Judy has just started a new job as a checker at Farmer’s Grocery. It is her first job after graduating from high school, and she hopes to save enough money in the first year to be able to move in with her boyfriend. In her first week, she befriends two other new checkers, Silvio and Natasha, and she finds the majority of customers to be polite and sociable. At the end of her first week on the job, she checks the upcoming week’s work schedule only to discover that she is scheduled to have Tuesday and Friday off instead of Wednesday and Thursday as she requested. She is disappointed because her boyfriend has Wednesdays and Thursdays off from his job as a waiter, and their conflicting schedules means she will not be able to see him much. The next week, she finds that she has Tuesday and Saturday off, despite once again requesting Wednesday and Thursday off. The week after that, she finds herself feeling anxious about going into the break room because she is reluctant to find out if her days off are again different from what she requested. According to what you know about the transactional theory of stress, what will be the next step Judy takes?

The transactional stress theory, also called the cognitive model, underlines the importance of mental judgment processes for stress: according to this theory, stress reactions result from the relationship between demand and available means. This relationship is, however, mediated by cognitive processes (value judgments and others). Thus, not only external factors can act as stressors, but also internal factors such as values, goals, etc. The model provides for two judgment processes:

Primary appraisal: where the individual finds himself in a situation of his displeasure (in the case of the above question, Judy cannot meet her boyfriend because of the mismatch of her work.) And looks for ways to adapt the situation so that get more comfortable (In the case above, Judy tries to make her break the same days as her boyfriend's break).
Secondary appraisal: At this point, the individual evaluates whether his attempt to adapt has had positive or negative results. If the results are positive the individual does not feel stress, if the results are negative, the individual becomes stressed and may experience feelings of anger, sadness, fear, among others.

For this reason, we can conclude that if Judy's request to have Wednesday and Thursday as her days off so she can meet her boyfriend is not granted; she will be stressed.