RISK PROCESS (risk factors) correlated

with problematic individual outcomes such as personal distress, mental disorders or behavior problems.

PROTECTIVE PROCESS
- which are strengths or resources associated with positive individual outcomes.

DISTAL FACTORS
are predisposing processes , which directly and indirectly shape stressors, resources, coping processes and outcomes.

DISTAL CONTEXTUAL FACTORS

it includes environmental conditions in various life domains. - it can also cause chronic stressors that involve long term scarcity.

 DISTAL PERSONAL FACTORS - these includes genetic and biological factors, personality traits such as shyness or extraversion.

PROXIMAL PROCESSES more immediately related to

stress and coping. * MAJOR LIFE EVENTS EACH EVENT IS A ASSIGNED A POINT VALUE TO ESTIMATE THE AMOUNT OF CHANGE OR ADJUSTMENTS REQUIRES OF THE INDIVIDUAL.

PROXIMAL STRESSORS:
PROXIMAL: their precipitating, relatively direct relationship to stress and coping.

STRESSORS: risk factors involving both individuals and environments. They vary in severity, personal meaning, and point of impact.

Stressors act as antecedents, prior to appraisal and coping. However, stressors and coping responses shape each other to some extent.

PROXIMAL STRESSORS
* LIFE TRANSITIONS THESE PRODUCE AN ENDURING CHANGE IN PERSONS LIFE CONTEXT, REQUIRING THE LEARNING OF NEW SKILLS OR ASSUMPTION OF NEW ROLES. * DAILY HASSLES IT INCLUDES FAMILY ARGUMENTS AND TRAFFIC JAMS. * DISASTERS THESE AFFECT ENTIRE COMMUNITIES , REGIONS AND NATIONS. * VICIOUS SPIRALS CASCADING PATTERNS OF MULTIPLE STRESSORS, SET IN MOTION WHEN THE LOSS OF ONE RESOUCRCE TRIGGERS OTHER LOSSES.

STRESS REACTIONS
STRESS REACTION: the personal experience of stress includes physiological, emotional and cognitive components which are interdependent and often cyclical.

COGNITIVE APPRAISAL it is the ongoing process of constructing the meaning of stressful situation or event. emotional experienced and expression are influenced by culture, gender roles and context.

RESOURCES ACTIVATED for COPING: 1. Material resources: money, employment, housing, food, clothing, transportation, and health insurances 2. Socio-emotional competencies: major focus of prevention-promotion program in community psychology. Personal competencies for coping: self-regulation skills: managing emotions, motivations, cognitions, and other intrapersonal processes. Social competencies: needed in order to connect with others and make use of the resources they offer. EMPATHY, the most basic social skill, involves accurate understanding of the emotions of others. Making personal connections, building relationships, and managing conflicts are crucial. ASSERTIVENESS also matters. 3. Social resources: It takes a village to raise a child 4. Cultural resources: traditions, rituals, beliefs, and narratives provides systems of meaning for interpreting stressors 5. Social support: social settings as youth groups, mutual help organizations, and religious congregations. 6. Mutual help groups 7. Spiritual resources:

COPING PROCESSES
COPING PROCESSES: responses or processes ( e.g. actions, cognitions, self-regulatory practices ) that a person uses to reduce stress. COPING: a dynamic process that fluctuates over time according to the demands of the situation, the available resources and the ongoing appraisal and emotions. APPRAISAL: the ongoing process of constructing the meaning of stressful situation of event. . The most relevant aspects of appraisal include the extent to which the situation is seen as challenging or threatening, expected or unexpected, and largely controllable or not. REAPPRAISAL: or REFRAMING a problem involves altering ones perception of the situation or its meaning. CATEGORIES OF COPIN: A. Problem focused: coping involves addressing a problem situation directly, especially by making a plan to change the situation and following that plan. B. Emotion-focused: coping that addresses the emotions that accompany the problem rather than the stressor itself. Example is exercising or meditating to reduce anxiety, or seeking emotional support from friends or family. C. Meaning-focused coping that involves finding meaning in the stressor by reappraising it, especially if this leads to growth or learning of important lessons. It maybe based on deeper values, whether secular or spiritual, as when suffering is interpreted as leading to growth.

NOTES:

1. These categories may OVERLAP. 2. Each category contains diverse subtypes. COPING IS CONTEXTUAL: From an ecological perspective, coping is contextual wise coping choices are based on the context and the person, not on generalities. There is no coping style or strategy that is always superior. Societal and cultural factors, gender and other forms of diversity, ecological level, and the stressor itself must all be taken into account.

COPING IS DYNAMIC and CONTEXTUAL: Outcomes are not end states but simply one more step in the cyclical processes of coping.

COPING OUTCOMES:
1. WELLNESS: not only the absence of symptoms of disorders or distress; it is the experience of positive outcomes in health and subjective well-being. Life satisfaction, job satisfaction, positive affect, self-esteem, and academic achievement are wellness outcomes. 2. RESILIENCE: maintaining or returning to a prior level of health during stressful circumstances. It arises from the interplay of environmental and individual factors. 3. THRIVING: process of growth that takes them beyond their prior level of functioning RESILIENCE PLUS: in the face of stressors, not only holding ones ground but growing through experience.

4. SOCIAL EMBEDDEDNESS: many positive outcomes involve closer ties to family, friends, community or other social groupings. These ties provide meaningful relationships and psychological sense of community meaningful in themselves as well as allies for pursuing goals and coping resources for future stressors. Negative outcomes such as family discord and community fragmentation also can occur. 5. EMPOWERNESS: gaining access to valued resources. It involves actually gaining power in some way, not simply feeling more powerful. Increased access to resources may be an important outcome of coping.

INTERVENTIONS TO PROMOTE COPING

1. SOCIAL and POLICY ADVOCACY: It may involve working to raise public awareness of an issue, such as gaining media attention for the needs of disaster victims. It may involve social action, such as protesting cuts in mental health or youth development programs. 2. ORGANIZATIONAL CONSULTATION: Community and organizational psychologists consult with these settings, seeking to: change organizational policies; alter organizational roles, decision making, or communication; or deal with issues such as work-family relationships, human diversity, and inter-group conflict. 3. ALTERNATIVE SETTINGS: At times, the limitations of an agency, clinic, or other setting may be so great that citizens or professionals form an alternative setting to serve clients in a different way. 4. COMMUNITY COALITION: This approach involves bringing together representatives from a local community to address issues such as preventing drug abuse or promoting health or youth development.

INTERVENTIONS TO PROMOTE COPING

5. PREVENTION and PROMOTION PROGRAMS: These seek to reduce the incidence of personal problems in living, mental disorders, and illness, or to promote health, personal development or academic achievement. 6. CRISIS INTERVENTION: The most promising crisis intervention approaches immediately after traumatic events focus on providing emotional support, practical assistance, information about coping, and encouraging later use of ones own sources of support and treatment if needed. 7. COLLABORATION with COMMUNITY RESOURCES: Community resources are outside treatment system. These include mutual help groups, consumer advocates, womens services, spiritual and religious settings, indigenous healers and elders, and holistic health practitioners. 8. CASE MANAGEMENT: Complementing professional treatment are innovations in casework and client advocacy.

SOCIAL SUPPORT
NOTE: It is a key resource for strengthening coping and well-being.

1. GENERALIZED SUPPORT: occur in interpersonal relationships sustained over time, providing the individual with a secure base for living and coping. It is not tailored to one specific stressor and does not necessarily involve behavioral helping in a specific situation. It involves individual perceptions and environmental support, the presence of meaningful others in ones life. It refers to caring and attachment in close personal relationships, such as a strong marriage, parent-child relationship, or friendship. It is measured in terms of PERCEIVED SUPPORT, in which research participants are asked about the general quality or availability of support in their lives.

2. SPECIFIC SUPPORT or ENACTED SUPPORT: is a behavioral help provided to people coping with a particular stressor. It maybe emotional encouragement, information or advice, or tangible assistance such as loaning money. It concerns distress already present in the recipients life, specific support is discernible only when a person needs it, and is tailored to a specific stressor.

SOCIAL SUPPORT NETWORKS

Social support occurs within networks of relationships: 1. MULTIDIMENSIONALITY: Multidimensional relationships are those in which the two persons involved do a number of things together and share a number of role relationships.

2. DENSITY: Your social network also contains relationships between the persons in your network other than you. Network density refers to the extent of these relationships. High-density network: when many ties exist between network members. Low-density network: when few of the members are closely connected to each other.

3. RECIPROCITY: the extent to which the individual both receives support from others and provides it to others. It may be the most important aspect of friendship across the life span

MUTUAL HELP GROUPS

Mutual help, self-help, and mutual support groups are voluntary associations of persons who share soma status that results in difficulties with which the group tries to deal. It is based on peer relationships. It involves an exchange of helping based on interpersonal norms of reciprocity rather than a professional service provided for a fee. Each member both provides aid and receives it. HELPER TEHRAPY PRINCIPLE: providing aid to others promotes ones own wellbeing. SELF-HELP GROUP: facilitates by a person in recovery from the focal problem, and do not have professional involvement. MUTUAL SUPORT GROUPS: are peer led, with some professional involvement, and others involve training and supervision by professionals while also using some elements of mutual support. MUTUAL HELP: it is used to provide focus on the communal aspect of these settings.

DISTINCTIVE FEATURES of MUTUAL HELP GROUPS

1. A focal concern: a problem, life crisis, or issue affecting all members. 2. Peer relationships rather than, or in addition to, a professional-client relationship. 3. Reciprocity of helping: each member both receives and provides help 4. Experiential knowledge for coping. This knowledge is based on the personal experiences of group members who have coped with the focal concern. 5. A community narrative that embodies the experiences of its members. These narratives are expressed in story form a description and explanation of the focal problem, and an explicit guide to recovery or to coping.