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Journal ArticleDOI

Assessing Coping Strategies: A Theoretically Based Approach

01 Feb 1989-Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (American Psychological Association)-Vol. 56, Iss: 2, pp 267-283
TL;DR: A multidimensional coping inventory to assess the different ways in which people respond to stress was developed and an initial examination of associations between dispositional and situational coping tendencies was allowed.
Abstract: We developed a multidimensional coping inventory to assess the different ways in which people respond to stress. Five scales (of four items each) measure conceptually distinct aspects of problem-focused coping (active coping, planning, suppression of competing activities, restraint coping, seeking of instrumental social support); five scales measure aspects of what might be viewed as emotional-focused coping (seeking of emotional social support, positive reinterpretation, acceptance, denial, turning to religion); and three scales measure coping responses that arguably are less useful (focus on and venting of emotions, behavioral disengagement, mental disengagement). Study 1 reports the development of scale items. Study 2 reports correlations between the various coping scales and several theoretically relevant personality measures in an effort to provide preliminary information about the inventory's convergent and discriminant validity. Study 3 uses the inventory to assess coping responses among a group of undergraduates who were attempting to cope with a specific stressful episode. This study also allowed an initial examination of associations between dispositional and situational coping tendencies.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Five studies tested two general hypotheses: Individuals differ in their use of emotion regulation strategies such as reappraisal and suppression, and these individual differences have implications for affect, well-being, and social relationships.
Abstract: Five studies tested two general hypotheses: Individuals differ in their use of emotion regulation strategies such as reappraisal and suppression, and these individual differences have implications for affect, well-being, and social relationships. Study 1 presents new measures of the habitual use of reappraisal and suppression. Study 2 examines convergent and discriminant validity. Study 3 shows that reappraisers experience and express greater positive emotion and lesser negative emotion, whereas suppressors experience and express lesser positive emotion, yet experience greater negative emotion. Study 4 indicates that using reappraisal is associated with better interpersonal functioning, whereas using suppression is associated with worse interpersonal functioning. Study 5 shows that using reappraisal is related positively to well-being, whereas using suppression is related negatively.

8,261 citations


Cites background or methods from "Assessing Coping Strategies: A Theo..."

  • ...To measure coping styles, we used the four-item Reinterpretation and Venting scales from the COPE (Carver et al., 1989)....

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  • ...To measure coping styles, we used the four-item Reinterpretation and Venting scales from the COPE ( Carver et al., 1989 )....

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  • ...Two indices of social support came from the COPE ( Carver et al., 1989 )....

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  • ...The two coping styles conceptually most related to reappraisal and suppression are reinterpretation and venting, as defined by Carver, Scheier, and Weintraub (1989)....

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  • ...The two coping styles conceptually most related to reappraisal and suppression are reinterpretation and venting, as defined by Carver, Scheier, and Weintraub (1989) ....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The emerging field of emotion regulation studies how individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express them as mentioned in this paper, and characterizes emotion in terms of response tendencies.
Abstract: The emerging field of emotion regulation studies how individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express them. This review takes an evolutionary perspective and characterizes emotion in terms of response tendencies. Emotion regulation is denned and distinguished from coping, mood regulation, defense, and affect regulation. In the increasingly specialized discipline of psychology, the field of emotion regulation cuts across traditional boundaries and provides common ground. According to a process model of emotion regulation, emotion may be regulated at five points in the emotion generative process: (a) selection of the situation, (b) modification of the situation, (c) deployment of attention, (d) change of cognitions, and (e) modulation of responses. The field of emotion regulation promises new insights into age-old questions about how people manage their emotions.

6,835 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Examination of the scale on somewhat different grounds, however, does suggest that future applications can benefit from its revision, and a minor modification to the Life Orientation Test is described, along with data bearing on the revised scale's psychometric properties.
Abstract: Research on dispositional optimism as assessed by the Life Orientation Test (Scheier & Carver, 1985) has been challenged on the grounds that effects attributed to optimism are indistinguishable from those of unmeasured third variables, most notably, neuroticism. Data from 4,309 subjects show that associations between optimism and both depression and aspects of coping remain significant even when the effects of neuroticism, as well as the effects of trait anxiety, self-mastery, and self-esteem, are statistically controlled. Thus, the Life Orientation Test does appear to possess adequate predictive and discriminant validity. Examination of the scale on somewhat different grounds, however, does suggest that future applications can benefit from its revision. Thus, we also describe a minor modification to the Life Orientation Test, along with data bearing on the revised scale's psychometric properties.

6,395 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A brief form of a previously published measure of coping assessing several responses known to be relevant to effective and ineffective coping called the COPE inventory is presented, which has proven to be useful in health-related research.
Abstract: Studies of coping in applied settings often confront the need to minimize time demands on participants. The problem of participant response burden is exacerbated further by the fact that these studies typically are designed to test multiple hypotheses with the same sample, a strategy that entails the use of many time-consuming measures. Such research would benefit from a brief measure of coping assessing several responses known to be relevant to effective and ineffective coping. This article presents such a brief form of a previously published measure called the COPE inventory (Carver, Scheier, & Wcintraub, 1989), which has proven to be useful in health-related research. The Brief COPE omits two scales of the full COPE, reduces others to two items per scale, and adds one scale. Psychometric properties of the Brief COPE arc reported, derived from a sample of adults participating in a study of the process of recovery after Hurricane Andrew.

5,820 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: There are not enough well-controlled studies to conclude that ACT is generally more effective than other active treatments across the range of problems examined, but so far the data are promising.

4,777 citations

References
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Book
01 Jan 1974
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a detailed theory of psychological stress, building on the concepts of cognitive appraisal and coping, which have become major themes of theory and investigation in psychology.
Abstract: Here is a monumental work that continues in the tradition pioneered by co-author Richard Lazarus in his classic book Psychological Stress and the Coping Process. Dr. Lazarus and his collaborator, Dr. Susan Folkman, present here a detailed theory of psychological stress, building on the concepts of cognitive appraisal and coping which have become major themes of theory and investigation. As an integrative theoretical analysis, this volume pulls together two decades of research and thought on issues in behavioral medicine, emotion, stress management, treatment, and life span development. A selective review of the most pertinent literature is included in each chapter. The total reference listing for the book extends to 60 pages. This work is necessarily multidisciplinary, reflecting the many dimensions of stress-related problems and their situation within a complex social context. While the emphasis is on psychological aspects of stress, the book is oriented towards professionals in various disciplines, as well as advanced students and educated laypersons. The intended audience ranges from psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, nurses, and social workers to sociologists, anthropologists, medical researchers, and physiologists.

37,447 citations


"Assessing Coping Strategies: A Theo..." refers background in this paper

  • ...What we term active coping is very similar to the core of what Lazarus and Folkman (1984) and others term problemfocused coping....

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  • ...Lazarus and Folkman (1984) regarded this tendency (which they termed positive reappraisal) as a type of emotionfocused coping: coping aimed at managing distress emotions rather than at dealing with the stressor per se....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the effects of reward or reinforcement on preceding behavior depend in part on whether the person perceives the reward as contingent on his own behavior or independent of it, and individuals may also differ in generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement.
Abstract: The effects of reward or reinforcement on preceding behavior depend in part on whether the person perceives the reward as contingent on his own behavior or independent of it. Acquisition and performance differ in situations perceived as determined by skill versus chance. Persons may also differ in generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. This report summarizes several experiments which define group differences in behavior when Ss perceive reinforcement as contingent on their behavior versus chance or experimenter control. The report also describes the development of tests of individual differences in a generalized belief in internal-external control and provides reliability, discriminant validity and normative data for 1 test, along with a description of the results of several studies of construct validity.

21,451 citations

Book
21 Apr 1965

21,050 citations

Journal ArticleDOI

16,312 citations


"Assessing Coping Strategies: A Theo..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Two of these were self-esteem (eg, Rosenberg, 1965, 1979) and locus of control (Rotter, 1966)....

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  • ...Two of these were self-esteem (e.g., Rosenberg, 1965, 1979) and locus of control (Rotter, 1966)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: There is evidence consistent with both main effect and main effect models for social support, but each represents a different process through which social support may affect well-being.
Abstract: Examines whether the positive association between social support and well-being is attributable more to an overall beneficial effect of support (main- or direct-effect model) or to a process of support protecting persons from potentially adverse effects of stressful events (buffering model). The review of studies is organized according to (1) whether a measure assesses support structure (the existence of relationships) or function (the extent to which one's interpersonal relationships provide particular resources) and (2) the degree of specificity (vs globality) of the scale. Special attention is given to methodological characteristics that are requisite for a fair comparison of the models. It is concluded that there is evidence consistent with both models. Evidence for the buffering model is found when the social support measure assesses the perceived availability of interpersonal resources that are responsive to the needs elicited by stressful events. Evidence for a main effect model is found when the support measure assesses a person's degree of integration in a large social network. Both conceptualizations of social support are correct in some respects, but each represents a different process through which social support may affect well-being. Implications for theories of social support processes and for the design of preventive interventions are discussed.

14,570 citations


"Assessing Coping Strategies: A Theo..." refers background in this paper

  • ...…that there may be populations for which, or circumstances in which, these conceptually distinct tendencies are also empirically distinct (see also S. Cohen & Hoberman, 1983; S. Cohen & Wills, 1985)• For this reason we see merit in measuring the tendencies separately at this stage of research....

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  • ...On the other hand, we suspect that there may be populations for which, or circumstances in which, these conceptually distinct tendencies are also empirically distinct (see also S. Cohen & Hoberman, 1983; S. Cohen & Wills, 1985 )• For this reason we see merit in measuring the tendencies separately at this stage of research....

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