a model of stress and adaptation in which adaptive functioning in the environment depends on the interaction between stimuli in a person’s physical and social environment that place demands on that individual (environmental press) and the individual’s competence in meeting these demands, which is shaped by such personal characteristics as physical health and cognitive and perceptual abilities. See also person–environment interaction. [proposed in 1973 by U.S. geropsychologists M. Powell Lawton (1923–2001) and Lucille D. Nahemow (1933–2000)]