Stress And Coping Model

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Cancer has a huge impact on society today in the United States and across the world. According to the National Cancer Institute, in 2016 an estimate of 1,658,210 new cases of cancer was diagnosed in the United States alone, that is an average of 4,543 new cases diagnosed each day of the year. Each cancer diagnosis is different in every way, depending on the stage, where in the body it has cultivated, how aggressive it might be and the type of treatment that comes with the diagnosis, whether it would be physical, emotional or mental side effects.
The Stress and Coping model presented by Folkman and Greer, is a framework for evaluating the processes of coping with stressful events, in which this case would be a cancer diagnosis. Stressors are
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Each year more people die from lung cancer than any other cancers such as colon, breast or prostate cancer. Being diagnosed with lung cancer can be a devastating and life changing. The primary appraisal of an individual diagnosed with lung cancer would be to personal significance of being diagnosed with lung cancer, the individual will feel a certain threat. The second appraisal would from guilt and harm because some not all lung cancer patients will face the thoughts after using substances like smoking causing self-harm to themselves. Patient might feel a sense of own harm, after engaging in smoking for a certain amount of time, the realization that cancer has already struck the body, most importantly the lungs. The statistics tied to lung cancer can be destructive to a person’s mind, and can cause distress since the survival rates are so low. The threat appraisal step of the stress and coping theory would be that the patients might fear the end-of-life and the challenge appraisal would be the individual changing their way of living and getting in tune with a healthier way such as quit smoking cigarettes. According to the Prevalence of Distress by Cancer Chart (2007) lung cancer has the highest positive cases at 43.4% of patients are diagnosed with distress, which can tamper with the way they fight their cancer battle making it harder for them to keep their coping goals and cognitive