Control and the Human Stress Response

Abstract

It was the purpose of the preceding chapter to sensitize the reader to the notion that the patient’s personologic style (personality) serves as a critical epiphenomenological factor in the etiology and treatment of stress-related disorders. In concert with this view, Lazarus (1975) has stated that personality-based idiosycrasies determine the manner in which an individual appraises and interprets his/or her environment. Further, Lazarus argues that personologic variations determine the subsequent experienced emotion, as well as influence the target-organ arousal that is ultimately experienced by the individual. Thus, it may be argued that personologic factors serve as a critical form of “filtering mechanism” that serves to shape one’s idiosyncratic reality.

...grant me the strength to change what I can, the courage to bear what I cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference.

—Reinhold Niebuhr, 1934