Explain coping and the relationship between personality and coping.
Personality can have a strong effect on the style and effectiveness of coping. A person who expresses negative affectivity, or neuroticism, is likely prone to poor coping skills and is at risk of various negative health factors. Negative affectivity is a negative mood often seen in individuals that are anxious, depressed and/or hostile (Taylor, 2017). Being prone to expressing negative affectivity is related to poor health habits, illusory physical symptoms, and poor treatment response (Taylor, 2017). On the contrary, having a positive outlook promotes better mental and physical health, lower levels of stress indicators, better immune response, and improves coping (Taylor, 2017).
Explain the term stress moderators, and provide an example of a stress moderator.
Stress moderators help to modify how stress is experienced and the effects it has (Taylor, 2017). Stress moderators come in many varieties and can be either an external resource or an internal resource. One such stress moderator is resilience, helps people to “bounce back” from bad experiences and adapt to changing demands of a stressful situation (Taylor, 2017). Through resilience, an individual can better manage the various stresses of life with persistence and flexibility.
