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People may also engage in “magical thinking ” in an attempt to wish away a stressor. Substance use (i.e., using alcohol and/or drugs) can aid in this disengagement from reality, but only for a time. Denial of the existence of the stressor, for example, can be negative if it causes one to neglect to seek medical attention when symptoms of a possibly serious disease appear. This emotion-focused strategy is called avoidant coping, and its goal is to escape or avoid feelings of distress. When this occurs, rather than engaging in positive coping strategies, the person sometimes seeks to disengage from the stressful situation altogether. Sometimes the nature of a stressor is such that it overwhelms an individual ’s coping resources.
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Other strategies include reinterpreting the stressor as a positive or growth-oriented experience, suppression of competing activities (i.e., putting other concerns aside until the stressor sufficiently subsides), restraint coping (i.e., waiting for an opportunity to act effectively), focusing on and venting of emotions (i.e., expressing grief or “venting ” anger), using humor to cope with the stressor, mental or behavioral disengagement (i.e., giving up on trying to solve a problem or reach a goal), seeking social support -either instrumental support, such as information or resources, or emotional support, such as sympathy and understanding - turning to religion (i.e., putting the problem in God ’s hands), and acceptance, whereby the threat is accepted as unavoidable (as with, for example, terminal illness). Planning involves generating strategies to cope with the stressor. Active coping involves taking steps to remove oneself from a threatening situation. It can also come into play when many aspects of a situation are out of one ’s control, such as when one is dealing with a terminal illness or the sudden death of a loved one.Ĭharles Carver and his colleagues (1989) developed an instrument to measure coping responses based on a number of conceptually distinct methods of responding to stressful life events. Emotion-focused coping often occurs when problem-focused coping fails to reduce the stress in a situation or when the stressor is so great that problem-focused coping has no real likelihood of helping. The goal of emotion-focused coping is to reduce the intensity of distressing emotions associated with stress - that is, the aim is to make oneself feel better about a real or perceived threat or stressor without addressing the source of the stress. For example, changing trails to avoid a snake while on a nature walk would be an example of the problem-focused method of coping: By effectively removing oneself from the threatening situation, one lowers the stress it induces. It may involve taking action to remove a stressor or to evade a threatening stimulus. Problem-focused coping seeks to ameliorate the stress being caused by a given situation by identifying and making efforts to deal with the source of the problem. Lazarus and Susan Folkman (1984) were the first scholars to make the distinction between problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping. These events are conceptualized as two separate responses: a sympathetic/adrenal response, in which catecholamines (epinephrine, norepinephrine) are secreted (i.e., the “fight or flight ” response), and the pituitary/adrenal response, involving the secretion of corticosteroids, which act to restore the biological system to homeostasis (Frankenhauser 1986). Any threat or challenge an individual perceives in the environment initiates a sequence of neuroendocrine events. The body has its own way of coping with stress. Coping is the execution of the response to the threat.
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Secondary appraisal is the process of calling to mind a possible response to the threat. Primary appraisal is the process of perceiving a threat to oneself. Richard Lazarus (1966) offered a three-process model of stress. Minimizing, mastering, or managing a situation in such a way as to render it less distressing is the goal of coping. It is a nearly continuous process as people are frequently confronted with new and changing environmental demands that can lead to stress. Coping is the behavioral, cognitive, and emotional process of managing a stressful or threatening situation or circumstance. The stresses inherent in the daily challenges of life create a need for continuous monitoring and adjustment.