Coping

Definition of Coping

Coping is defined as the process of managing external and/or internal demands that tax or exceed the resources of the person. It is a complex and multidimensional process that is sensitive to both the environment and the personality of the individual.

Coping mechanisms can also be described as ‘survival skills’.  They are strategies that people use in order to deal with stresses, pain, and natural changes that we experience in life.

Coping mechanisms are learned behavioural patterns used to cope.  We learn from others ways to manage our stresses.  There are negative coping mechanisms and positive coping mechanisms.  Many people use their coping mechanisms to benefit them in a positive way.  However, we are not always able to cope with the difficulties that we face.

Types of coping:

• Positive appraisal is the reframing a situation to see it in a positive light. Positive reappraisal has been significantly and independently associated with increases in positive affect.

• Problem-focused or approach coping happens when efforts are directed at solving or managing the problem that is causing distress. It includes strategies for gathering information, making decisions, planning, and resolving conflicts. This type of coping effort is usually directed at acquiring resources to help deal with the underlying problem and includes instrumental, situation specific, and task-oriented actions.

• Emotion-focused or avoidant coping is coping that is directed at managing or reducing emotional distress, which includes cognitive strategies such as looking on the bright side, or behavioral strategies such as seeking emotional support, having a drink, or using drugs.

• Meaning-focused coping involves searching for meaning in adversity and drawing on values, beliefs, and goals to modify the meaning given to and personal response to a stressful situation.

There is the Different Responses To Situations:

• mental responses - (aggressive thoughts “I can’t do this” “I’m worthless”)

• emotional responses - (fear, anger, sadness, fright)

• physical responses - (heart beats faster, stomach pain, headaches)

• behavioural responses - (drinking, overeating, isolating self, self harm)

Research on coping converges on the following points:

• Coping has multiple functions, including but not limited to, the regulation of distress and the management of problems causing the distress.

• Coping is influenced by the appraised characteristics of the stressful context, including its controllability.

• Coping is influenced by personality dispositions including optimism, neuroticism, and extraversion.

• Coping is influenced by social resources.

Research has also shown that:

• Emotion and problem-focused coping approaches can either facilitate or impede each other. For example, they may facilitate each other in that a person may need to learn to control his/her anger via an emotion-focused approach before he/she can take a problem-focused approach. One way they may impede each other is that reducing the significance of an event via emotion-focused coping could inhibit future problem-focused activity.

• In adolescents, the problem-focused coping mode has been shown to be more functional (seeking information or advice, accepting social support,making efforts to solve the problem), whereas the emotion-focused or avoidant coping method is dysfunctional and can lead to withdrawal, fatalistic attitudes, and avoidance of the problem.

• Coping with stress is a shifting process and a person may find that it works best to rely more heavily on one form of coping in one situation and another in a different situation.

• During any stressful period of time, focusing on positive emotions may provide a psychological break or respite, support continued coping efforts, and replenish resources that have been depleted by stress. Positive emotions may help to build social, intellectual and psychical resources that can become depleted under chronically stressful conditions. They may also buffer against adverse physiological consequences of stress.

• Most adolescents show a flexible and dynamic approach to coping with stress, changing their coping style to fit the situation.

• In general, those who consistently use a problem-focused or approach coping style reported fewer symptoms of depression while those who used a more avoidant or emotion-focused style reported more symptoms.

• Young people who are less adept at generating and using problem-focused coping experienced more adjustment problems.

• Sense of control directly reduces psychological disturbance and buffers the effects of stress exposure on physical and mental health.

Example: Consider the case of a college student who faces multiple final examinations. She knows she must get top grades in order to have a chance at acceptance to graduate school and is very stressed out by the situation. She could organize a study group or get right to work on studying systematically (problem-focused coping). Or she could decide that she needs to relax and give herself a short break in which to decompress (emotion-focused coping) before she can come up with a study plan (problem-focused coping). For one person, the break may be necessary to avoid getting overwhelmed, and for another or in another situation that may not be the case.


Source : H.  W. Krohne. (2002). Stress and Coping Theories. University Mainz Germany