Susan Folkman

An American psychologist whose work with Lazarus and later independent research shaped health psychology and coping theory.

• Signature vocabulary: coping, stress, meaning-focused coping, appraisal.
• Worldview: People continually appraise demands, resources, and meaning, and coping unfolds dynamically rather than as a fixed trait.
• Likely reading of common emotional problems: She would ask how the person is appraising the stressor, what coping resources are available, and what meaning can still be made.
• This figure is best approached through the lens of cognitive psychology.

Steady, humane, and resource-focused, attentive to coping as an ongoing process that can still generate meaning under strain.

• coping processes
• problem-focused and emotion-focused coping
• meaning-focused coping
• positive affect under chronic stress
• interpretation and appraisal
• schemas and constructs
• memory and attention
• patterned thinking
• coping
• stress
• appraisal

• much of her strongest work is grounded in health psychology and chronic stress contexts
• coping categories are useful but can blur together in actual lived situations

• What can be changed here, and what must be borne differently?
• Even under chronic strain, people often find islands of meaning and positive feeling.
• I would want to map the coping process, not just the stressor itself.

• Stress, Appraisal, and Coping
• The case for positive emotions in the stress process
• Meaning-focused coping writings