Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Few publications have changed the landscape of contemporary psychology more than Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkman's landmark work, Stress, Appraisal, and Coping. Its publication in 1984 set the course for years of research on the dynamic processes of psychological stress and coping in human beings. Now more than a quarter-century later, The Oxford Handbook of Stress, Health, and Coping pushes the field even further with a comprehensive overview of the newest and best work in this dynamic subject. Edited by Susan Folkman and comprising chapters by the field's leading scientists, this new volume details the expanded knowledge base that has emerged from extensive research on stress and coping processes over the last several decades.Featuring 22 topic-based chapters -- including two by Folkman -- this volume offers unprecedented coverage of the two primary research topics related to stress and coping: mitigating stress-related harms and sustaining well-being in the face of stress. Both topics are addressed within their relevant contexts, including chronic illness, calamity, bereavement, and social hardship. The Oxford Handbook of Stress, Health, and Coping is an essential reference work for students, practitioners, and researchers across the fields of health psychology, medicine, and palliative care.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Folkman (emer., integrative medicine, Univ. of San Francisco) is a superb editor. This handbook includes chapters from highly regarded scholars of stress, coping, and health who apply their expertise to summarize past research, describe current trends, and outline future directions and applications. Folkman organizes the essays in eight sections, and she contributes the first ("Overview and Introduction") and last ("Conclusions and Future Directions"). In the introduction, she provides a brief historical context for stress and coping research; in the conclusion, she eloquently summarizes the authors' arguments and outlines directions for the future. The other six sections--"Developmental Perspectives on Stress and Coping," "Social Aspects of Stress and Coping," "Models of Stress, Coping, and Positive and Negative Outcomes," "Coping Processes and Positive and Negative Outcomes," "Assessing Coping: New Technologies and Concepts," and "Coping Interventions"--comprise from two to six essays each. Although the volume does not cover extreme stress--for example, trauma--or focus explicitly on psychological distress as a potential consequence of stress or chronic strain, what it does cover it covers well. This is a thorough, engaging volume. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. A. N. Douglas Mount Holyoke College

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Susan Folkman, Ph.D., is Director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine and Distinguished Professor of Integrative Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine. Peter E. Nathan is the University of Iowa Foundation Distinguished Professor of Psychology.