Read the given case-study carefully and answer the question that follow.
According to Lazarus and his colleagues, people have a tendency to appraise any situation as positive, negative or neutral. When Vikram lost his job as event manager, he perceived the situation as negative but he didn't lose heart and decided to start a food joint as he was handling similar projects in the past. Whereas Vikas who also lost his job as a marketing manager, started feeling helpless and hopeless and consumed alcohol regularly. He started coming up with excuses for not doing anything. He could not even think of starting his own venture as he had no money to invest. He would often become very angry or would start crying bitterly.
According to cognitive theory of stress, primary appraisal refers to the perception of new environment as :
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Positive, Negative, Neutral
Lazarus distinguished two types of appraisal, primary and secondary.
Option (1) Positive, Negative, Neutral — Correct. Primary appraisal refers to the perception of a new or changing environment as positive, neutral or negative in its consequences. The case study opens with the same idea: people appraise any situation as positive, negative or neutral.
Option (2) Harm, threat and challenge — Incorrect. These come after a situation has been seen as negative: negative events are then appraised for their possible harm, threat or challenge. Harm is damage already done, threat is possible future damage, and challenge goes with confident expectations of coping. They describe only negative events, not the three ways of seeing a new environment.
Option (3) Intensity, duration and predictability — Incorrect. These are dimensions on which stresses vary (along with complexity), not kinds of appraisal.
Option (4) Past experience and controllability — Incorrect. These are factors on which appraisals depend: a situation handled well before, or one felt to be under control, is less threatening. They influence appraisal; they are not what primary appraisal perceives.
Note: Harm, threat and challenge are also part of primary appraisal, because a negative event is appraised for them at the same stage. However, the question asks how a new environment is perceived, and the definition of primary appraisal in NCERT (2025-26) answers this with ‘positive, neutral or negative’. Harm, threat and challenge apply only to the events already seen as negative, while positive, neutral and negative are the three ways in which any new environment is first seen.
NCERT (2025-26): “Nature of Stress … Lazarus has distinguished between two types of appraisal, i.e. primary and secondary. Primary appraisal refers to the perception of a new or changing environment as positive, neutral or negative in its consequences. Negative events are appraised for their possible harm, threat or challenge. Harm is the assessment of the damage that has already been done by an event. Threat is the assessment of possible future damage that may be brought about by the event. Challenge appraisals are associated with more confident expectations of the ability to cope with the stressful event, the potential to overcome and even profit from the event. When we perceive an event as stressful, we are likely to make a secondary appraisal, which is the assessment of one’s coping abilities and resources and whether they will be sufficient to meet the harm, threat or challenge of the event.…” |