Navigating Quarter-Life Crisis: A Journey of SelfReflection and Coping

How the Transactional Stress Model can teach us empowering Self-Discovery through Conscious Reappraisal

by Luise Meerheim

Understanding the Quarter-Life Crisis

The transition from youth to adulthood often brings forth a myriad of challenges, leading many individuals to experience what is commonly known as a quarter-life crisis. This period is marked by feelings of helplessness, indecision, and psychological stress.

To overcome this roadblock in the journey of life, exploring Lazarus’s and Folkman’s Transactional Stress Model can provide valuable insights.

Unravelling the Transactional Stress Model

A ccording to the model, we experience psychological stress when a situation’s demand oversteps our capacity to deal with it. It is the internal response of our body to any external stimulus perceived as harmful.¹ Stressors can include immense concerns such as career uncertainty, relationship challenges or societal expectations, but also small irritations such as missing a bus and being late for work. Instead of regarding stress as solely imposed by external factors, Lazarus and Folman highlight the active role of the individual, who isn’t merely subjected to stressors but can actively respond to them. Thereby, the psychologists underline that everybody’s own way of reacting and interpreting an event has way more influence on the personal stress-level than the situation itself. Based on this discovery, they created the Transactional model of Stress serving as a scheme to aid people navigating stressful situations by applying certain coping strategies and objective appraisal.

The Two Phases of Appraisal

Whenever we face a stressful situation, our reaction starts with the evaluation of stressors. According to the model, this process occurs in two phases: the primary and secondary appraisal. During the primary appraisal, the severity of a situation is assessed. It can be categorised as either a challenge or a threat. While challenging situations offer potential for growth, mastery, and gain, threatening situations may lead to harm or loss.² If a person possesses inherent confidence and has faith in their capability to influence outcomes, they are more likely to perceive a stressful situation as a challenge rather than a threat.

After that, the secondary appraisal follows. It involves assessing personal and social resources such as personal strengths, family or friends to cope with the identified stressors.

The Coping Process

Following appraisal, individuals engage in coping, which encompasses problem-based and emotion-focused strategies. Problem-based coping includes steps to change the stressful situation itself, for example preparing a to-do list and opposing the problem directly. Emotion-focused coping instead is about handling one’s emotions within the situation, including seeking moral support or expressing feelings.

After coping attempts, a crucial re-evaluation takes place, allowing individuals to consciously reassess stressors and engage in more effective coping strategies.

The Importance of Conscious Reappraisal

Psychologists emphasise the significance of conscious reappraisal, as it often leads to less extreme and more realistic assessments compared to subconscious initial appraisals. It “involves changing how one thinks about or appraises given situation […] [and] entails taking a step back and viewing a provoking event in anobjective way.”³ This conscious process reduces the duration and severity of emotions associated with stressors.⁴ Breaking free from negative appraisal patterns involves actively and consciously reappraising situations to avoid falling into a cycle of worsening perceptions.

Applying the Model: Example of Career Uncertainty

Initial Situation:

You completed your studies and now feel uncertain about where to start and whether this direction is the right one.

Primary Appraisal:

Before

• Identifying the situation as stressful and threatening.

• Fears include losing friends, uncertainty about job suitability and anxiety about leaving the freedoms of youth behind.

Reframe Perception

• Ask if the situation is truly a threat or could also be an opportunity for personal growth, meaning a challenge

• Acknowledge the potential for personal development, breaking old patterns, making new friends, exploring a new place, learning from work, achieving goals, and taking responsibility.

After

• The situation is now viewed as a challenge rather than a threat.

Secondary Appraisal:

Before

• Feeling insufficient resources to face the challenge and a sense of helplessness.

Identify and Utilise Resources

• Reflect consciously on resources, visualising them as a network or a tree.

Example:

• Roots: Who and what strengthens you? Who believes in you? Who or what is important to you? What grounds you? Who helped you with challenging situations in the past?

• Trunk & Crown: What have been your past coping mechanisms? What are you happy about? What are your strengths, talents, competences, qualifications?

• Fruits: What are your past achievements? What are you proud of?

• Sun: What do you aspire for in the future? What motivates you?

After

• You recognize your support network and have an understanding of resources to overcome this phase.

Coping Process:

Before

• Coping unconsciously.

Identify and Modify Coping

• Assess the longevity of your present coping strategy, distinguish between instrumental and emotion-focused coping, explore alternative coping methods.

• Ask: Can I change my situation in any way by using my resources? How can my resources help me to deal with the situation emotionally?

After

You can consciously reflect and change the way you cope in order to find the most effective way to face your situation.

Conclusion

Understanding and applying the Transactional Stress Model can empower individuals to navigate the complexities of a quarter-life crisis, fostering resilience and personal growth. Conscious reappraisal is of particular importance in this psychological model, as it enables individuals to gain a reflected and distanced perception of their situation, which gives the opportunity of a more realistic assessment of the situation.

¹ Cf. Lazarus, R., & Folkman, S., in Stress, Appraisal, and Coping. New York Springer, 1984
² Cf. David W. Putwain, Richard Remedios, in Advances in Motivation Science, 2021
³ Cf. Thomas F. Denson, Emma C. Fabiansson Tan, in Encyclopedia of Mental Health (Third Edition), 2023
⁴ Cf. Thomas F. Denson, Emma C. Fabiansson Tan, in Encyclopedia of Mental Health (Third Edition), 2023