Dynamic differentials of stress and coping

Dynamic properties aligned with temporal interactions of stress, coping, and related variables are presented. Observations surrounding simple unidimensional systems are used to introduce more comprehensive systems of multidimensional interactions. Dimensions include collective levels of environmental stressors, levels of organismic stress arousal, coping-related cognitive efficiency, and engagement in selected coping activity. Changes in the relative impact of one dimension on another with the progression of lime also are accommodated. Important prototypical features of dynamic systems pertinent to the present substantive domain are noted. Relations of dynamic-systems models to other formal treatments of stress-coping variables then are discussed. Finally, avenues and issues of empirical testing are presented. It is concluded that hurdles to crafting valid multidimensional dynamic systems are justified by the obtained explicitness of intervariable structures and specificity of variable trajectories over time.