Coping Strategies Essay

585 Words3 Pages
What is coping? In psychology, coping is "constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person" Coping is thus expending conscious effort to solve personal and interpersonal problems, and seeking to master, minimize or tolerate stress or conflict. Psychological coping mechanisms are commonly termed coping strategies or coping skills. Unconscious or non conscious strategies are generally excluded. The term coping generally refers to adaptive or constructive coping strategies for example the strategies reduce stress levels. However, some coping strategies can be considered maladaptive, for example stress levels increase. Maladaptive coping can thus be described, in effect, as non-coping. Furthermore, the term coping generally refers to reactive coping, for example the coping response follows the stressor. This contrasts with proactive coping, in which a coping response aims to head off a future stressor. Types of coping strategies: Hundreds of coping strategies have been identified. Classification of these strategies into a broader architecture has not yet been agreed upon. Common distinctions are often made between various contrasting strategies, for example: problem-focused versus emotion-focused; engagement versus disengagement; cognitive versus behavioral. The psychology textbook by Weiten has provided a useful summary of three broad types of coping strategies. • Appraisal-focused • Problem-focused • Emotion-focused Appraisal-focused:- Appraisal-focused strategies occur when the person modifies the way they think, for example: employing denial, or distancing oneself from the problem. People may alter the way they think about a problem by altering their goals and values, such as by seeing the humor in a
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