotions that are paired with an assessment of uncontrollability when faced with a stressor [36]. | |
Optimism | Anticipation of positive future events [42]. | |
Self-esteem/self-confidence | Are closely related, where self-esteem is a global trait belief, i.e. “an attribute of a person”, and self-confidence is a specific state belief, i.e. “an attribute of a person-in-a-situation” [61, 62]. | |
Distress | Emotional suffering as a function of stressor exposure [17]. | |
Primary appraisal | Describes the process during which it is established whether a stimulus is assessed as a threat or a challenge (precedes secondary appraisal) [11, 63]. | |
Problem avoidance (relative to problem approaching) | Problem avoidance refers to disengaging from a stressor, while problem approaching refers to trying to understand, find a solution to and accept a stressor [27, 64]. Strategies associated with problem avoidance are negatively correlated with strategies associated with problem approaching, implying that more problem avoidance begets less problem approaching and vice versa [26, 27]. Note that problem avoidance is often contrasted with problem solving instead of problem approaching, where problem solving can be referred to as “active cognitive and behavioural efforts to deal with the problem” [27]. Even though problem solving is often used with the same implications as problem approaching in this context, we used problem approaching as the opposite of problem avoidance because if a person is not avoiding a problem it does not necessarily mean that they are able to solve it. We used the terms problem avoidance and problem approaching to cover both behavioural and emotional aspects of coping, where both aspects appeared to be influenced by the included causal links in the same way. For example, problem avoidance can cover both behavioural disengagement, e.g. not undertaking efforts to manage a stressor, and/or emotional disengagement, e.g. suppressing the distress associated with a stressor. In the CLD the variable reflective of a person’s coping strategy is referred to as "problem avoidance relative to problem approaching" because in reality people are likely to mix problem avoidance and problem approaching. | |
Reappraisal | Re-evaluating the meaning of a stimulus over a period of time [65]. | |
Secondary appraisal | Describes the process of assessing whether the resources available can meet the demands raised by a stressor, which determines whether the stressor is appraised as controllable or uncontrollable (follows primary appraisal) [11,12,13]. | |
Socioeconomic resources | Include “money, knowledge, power, prestige, and the kinds of interpersonal resources embodied in the concepts of social support and social network” [15]. | |
Solvability of stressors | Refers to what people can actually do to alter the outcomes of stressors. | |
Stimulus | Refers to “any agent, event, or situation—internal or external—that elicits a response” [66]. | |
Stress response | Those cognitive, affective and biological reactions induced by a stressor [1]. | |
Stressor | A stimulus which is appraised as stressful, having been identified as a threat as opposed to a challenge [11, 63]. | |