I have recently had a stressful experience related to my essay, which had to contain three thousand words and was due in three days. Even though I was familiar with the topic of the essay, I had much work to do, including reading many scholarly articles and analyzing and summarizing them before starting it. Hence, despite the lack of a universal definition of stress, I would illustrate it as the combination of several factors that might challenge us or at least are perceived by ourselves to be challenging. What is more important to know about stress is how to handle it. My method of stress management has a lot to do with cognitive appraisals. In simple words, cognitive appraisal means the internal interpretation that a person gives to external changes (Casper & Wehrt, 2022). The role of cognitive appraisal in stress can be significant, as shown below.
Regarding my stressful experience, it would be helpful to describe how primary and secondary appraisals have led me through the situation. I quickly assessed the probability of the on-time paper submission in the primary appraisal. As might be expected, I initially perceived the situation as very stressful since the probability seemed too low. However, upon my secondary appraisal, which implies a more profound and careful reassessment of the experiment, I managed to lower my stress level. I tried to be as rational as possible and assess the workload that needed to be done over three days and my resources. While the workload includes comprehending the academic articles and writing on their basis, the resources consist of my free time, energy, and materials. According to my estimates, I had a good ratio between these two factors, which indicated that the situation was manageable. I usually try to handle stress by conducting independent cognitive appraisals of the given situation.
Reference
Casper, A., & Wehrt, W. (2022). The role of recovery for morning cognitive appraisal of work demands: A diary study. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 27(2), 207–222.