<P> Coping is the conscious effort to reduce stress . Psychological coping mechanisms are commonly termed coping strategies or coping skills . Coping skills develop from infancy and are learnt by watching others and trial and error . Perceived control is an important resource in coping with stressful situations . It develops from prior mastery of stressful situations and within social relationships . Affiliation with others is a basic human response for managing stress . The effectiveness of coping strategies in reducing distress is dependent on the strategies used and the self - belief that one can cope, also known as coping self - efficacy . Functional magnetic resonance imaging has shown that emotion regulation paradigms can be conceptualized into four dimensions: affect intensity and reactivity, affect modulation, cognitive modulation, and behavioral control . </P> <P> Coping is part of health and wellbeing, that includes healthy environments, responsive parenting, sense of belonging, healthy activities, coping, resilience and the treatment of illness . Environmental conditions during development contribute to the heterogeneity of an individual's response to adversity encountered as an adult . Social factors both reduce emotional reactivity and help modulate stress responses . Healthy activities--sleep, nutrition, physical activity and pleasurable and mastery activities--can help reduce emotional reactivity . Resilience is the consequence of coping with stressful situations--bouncing back after adversity . Functional changes have been noted in the amygdala and anterior corticolimbic brain circuits that control cognitive, motivational, and emotional aspects of physiology and behavior induced by learning as an aspect of coping in the context of stress exposure therapy highlighting functional neuroadaptations in brain regions that mediate emotion regulation and resilience . </P>

Using emotional behavioral or cognitive methods to reduce stress is known as