Stress and coping during change

Stress has been defined as a relationship between a person and the environment in which the factors within that environment exceed the person's abilities, thus putting his or her health or well-being at risk (Lazarus & Folkman 1984). Lazarus and Folkman (1984) emphasize the interplay between the person and his personal charcteristices and events occuring within the environment, recognizing the degree to which an event or events are described as stressful depend on the person's cognition of those events and how he evaluates them relative to his abilities to cope with the situation. Stress occurs when competing demands leads to overload (Lazarus & Folkman 1984