Health Psychology: Stress And Coping Case Study Example

When confronted with a stressful situation, it is important to remain calm and self-controlled. Of course, this is much easier said than done. People have different ways of responding to stress, and for some people, coping with stress is not easy. Learning how to deal with and manage stress will help us lead healthier, happier lives.
This paper focuses on Case Study #2. In this case study, Jamiel is having a very stressful day. First, he missed his bus to work, and was 30 minutes late. When he finally gets to work, he has to rush to prepare for his presentation for his new boss, but he can't print out his notes. Then, he accidentally spills coffee all over himself and his desk. Bad day for Jamiel!
Jamiel could probably benefit from learning some techniques to deal with stress. Positive self-talk is one way people learn to cope with stressful emotions. Positive self-talk helps us calm down and control our stress levels. For example, Jamiel may be feeling that everything is falling out of his control, and that nothing is going right. However, if he engages in some positive self-talk, it could help him to alter his perspective of the situation. If he says to himself “I can handle things if I take them one step at a time,” he will feel less defeated by the unfortunate sequence of events that have unfolded, and he will realize that things are not so bad.
Jamiel may also want to practice some stress stoppers. He can try counting to ten before he makes his next move, take some deep breaths, or walk away from the situation for a moment to catch some air. There are many different things he could try right now to help him calm down and regain composure.
Stress is not always avoidable. It's important to learn how to deal with stress in a constructive, thoughtful, and self-compassionate manner, since stress is bound to affect us many times in our lives. I have chosen to focus on the topic of coping with stress because I feel that I could personally benefit from learning this skill. The greater the variety of tools we have to deal with a situation, the better prepared we will be to confront stress in the future.

References

Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., & Guthrie, I. K. (1997). Coping with stress. In Handbook of children’s coping (pp. 41-70). Springer US.