Selye's Transactional Theory Summary

Building on Selye’s interpretation of stress, Lazarus came up with a transactional model of stress using the concept of appraisal. This appraisal theory must be considered when looking at the potential sources of stress, as due to its subjective nature, not every individual will find the same things stressful. Each person has strengths and weaknesses resulting from a combination of genetic and experience factors. In what is known as a ‘person environment fit’ (Lazarus and Launier, 1978), a stress response is determined by whether or not an interaction between an individual and their environment was interpreted as being stressful by that individual. This is known as primary appraisal. Lazarus and Folkman (1984) identified four ways that a situation can be primarily appraised – irrelevant, benign and positive, threatening, and challenging. After the situation has been interpreted,

The system together can be known as the neuroendocrine system and contains endocrine glands that are under control of the nervous system (Curtis, 2000). There is also a second pathway which mobilises the body for action, consisting of the pituitary gland and hypothalamus working together to produce and control hormones, known as the HPA or ‘Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical activation’. The anterior pituitary gland is stimulated to release ACTH (adrenocorticotrophic hormone) as a result of the stimulation of the hypothalamus. This hormone then acts on the adrenal glands to secrete glucocorticoids (for example, cortisol), and is vital to the stress response, allowing the body to be able to manage injury and release stress. The notion of different sources of stress can also come into play here, as the varying aray of situations an individual goes through will require varying degrees of physiological activation (Goldstein and McEwan,