Table Of ContentStress, Cognition and Health
The new edition of this bestselling textbook provides a comprehensive overview of
the latest research on stress and health, moving beyond the former deficit model to a
resource growth model. It examines all aspects of the topic, from how the external world
and the impact of technology makes demands upon individuals, through biological and
psychological processes, to outcomes in terms of health and well-being. The process is set
within a dynamic, multilevel systems and developmental lifespan perspective.
The book includes a history of the evolution of stress research and the biological
systems and immune responses that translate external pressures into health outcomes. It
considers the role of personality and cognition in terms of appraisal and coping strategies
set within a social ecology of power and support. The role of positive psychology in
terms of resilience, psychological capital and self-compassion brings the area up to date
in considering the benefits as well as the threats of stress on health and well-being. An
integration of issues of importance in stress research is provided with some suggested
guidelines for both research and practice. Issues around prevention and intervention are
discussed to reduce stress and increase resilience in families, schools, workplaces and
communities, and suggestions for the future development of the field are presented.
With an engaging style, the book is equally accessible to the layperson and the scientist,
the practitioner and the academic. Providing a basis for further exploration of the vast
area of stress and health, it is valuable reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students
and those working in organisations with an interest in understanding and preventing or
alleviating stress.
Tony Cassidy is Emeritus Professor of Child and Family Health Psychology at Ulster
University in Northern Ireland. He has been an active academic for more than thirty-five
years.
Stress, Cognition and Health
Real World Examples and Practical Applications
Second Edition
Tony Cassidy
Cover image: © Getty Images
Second edition published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Tony Cassidy
The right of Tony Cassidy to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in
any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
First edition published by Routledge 1999
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-367-56634-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-56418-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-09873-7 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003098737
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
This book is dedicated to my daughter and my two
granddaughters. May their demands always be challenges
rather than threats.
Contents
Preface viii
1 Stress: what it is and why you should know about it 1
2 Biology, emotion and stress 9
3 The external environment 22
4 Environmental resources 1: support and human relations 29
5 Environmental resources 2: power and control 39
6 Personality and stress 48
7 Cognition and stress 57
8 Positive psychology of stress 72
9 Integrating the concepts 82
10 Prevention and intervention 89
11 Future directions 97
References 106
Index 138
Preface
This second edition is written with a wide range of readers in mind and provides an
up-to-date review of research evidence on the stress process from external demands to
health consequences. There has been a paradigm shift in stress research since the first edi-
tion in the development of a positive psychology, resources-building approach. This new
edition adds evidence on why some people do not exhibit negative symptoms of stress and
the factors that enable them to be resilient. The world we live in makes demands upon
us, which we can see as either threats or challenges. How we appraise events and give
meaning to them will determine the impact on our health and well-being. Our appraisals
are determined by many factors in the external world at many levels and can ultimately
be condensed to how much provision there is for empowerment and support. Core to
this will be our level of resilience. Our experience of the world is constantly changing
both daily and longer term over our lifespan. We can never step in the same river twice.
Knowledge, it is said, is power, and the research base on stress which comprises this book
may empower the reader.
1 Stress
What it is and why you should
know about it
• The psychology of health and illness
• A new era for health and illness
• Psychological factors in health and illness
• The growth of stress research
• The roots of stress as a concept
• Defining stress
• A critical view of stress
• In defence of stress
• Summary
• Overview of chapters to follow
• Further reading
The psychology of health and illness
The biopsychosocial model of health and illness, which is seen as a relatively new devel-
opment in the health sciences, has been part of our heritage for as long as evidence
exists. The biopsychosocial model simply reflects the belief that biological, social and
psychological factors interact in an interdependent or systemic way in maintaining health
or causing illness. It is present in literature throughout the ages, as for example in this
quote:
And thus, the mind preyed upon the body, and disordered the system of the nerves,
and they in turn increased the troubles of the mind, till by action and reaction his
health was seriously impaired.
(Anne Brontë, 1988; Agnes Grey, p. 5)
The link between psychology and physical health was acknowledged before Anne
Brontë, and when she wrote her novel in the remote Haworth parsonage, it is very
likely that her ideas on health and illness were as much inspired by her reading as
by her experience of life. When Hippocrates first promoted a scientific approach to
medicine and healing in the 4th century bc, his approach combined psychological
and physical processes. He recommended a combination of prescribed medicines or
surgery and changes in behaviour and lifestyle in order to improve health. This inter-
dependence between the physical and the psychological is even more obvious in the
DOI: 10.4324/9781003098737-1
