Adaptation

A change in functioning or coping style that results in a better adjustment of a person to his or her environment

Afrocentric relational theory

Assumes a collective identity for people rather than valuing individuality; places great value on the spiritual or nonmaterial aspects of life

Coping

A person’s efforts to master the demands of stress, including the thoughts, feelings, and actions that constitute those efforts

Crisis

A major upset in psychological equilibrium as a result of some hazardous event, experienced as a threat or loss, with which the person cannot cope

Daily hassles

Common occurrences that are taxing; used to measure stress

Defense mechanisms

Unconscious, automatic responses that enable a person to minimize perceived threats or keep them out of awareness entirely

Emotion-focused coping

Coping efforts in which a person attempts to change either the way a stressful situation is attended to (by vigilance or avoidance) or the meaning of what is happening. Most effective when situations are not readily controllable by action

General adaptation syndrome

The physical process of coping with a stressor through the stages of alarm awareness of the threat), resistance (efforts to restore homeostasis), and exhaustion (the termination of coping efforts because of the body’s inability to sustain the state of disequilibrium)

Homeostasis

Equilibrium; a positive, steady state of biological, psychological, or social functioning

Neural plasticity

The capacity of the nervous system to be modified by experience

Object relations theory

A psychodynamic theory that considers that our ability to form lasting attachments is based on early experiences of separation from and connection with our primary caregivers

Personal network

Those from the social network who provide a person with his or her most essential support resources

Person-in-environment (PIE) classification system

A classification system developed for the purpose of social work assessment. Assessment is based on four factors: social functioning problems, environmental problems, mental health problems, and physical health problems

Posttraumatic stress disorder

A set of symptoms experienced by some trauma survivors that include reliving the traumatic event, avoidance of stimuli related to the event, and hyperarousal

Problem-focused coping

: Coping efforts in which the person attempts to change a stress situation by acting on the environment. Most effective when situations are controllable by action

Relational coping

Coping that takes into account actions that maximize the survival of others as well as ourselves

Role strain

Problems experienced in the performance of specific roles. Used by sociologists to measure stress

Social identity theory

A stage theory of socialization that articulates the process by which we come to identify with some social groups and develop a sense of difference from other social groups

Social network

The people with whom a person routinely interacts; the patterns of interaction that result from exchanging resources with others

Social support

The interpersonal interactions and relationships that provide persons with assistance or feelings of attachment to others they perceive as caring

State

A personality characteristic that changes over time depending on the social or stress context

Stress

Any biological, psychological, or social event in which environmental demands or internal demands, or both, tax or exceed the adaptive resources of the individual

Stress/diathesis models

Perspectives on mental and emotional disorders in which a disorder is considered to be the result of interactions of environmental stresses and the person’s genetic or biochemical predisposition to the disorder

Trait

A stable personality characteristic

Traumatic stress

Stress associated with events that involve actual or threatened severe injury or death of oneself or significant others