hard · MCAT psych-soc
A longitudinal study tracks employees after a company announces layoffs. All employees face identical objective job loss risk. Employees who describe the layoffs as "a chance to finally switch careers" show lower cortisol and less insomnia than employees who describe the same layoffs as "a threat I can't handle," even though both groups rate their actual savings and job-search skills as equally limited.
Which mechanism best accounts for the difference in stress outcomes between the two groups?
- Higher trait resilience in the challenge-framing group produced both the reframe and the lower physiological reactivity
- Differing primary appraisal of the event as a challenge versus a threat, independent of judged coping resources
- Learned helplessness in the threat-framing group, generated by prior repeated failures to control workplace outcomes
- Differing secondary appraisal, since coping-resource ratings diverged sharply between the two employee groups
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