The interactive process of adaptation to stress and implications for intervention

Abstract

Human adaptation to stress involves the understanding of contextual and personal variables, and also the specific stress event. This complexity is a challenging topic not only for researchers interested in the topic of stress but also for delivering public policies dedicated to control the negative effects of stressful work conditions to individuals, families, and organizations. In this chapter, we will debate occupational stress in a dual perspective. First, we propose the Interactive Model of Human Adaptation to Stress (Gomes, 2014) that gives particular relevance to processes of cognitive appraisal on the relation between the stressful event and the individual responses to stress. Second, we will analyze implications of the interactive model for intervention, emphasizing techniques that can be useful to prevent the negative effects of stress and that can indeed promote positive adaptation to work demands.