Stress and Stress Management: A Cognitive View

Extreme variability has been observed in individual responses to stressors. It appears that a more detailed analysis of individual variation in cognitions related to stress may result in a greater understanding of their differential responses. An idiographic cognitive model of the psychological processes that mediate stress and that underlie stress management techniques is presented in the form of an illustrative series of hypotheses based on Beck's cognitive model (Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979). The model is presented in detail and is applied to a clinical case example in which traditional nomothetic stress management techniques were ineffective. The advantages and disadvantages of a more idiographic approach to stress are examined as are the implications of the cognitive view of stress for research and practice.