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Fig. 5 | BMC Medicine

Fig. 5

From: Understanding the impact of exposure to adverse socioeconomic conditions on chronic stress from a complexity science perspective

Fig. 5

Feedback loop: perception of stressors as uncontrollable due to learned helplessness. This feedback loop explains how the secondary appraisal of a stressor as uncontrollable may originate from undermined access to coping resources. Past exposure to uncontrollable stressors, which is associated with adverse socioeconomic conditions, can undermine access to coping resources. The secondary appraisal of a stressor as uncontrollable may evoke problem avoidance, which may in turn further undermine access to coping resources, making it even more likely that stressors are appraised as uncontrollable. In the literature, the phenomenon emerging from this amplifying feedback loop has been described as learned helplessness

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