Appraisal and Stress
Although certain environmental demands and pressures produce stress in substantial numbers of people, individual and group differences in the degree and kind
of reaction are almost always evident. People and groups differ in their sensitivity
and vulnerability to experiencing stress in response to certain workplace events
(Lazarus, 1979). Under comparable conditions, for example job insecurity, one
employee may perceive that their well being is under threat, while another may
feel challenged or motivated (seeJordan et al., 2002). Similarly, individuals can
display varying responses to similar workplace stressors, depending on their
evaluation of the situation, which may vary depending on a transitory emotional
state or different environmental conditions (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). For
example, when in a positive mood, people are more likely to appraise stressors
positively as challenges (Isen, 1999), whereas when in a negative mood, they are
more likely to perceive workplace events as hassles, or obstacles to well being
(see Fiedler, 2001). Lazarus and Folkman (1984)suggest further that, in order
to understand differences in individuals’ experience of stress under comparable
workplace conditions, individuals must take into account the cognitive appraisal
process that intervenes between the encounter and the reaction, and the internal
and external factors that affect the nature of this mediation.
Lazarus and Folkman (1984)defined appraisal as a cognitive evaluation of
an environmental stimulus that is internal or external to the individual, with
respect to its significance for well being, or the attainment of personal goals. It
is this cognitive process that gives meaning to situations and events that occur
in the workplace. Lazarus and Folkman also distinguished between two forms of
appraisal: primary appraisal, which functions to determine whether the stimulus
has any affective significance (whether it affects one’s well being); and secondary
appraisal, which functions to determine the individual’s coping potential. The
primary appraisal establishes whether the event is a potential threat or stressor,
while the secondary appraisal evaluates that whether the outcome of this event
will be positive or negative (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984).
Lazarus and Folkman (1984)described three forms of primary appraisal: (1)
irrelevant; (2) benign-positive; and (3) stressful. When a workplace event carries
no implication for a person’s well being, it is appraised as irrelevant. The event will
evoke no physiological, cognitive, behavioral, or emotional change in the person,
for whom the event has no affective significance. That is, the event presents no
perceived obstacle to the person’s values or goals and hence has no impact upon
personal investment. The benign/positive appraisals occur if the event is perceived
to preserve, to maintain, or to enhance a person’s situation. These appraisals
often evoke positive emotional responses such as joy, happiness, relief, and/or
excitement. Stress appraisals, on the other hand, include the perception of an
event ensuing harm/loss, threat, or challenge to one’s psychological or social well
being. While perceptions of harm or loss involve an appraisal of damage that has
already taken place, the appraisal of threat concerns the perception of harms or
losses that have not yet occurred, but are anticipated outcomes of the workplace
event. As such, perceptions of threat mobilize anticipatory coping behaviors that
function to prepare the individual for the need to adapt to changing environmental
demands, or to prevent the actualization of the threat. The third kind of stress
appraisal, challenge, has much in common with threat in that it also mobilizes
the individual for adaptive functioning. The main difference is that challenge
appraisals focus on the potential for gain or growth that potentially accompanies
adaptive change, and hence functions to ensure the actualization of the anticipated
environmental change. Furthermore, while threat is associated with emotions
such as fear, anxiety, and anger, challenge is characterized by positive emotions
associated with motivation, such as exhilaration.
With regard to the effects of the stress experienced on performance outcomes,
Lazarus and Folkman (1984)propose that a positive appraisal of the stressor, as
a challenge or motivation, will result in increased effort and positive performance
outcomes, while a negative appraisal of the stressor as a threat, will result in a
defensive “fight or flight” response, similar to that described as resistance coping
bySeyle (1976), which inevitably leads to exhaustion or burn out (see Schaufeli,
Maslach & Marek, 1993). Thus, individuals who are, by nature, optimistic will tend
to primarily appraisal situational cues as benign or positive, and hence experience
positive affect. Furthermore, as noted byIsen (1999), a positive affective state can
influence information processing such that either, negative emotional situational
cues are undetected, or it is that potential stressors are interpreted otherwise.
Stress appraisal is an adaptive process whereby the task of evaluating events
with respect to the implications for personal well being is a continuing struggle
to balance environmental realities and personal goals. The primary function
of appraisal is, in effect, to integrate the two as effectively as possible for
adaptive success. Individuals differ in their appraisal and integration of stressors,
however, as both perceptions of environmental realities and personal goals are
subject to individual differences. Although people perceive and understand their
environments with remarkable objectivity (Patterson & Neufeld, 1987), the
number of possible environmental cues significantly outweighs that which we
are capable of perceiving and attending. Because situations are often ambiguous,
individuals attend to and process them selectively, based on goal hierarchies and
psychosocial beliefs or heuristics about themselves and their world. Furthermore,
as mentioned above, situational demands may also be processed differentially
between, and within individuals depending on the existence of stable or transient
emotional states.
The role of appraisal in the stress response process is therefore to identify
situational cues that are relevant to personal goals, and then to evaluate the
extent of the threat, challenge, harm, loss, or benefit. This secondary appraisal
involves the evaluation of personal resources or coping capabilities. The size
of discrepancy between personal resources or capabilities and environmental
demands corresponds to the quality or intensity of emotional responses to the
stressor. Finally, the impact of emotional stress responses on cognitions and
behaviors is influenced by the individual’s ability to access and to utilize personal
resources effectively in order to modulate the emotional experience of stress
into adaptive behavioral expressions under stress. We take up this issue in more
detail next.