Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

474 Chapter 
14 
Health Psychology: Stress, Coping, and Well-Being
he attributes it to some factor unrelated to his self-esteem, 
such as a previous commitment of the woman he asked, the 
experience of being refused may create no stress at all. Hence, 
a person’s interpretation of events plays an important role in 
the determination of what is stressful (Folkman & Moskowitz, 
2000; Giacobbi Jr., et al., 2004; Friborg et al., 2006). 
CATEGORIZING STRESSORS 
What kinds of events tend to be seen as stressful? There are 
three general types of stressors: cataclysmic events, personal 
stressors, and background stressors. 
 Cataclysmic events  are strong stressors that occur sud-
denly and typically affect many people simultaneously. Disas-
ters such as tornadoes and plane crashes as well as terrorist 
attacks are examples of cataclysmic events that can affect hun-
dreds or thousands of people simultaneously. 
Although it might seem that cataclysmic events would 
produce potent, lingering stress, in many cases they do not. In 
fact, cataclysmic events involving natural disasters may pro-
duce less stress in the long run than events that initially are 
not as devastating. One reason is that natural disasters have a 
clear resolution. Once they are over, people can look to the 
future knowing that the worst is behind them. Moreover, oth-
ers who also experienced the disaster share the stress induced 
by cataclysmic events. Such sharing permits people to offer 
one another social support and a fi rsthand understanding of 
the diffi culties others are going through (Hobfoll et al., 1996; 
Benight, 2004; Yesilyaprak, Kisac, & Sanlier, 2007). 
In contrast, terrorist attacks like the one on the World 
Trade Center in 2001 are cataclysmic events that produce con-
siderable stress. Terrorist attacks are deliberate, and victims 
(and observers) know that future attacks are likely. Govern-
ment warnings in the form of heightened terror alerts may 
further increase the stress (Murphy, Wismar, & Freeman, 2003; 
Laugharne, Janca, & Widiger, 2007). 
The second major category of stressor is the personal 
stressor.  Personal stressors  include major life events such as 
the death of a parent or spouse, the loss of one’s job, a major 
personal failure, or even something positive such as getting 
married. Typically, personal stressors produce an immediate 
major reaction that soon tapers off. For example, stress arising 
from the death of a loved one tends to be greatest just after the time of death, but 
people begin to feel less stress and are better able to cope with the loss after the 
passage of time. 
Some victims of major catastrophes and severe personal stressors experience