Chapter 18 provides an introduction to the historical and current work on the interrelationships between stress, coping, adjustment, health, and personality. The authors begin by presenting five models of the links between personality and health: The interactional model, the transactional model, the health behavior model, the predisposition model, and the illness behavior model. Although the models present different perspectives on the relationships between personality and health, each model highlights the important role of stress.

Next, the authors review the concept of stress, including a discussion of the stress response and general adaptation syndrome. The authors then review work on major life events and daily hassles as stressors that can lead to illness. The authors review the concepts of primary appraisal and secondary appraisal, noting that it is the interpretation of events and not the events themselves that produce stress. The authors review theory and research on the role of positive emotions in helping people cope with stress, highlight the coping strategies of positive reappraisal, problem-focused coping, and creating positive events. Next the authors review coping style, including discussions of attributional style, optimism-pessimism, and self-efficacy.

The authors then turn to a review of the relationships between optimism and health. The authors next review theory and research on managing emotions and emotional inhibition, including discussions of the health benefits of disclosure and revealing secrets.

In the final section of the chapter, the authors review theory and research on the relationships between personality and cardiovascular disease, highlighting the hostility component of Type A behavior pattern.