Social identity shapes stress appraisals in people with a history of depression

A stress-coping model of mental illness stigma: I. Predictors of cognitive stress appraisal

The authors examine how allocentrism, or the importance placed on ingroups, relates to the perceived homogeneity and entitativity (groupness)of relational (interpersonal) and collective (categorical) ingroups. In two studies (N s = 198, 90), allocentrism is shown to be positively related to perceptions of ingroup entitativity and homogeneity. This pattern was obtained, however, only for perceptions of collective ingroups. Ethnic differences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic White participants’ perceptions of ingroups were mediated by allocentrism (Study 1). Participants in Study 2 were members of a laboratory task group and their levels of allocentrism predicted their perceptions of the group’s homogeneity and entitativity regardless of the actual homogeneity of the group. The effects of allocentrism on perceptions of ingroups are discussed in terms of self-esteem, group identification, and responses to ingroup members’ deviations from norms.

Self-perceived problem-solving ability, stress appraisal, and coping over time

The value of psychological principles has become apparent in medical settings, especially with the rise of patient-centered care. We aimed to provide a curriculum informing medical providers about the theoretical basis and clinical utility of the social-cognitive model of stress and coping. This workshop was delivered to an interprofessional team of faculty and trainees. Our initial pedagogical approach was to relate the concepts of cognitive appraisals and coping strategies to participants' own stress responses. We then used didactic presentation and small-group activities to explore ways to promote adaptive coping with patients to improve health outcomes. Learners participated in a mindfulness exercise, conceptualized coping strategies given a hypothetical case scenario, and, in small groups, role-played a patient encounter to construct an effective coping repertoire for the patient. Participants completed a prework self-assessment and workshop evaluation form. The 2.5-hour workshop had 48 participants from five professions (medicine, education, physician assistant, pharmacology, psychology). We received 35 evaluations (73% response rate). Learners reported increased real-world skills (M = 8.0 out of 10) and feeling better prepared for working in interprofessional settings (M = 7.6 out of 10). Qualitative feedback suggested that participants recognized the importance of individual differences in coping with stress and felt they could categorize strategies into emotion- or problem-focused coping. This workshop provided participants with basic knowledge about the social-cognitive model of stress and coping and allowed them to practice newly learned skills in a role-play as an interprofessional medical care team.

This paper presents relationships between personality traits and stress levels in light of the transactional model of stress. The framework of the transactional model was applied to determine the significance of work with a robot for primary and secondary stress appraisal made by an individual. We decided to use the Big Five personality traits model as one which integrates the dimensions of personality and had been previously applied to research on stress. The participants in our three-wave study were 105 students doing an industrial robots programming course. Using Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) and Questionnaire for Primary and Secondary Appraisal (PASA) questionnaires, we gathered information about the students’ personality, the level of anticipated stress, and the stress experienced while working with a robot after 6 and 12 weeks. The obtained results prove that emotional stability is significant for secondary appraisal of anticipated stress. The results also show that openness to experience is a negative predictor, whereas conscientiousness is a positive predictor of primary stress appraisal. The ability to cope with stress after 12 weeks of work with a robot is appraised as higher by older, more conscientious, and introverted people. The obtained results are discussed from the psychological perspective of stress and personality, which complements earlier studies in technical sciences. The limitations of the study are also indicated.

Unmitigated stress can lead to a variety of negative health and emotional outcomes, negatively affecting overall quality of life. Individuals' stress appraisal and coping responses to stress influence the extent to which they are affected by stress. This study explores the relationship between secondary stress appraisal (controllability) and coping responses to tourism-related stressors such as unmet development expectations. A total of 363 pen and paper surveys were administered face-to-face to a systematic random sample of residents of Falmouth, Jamaica—a community that recently hosted the development of a new Caribbean cruise port. A structural equation model revealed that the appraisal of stress as controllable had a significant positive relationship with problem-focused coping and positive outlook coping responses as well as a significant negative relationship with less effective wishful thinking coping responses. The appraisal of stress as controllable by someone else had a significant positive relationship with seeking social support coping responses. The appraisal of stress as uncontrollable was significantly negatively related with wishful thinking coping responses. This study is a first step toward understanding the complex and continually changing process of stress appraisal and coping engaged in by residents of a tourism host community.

Background: Disparities in prostate cancer (PCa) incidence and mortality persist among African Americans. Functional well-being plays a crucial role in the prognosis and survival of PCa patients. Prior studies show the association between African American race and health-related quality of life among PCa patients. However, no studies have examined possible mediational processes linking race to functional well-being in this population. Objective: To assess the association between race and functional well-being and the mediating pathways of clinical, social determinants, and psychological factors in PCa patients. Methods: We used clinic-based cohort data of PCa patients treated with radical prostatectomy from April 2017 through September 2021. We measured functional well-being, socioeconomic factors, social stressors, perceived stress, and primary and secondary appraisal by self-report. We obtained clinical variables such as disease stage, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, and comorbidities through electronic medical records. We first conducted a path analysis based on linear regression to test the direct association between race and functional well-being, adjusting for age, marital status, education level, employment status, and income. We concurrently examined the mediational pathways linking race to functional well-being via mediators, including stage, PSA, primary appraisal, secondary appraisal, perceived stress, and social isolation. Results: A total of 163 participants (48 African American, 115 White) with a mean age of 66.7 years (SD=6.31) were included in the study. Participants' mean score of functional well-being was 20.32 (SD=6.70; Range=0-28). Compared to White individuals, African American participants exhibited significantly lower levels of functional well-being (b [95% CI] = -3.09 [-5.48, -0.72]). Mediation analyses linking race to functional well-being revealed that, compared to Whites, African Americans displayed significantly lower levels of secondary appraisal (b [95% CI] = -1.45 [-2.85, -0.05]), which, in turn, were associated with higher levels of functional well-being (b [95% CI] = 0.27 [0.01, 0.53]). In addition, African Americans also displayed higher levels of social isolation (b [95% CI] = 0.55 [0.14, 0.97]), which were significantly associated with lower levels of functional well-being (b [95% CI] = -0.91 [-1.64, -0.17]). Both indirect effects of race → secondary appraisal → functional well-being (b [95% CI] = -0.39 [-0.88, -0.01]) and race → social isolation → functional well-being (b [95% CI] = -0.50 [-1.06, -0.02]) were significant and explained 12.6% and 16.2%, respectively, of the total relationship between race and functional well-being. Conclusion: Social isolation and secondary appraisal mediate the association between race and functional well-being among prostate cancer survivors. There is a need to understand the lived experiences of Black men and develop interventions that mitigate the impact of social barriers and psychological stressors on functional well-being to advance health equity. Citation Format: Fatimata Sanogo, Junhan Cho, Trista Beard, Chanita Hughes Halbert. Social isolation and secondary appraisal mediate the association between race and functional well-being among prostate cancer survivors [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 17th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2024 Sep 21-24; Los Angeles, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2024;33(9 Suppl):Abstract nr C060.

P03-183 - A stress-coping model of mental illness stigma: cognitive stress appraisal, emotional reactions, coping and outcomes

IA30: Modeling of socioeconomic wellbeing, follow-up care communication, stress appraisal, coping, and physical functioning among Chinese and non-Hispanic white breast cancer survivors

Rescue workers are frequently exposed to highly stressful situations during their everyday work activity. Stress and coping theory emphasizes the interaction between primary and secondary appraisal in determining coping responses to stressful events and quality of life. According to Social Cognitive Theory, stress reactions depend on self-appraisal of coping capabilities. The present study investigated whether self-efficacy moderates the relationship between stress appraisal and professional quality of life. A self-administered questionnaire was submitted to a sample of 451 Italian rescue workers (firefighters, paramedics, and medical technicians), including the Professional Quality of Life Scale, which measures three dimensions of emergency workers' quality of working life: compassion fatigue, burnout, and compassion satisfaction. Multiple regression analyses indicated that the relationship between stress appraisal and professional quality of life was significant only among rescue workers with low levels of self-efficacy but not among those with higher levels of self-efficacy. These results confirmed the expectations based on Social Cognitive Theory that self-efficacy buffers the impact of perceived stressful encounters on professional quality of life. Results suggest the usefulness of interventions aimed at increasing rescue workers' psychosocial skills.

Three studies systematically explored the relationship between social support and group identification in the context of how individuals cope with stress. In Study 1, 101 participants took part in a simulated group task where they either received social support or not under conditions of either high or low demand. Social support was associated with higher group identification, and this mediated the effect of social support on more positive appraisals and task satisfaction. In Study 2, 83 participants were either made aware of their group membership or worked as individuals on a group task under high or low demand. In this study, group membership salience was associated with greater perceived support, which was associated with greater group identification, and subsequently more positive primary and secondary appraisals, more problem-focused coping, and task satisfaction. Study 3 assessed the perceived social support and group identification reported by 71 volleyball team members before and after a game. Results were more consistent with the notion that support and identification were two concurrent perceptions associated with being in a group, rather than identification priming the recognition of support or support increasing identification.

(1) Background: The present study examined how social comparison orientation, stress appraisal and different social comparison strategies interact in women facing chronic illness. (2) Methods: Assessments were conducted by a trained professional in face-to face semistructured interviews (n = 179 women with chronic illness). Main outcome measures included social comparison scales and a stress appraisal questionnaire. The mediation model, by a bootstrapping procedure, was used to analyze the interaction among variables. (3) Results: Regarding the relationships among variables studied, they were related to each other except for a downward contrast, which allowed us to propose our hypothetical mediation model. Results showed that stress appraisal fully mediates between social comparison orientation and social comparison strategies except for the upward identification strategy. (4) Conclusions: Our results suggest that uncertainty, feelings of threat and low control over one’s illness or, in general, stress appraisal, had an important mediating effects over social comparison processes in patients with chronic illnesses. Therefore, by understanding the stress appraisal process, and the variables that might modify it, we could improve the use of social comparison as a favorable coping strategy.

The current study extends previous works on group identification by focusing on how social identity complexity and entitativity interact to impact group identification. The purpose of the current study is to test the hypothesis that people with a simple social identity identify more strongly with a highly entitative group and people with complex social identity identify more strongly with a group low in entitativity. Participants’ social identity complexity and entitativity about a group were manipulated, and with that group was measured. Results demonstrated that participants primed with a simple social identity identified more strongly with a more highly entitative group, whereas identification with the high and low entitativity groups did not differ for participants primed with a complex social identity.

This paper presents two studies, conducted in two different countries, investigating perceptions of ingroups as enduring, temporally persistent entities, and introduces a new instrument measuring ‘perceived collective continuity’ (PCC). In Study 1 we show that perceptions of ingroup continuity are based on two main dimensions: perceived cultural continuity (perceived continuity of norms and traditions) and perceived historical continuity (perceived interconnection between different historical ages and events). This study also allows the construction of an internally consistent PCC scale including two subscales tapping on these two dimensions. Study 2 replicates findings from the first study; it also reveals that PCC is positively correlated to a set of social identity‐related measures (e.g., group identification and collective self‐esteem), and that its effects on these measures are mediated by perceived group entitativity. Overall, these two studies confirm that PCC is an important theoretical construct, and that the PCC scale may become an important instrument in future research on group processes and social identity. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Self-esteem and optimism have been associated with appraisal and outcomes in a variety of situations. The degree to which the contribution of self-esteem and optimism to outcomes over time is accounted for by the differences in threat (primary) or resource (secondary) appraisal has not been established in persons with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). To examine the longitudinal relationship of personality (self-esteem and optimism) on primary and secondary appraisal and outcomes of well-being, mood, CD4+ T-lymphocyte count, and selected activities. Men (n = 56) and women (n = 42) infected with HIV completed eight self-report measures twice over 18 months. Hierarchical Multiple Regressions were used to examine the relationship of personality variables on appraisals and outcomes. The mediating effects of primary and secondary appraisals were explored. Self-esteem uniquely accounted for 6% of the variance in primary appraisal and 5% in secondary appraisal. Optimism accounted for 8% of the unique variance in secondary appraisal. Primary and secondary appraisal mediated differently between personality and outcome variables. A strong predictor of well-being, mood disturbance, and activity disruption at Time 2 was participants' initial level of these variables. Socioeconomic status was a strong predictor of mood. Self-esteem and optimism are important but different resources for adapting to HIV disease. Strategies for reducing threats and increasing resources associated with HIV may improve an individual's mood and sense of well-being.