| Course | PAC 230 Families and Health Psychology |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 2 |
| Paper type | Stress and coping analysis |
| Length | About 1,029 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Aspen University |
| Program | Psychology and Addiction Studies |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for PAC 230 Module 2
Carrying Everyone: Stress, Appraisal and Coping in a Mother Who Cares for Her Father and Her Son in Recovery
Student Name
Psychology and Addiction Studies Program, Aspen University
PAC 230: Families and Health Psychology
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Carrying Everyone: Stress, Appraisal and Coping in a Mother Who Cares for Her Father and Her Son in Recovery
Carla Dawson is forty-nine and drives a school bus in Toledo. Eleven months ago her father, Walt, had a heart attack, and since then she has managed his medications, driven him to cardiology appointments and checked on him every evening. Six months ago her son Mike moved back into her home after residential treatment for opioid use disorder. She has taken on an extra route to cover the cost of his outpatient care. Her younger sister lives twenty minutes away and visits Walt once a month. Carla came to Maumee Valley Family Health, the invented health center that serves the Dawsons, for headaches and trouble sleeping, and she told the physician she was "carrying everyone." This paper analyzes her stress and coping and proposes a plan. Carla, her family and the center are fictional; the research is real.
Measuring Life Change
Holmes and Rahe (1967) developed the Social Readjustment Rating Scale to measure the amount of change in a person's life. They asked people to rate how much readjustment various life events required, using marriage as a reference point, and produced a list of forty-three events, each with a weight. The death of a spouse received the highest weight, and events such as a change in work responsibilities, a change in financial state or a change in the health of a family member received moderate weights. Positive events, such as an outstanding personal achievement, also counted, because they require adjustment. Adding the weights of events in the past year produces a total score, and later research by Holmes, Rahe and others linked higher scores to a higher likelihood of illness.
Carla's year includes a major change in the health of a family member, a son returning home, a change in work hours, a change in financial state and a change in sleeping habits, among others. Her total would place her in the range associated with a substantially increased risk of illness. But the scale treats every person facing the same event alike, and it does not capture the daily, ongoing quality of her stress.
Appraisal and Coping
Lazarus and Folkman (1984) offered a different view. They argued that stress arises not from events themselves but from a person's appraisal of them. In primary appraisal, the person asks whether a situation is irrelevant, positive or stressful, and if stressful, whether it involves harm, threat or challenge. In secondary appraisal, the person asks what can be done and whether their resources are sufficient. A person feels stressed when the demands they see outrun the resources they believe they have. Coping, in their account, is the effort to manage those demands. Problem-focused coping acts on the situation itself, such as solving a problem or seeking practical help. Emotion-focused coping manages the distress, such as seeking emotional support, reframing or relaxing. Neither is better in general; problem-focused coping fits stressors that can be changed, and emotion-focused coping fits stressors that cannot.
Stress and the Immune System
Segerstrom and Miller (2004) conducted a meta-analysis of thirty years of research on psychological stress and the immune system. The effects depended on the type of stressor. Brief, acute stressors lasting minutes, such as a public speaking task, tended to mobilize aspects of natural immunity, an adaptive response preparing the body for injury. Short naturalistic stressors, such as exams, shifted immune function in more specific ways. Chronic stressors, those lasting a long time and reshaping a person's life, such as caring for a family member with dementia, were associated with suppression of both cellular and humoral immunity, the broadest negative effects. Older people and those already ill were more vulnerable.
Carla's caregiving is a chronic stressor, the kind most strongly associated with broad immune suppression. Her headaches and poor sleep are early signs that her stress is affecting her health.
Carla's Stressors, Appraisals and Coping
| Stressor | Carla's appraisal | Can it be changed? | Current coping |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walt's care every evening | "No one else will do it" (threat; resources insufficient) | Partly: help can be shared | Doing everything herself; skipping her own meals |
| Worry that Mike will relapse | "If he uses again, it's my fault" (threat) | Not directly: his recovery is his | Checking his room; lying awake |
| Extra bus route | "We need the money" (harm to rest) | Possibly: costs could be reduced | Working tired |
| Sister's limited help | "She doesn't care" (anger) | Partly: a direct request has not been made | Avoiding the subject |
| Her own health | "I don't have time" | Yes | Ignoring symptoms until the headaches worsened |
A Coping Plan Matched to Controllability
The appraisal model suggests matching coping to what Carla can change. For changeable stressors, problem-focused coping fits. Carla can ask her sister directly to take two evenings a week with Walt, with a schedule written down. She can ask the health center's social worker about respite care and about financial assistance for Mike's outpatient treatment, which might allow her to drop the extra route. She can schedule her own follow-up for headaches and sleep.
For stressors she cannot control, emotion-focused coping fits. Mike's recovery is his to manage, and Carla's checking his room and lying awake do not protect him. A family support group for relatives of people in recovery could help her reframe her role, from guarding him to supporting him, and give her emotional support from people in similar situations. Brief relaxation before bed and a short walk on her break could help her manage the distress that remains.
Finally, her appraisal itself can change. Carla believes she alone must hold everything. Hearing from her family and support group that others can share the load is part of coping.
Conclusion
Carla's year has brought a large volume of change, and Holmes and Rahe's scale shows its scale. Lazarus and Folkman explain why her stress is heavier than any score suggests, because she appraises nearly every demand as hers alone, and Segerstrom and Miller show why chronic caregiving stress can wear down health. Matching problem-focused coping to what she can change and emotion-focused coping to what she cannot offers Carla a way to keep caring for everyone, including herself.
References
Holmes, T. H., & Rahe, R. H. (1967). The social readjustment rating scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 11(2), 213-218. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-3999(67)90010-4
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. Springer.
Segerstrom, S. C., & Miller, G. E. (2004). Psychological stress and the human immune system: A meta-analytic study of 30 years of inquiry. Psychological Bulletin, 130(4), 601-630. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.130.4.601
PAC 230 Module 2 instructions, in plain terms
Stress and coping is a core health psychology topic, and PAC 230's second module typically asks you to analyze a person's stress with theory and research and propose a coping plan. Read the actual Module 2 wording in your Aspen course; Carla is a composite. Describe stressors concretely. Use at least two theories, such as a life events approach and an appraisal approach, and explain what each captures. Present research on how stress affects health. Analyze the person's appraisals and current coping. Propose a plan that matches strategies to stressors, distinguishing what can be changed from what cannot, and cite every source in APA 7. Note where professional help fits if stress is severe.
How the PAC 230 Module 2 example is put together
Carla's year includes her father's heart attack, her son's return home in early recovery, her own new night route and a sister who will not help. The paper scores her life changes on Holmes and Rahe's Journal of Psychosomatic Research scale. Lazarus and Folkman's book supplies the two appraisals, what is at stake and what can be done, and the two broad families of coping. Segerstrom and Miller's Psychological Bulletin meta-analysis explains how acute and chronic stressors affect immunity differently. A five-row table lists stressors, Carla's appraisals and her coping, some helpful and some not. The plan uses problem-focused coping for respite, scheduling and money, and emotion-focused coping for worry about her son's relapse, which she cannot control.
Where the marks sit in the PAC 230 Module 2 rubric
Stress papers earn credit for applying more than one theory, for accurate research on health effects and for a plan that fits the person. This example uses Holmes and Rahe to show the volume of change and Lazarus and Folkman to explain why some stressors weigh more than their scores suggest. Segerstrom and Miller's findings are reported precisely, distinguishing acute from chronic stress. The table analyzes appraisals and coping, including unhelpful patterns, without blame. The plan's central idea, matching coping to controllability, follows directly from the appraisal model, and its steps are concrete enough for Carla to begin the following week. The paper also treats her own symptoms as part of the plan.
PAC 230 Module 2 help from the desk
Students often describe stress in general terms. Name specific stressors and analyze them. Another weakness is using one theory; life events scales show volume, while appraisal theory explains meaning. Report stress and health research accurately; stress does not simply weaken the immune system in every case. Analyze current coping honestly, including unhelpful strategies, without judgment. Match coping strategies to stressors: problem-focused coping for what can be changed, emotion-focused coping for what cannot. Make the plan specific. If you analyze your own stress, keep disclosures appropriate, and if stress is severe, note where professional help fits. Remember the caregiver's own health appointments in the plan.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Aspen University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
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PAC 230 Module 2 questions, answered
What does PAC 230 Module 2 usually ask for?
Aspen's PAC 230 covers stress and coping in this module, so analyzing a person's stressors with theory and research and proposing a coping plan is typical. Check your Module 2 prompt.
What is the Social Readjustment Rating Scale?
Holmes and Rahe's list of life events, each weighted by how much readjustment it requires, used to estimate the total amount of life change a person has faced.
What is the difference between problem-focused and emotion-focused coping?
Lazarus and Folkman described problem-focused coping as acting on the stressor itself and emotion-focused coping as managing the distress it causes.
Where can I find a free PAC 230 Module 2 sample paper?
The paper above is free: stress and coping in a family caregiver analyzed with three research traditions, with a matched coping plan.
Does stress affect the immune system?
Segerstrom and Miller's meta-analysis found brief stressors mobilize some immune responses, while chronic stressors are associated with broad immune suppression.