Abstract
One of the central themes of this book is the adaptive nature of human response to stress and environmental demands. The basis of adaptive behaviour has not been systematically studied, though it may provide the key to the understanding of individual differences in stress proneness and health-related behaviour. It may also prove fundamental in the development of a general theory of effects of stress on performance and efficiency, for example by focusing attention on the processes which underlie successful and unsuccessful environmental management. The present paper puts forward a model of regulatory activity underlying stress management and coping, based on the “variable state theory” interpretation of stress effects (Hamilton, Hockey & Rejman, 1977). The initial analysis of stress effects leads to a proposal of a broader, more widely — applicable mechanism for adaptive regulation of behaviour. This theory suggests a number of possible sources for the derivation of individual differences. These may arise within the control system itself, or in intrinsic variability in both cognitive and energetical resources.
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© 1986 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht
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Hockey, G.R.J. (1986). A State Control Theory of Adaptation and Individual Differences in Stress Management. In: Hockey, G.R.J., Gaillard, A.W.K., Coles, M.G.H. (eds) Energetics and Human Information Processing. NATO ASI Series, vol 31. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4448-0_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4448-0_19
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