Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-31T23:30:57.681Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The concept of coping

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

C. Ray ,
J. Lindop  and
S. Gibson
C. Ray*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Brunel University, Uxbridge
J. Lindop
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Brunel University, Uxbridge
S. Gibson
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Brunel University, Uxbridge
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Colette Ray, Department of Psychology, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

Coping is action directed at the resolution or mitigation of a problematic situation. There are a number of ways in which this may be attempted, and a number of ways of classifying coping strategies. This paper presents a simple schema of six coping themes, ordered in terms of their defensiveness and the degree of attempted personal control which they imply. They comprise rejection, control, resignation, dependency, avoidance and minimization, and characterize the meaning or qualitative ‘style’ of the individual's response, rather than the formal characteristics of the strategies employed. Data from studies of breast cancer and surgical patients are cited to illustrate the substance of the themes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , May 1982 , pp. 385 - 395
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adler, A. (1964). Social Interest: a Challenge to Mankind. Putman: New York.Google Scholar
Arnold, M. B. (1960). Emotion and Personality. Columbia Univeraity Press: New York.Google Scholar
Averill, J. R. (1973). Personal control over aversive stimuli and its relationship to stress. Psychological Bulletin 80, 286–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. (1978). The Social Origins of Depression. Tavistock: London.Google ScholarPubMed
Brown, W. P. (1961). Conceptions of perceptual defence. British Journal Monograph Supplement, 35.Google Scholar
Byrne, D. (1964). Repreasion-sensitisation as a dimension of personality. In Progress in Experimental Personality Research. Vol. I (ed. Maher, B. A.), pp. 169–220. Academic Press: New York.Google Scholar
Erdelyi, M. H. (1974). A new look at the New Look: perceptual defence and vigilance. Psychological Review 81, 1–25.Google Scholar
Folkman, S. & Lazarus, R. S. (1980). An analysis of coping in a middle-aged community sample. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour 21, 219–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freud, S. (1946). The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense. International Universities Press: New York.Google Scholar
Glass, D. C. & Singer, J. E. (1972). Urban Stress. Academic Press: New York.Google Scholar
Goldstein, M. J. (1973). Individual differences in response to stress. American Journal of Community Psychology 1, 113–137.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haan, N. (1977). Coping and Defending: Processes of Self-environment Organisation. Academic Press: New York.Google Scholar
Hamburg, D. A. & Adams, J. E. (1967). A perspective on coping: seeking and utilising information in major transitions. Archives of General Psychiatry 17, 277–284.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hamilton, V. & Warburton, D. M. (1979). Human Stress and Cognition. Wiley: New York.Google Scholar
Holmes, T. H. & Masuda, M. (1974). Life change and illness susceptibility. In Stressful Life Events (ed. Dohrenwend, B. S. and Dohrenwend, B. P.), pp. 48–72. Wiley: New York.Google Scholar
Horowitz, M. J. (1979). Psychological response to serious life events. In Stress and Cognition: an Information Processing Approach (ed. Hamilton, K. and Warburton, D. M.), pp. 237–263. Wiley: New York.Google Scholar
Horowitz, M. J., Wilner, N. & Alvarez, W. (1980). Signs and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry 37, 85–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
House, J. S. (1974). Occupational stress and coronary heart disease: a review and theoretical integration. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour 15, 12–27.Google Scholar
Kanner, A. D., Coyne, J. C., Schaefer, C. & Lazarus, R. S. (1981). Comparison of two modes of stress measurement: daily hassles and uplifts versus major life events. Journal of Behavioral Medicine 4, 1–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kelly, G. A. (1970). A brief introduction to personal construct theory. In Perspectives in Personal Construct Theory (ed. Bannister, D.), pp. 1–29. Academic Press: New York.Google Scholar
Krohne, H. W. (1978). Individual differences in coping with stress and anxiety. In Stress and Anxiety, Vol. 5 (ed. Spielberger, C. D. and Sarason, I. G.), pp. 233–260. Hemisphere: Washington.Google Scholar
Lazarus, R. S. (1966). Psychological Stress and the Coping Process. McGraw Hill: New York.Google Scholar
Lazarus, R. S. & Launier, R. (1978). Stress-related transactions between person and environment. In Perspectives in Interactional Psychology (ed. Pervin, L. A. and Lewis, M.). pp. 287–327. Plenum: New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lazarus, R. S., Averill, J. R. & Opton, E. M. (1970). Toward a cognitive theory of emotion. In Feelings and Emotions (ed. Arnold, M. B.), pp. 207–232. Academic Press: New York.Google Scholar
Lazarus, R. S., Averill, J. R. & Opton, E. M. (1974). The psychology of coping: issues of research and assessment. In Coping and Adaptation (ed. Coelho, G. V., Hamburg, D. A. and Adams, J. E.), pp. 249–315. Basic Books: New York.Google Scholar
Leigh, C. A. (1979). The problem-focused and emotion-focused scales of the ways of coping questionnaire: a construct-validity study. Unpublished Master's thesis, cited by Folkman & Lazarus (1982).Google Scholar
Levenson, H. (1974). Activism and powerful others: distinctions within the concept of intemal—external control. Journal of Personality Assessment 38, 377–383.Google Scholar
Lipowski, A. J. (1970). Physical illness, the individual and the coping process. Psychiatry in Medicine 1, 91–102.Google Scholar
McGrath, J. E. (1970). A conceptual formulation for research on stress. In Social and Psychological Factors in Stress (ed. McGrath, J. E.), pp. 10–21. Holt, Rinehart and Winston: New York.Google Scholar
Mechanic, D. (1970). Some problems in developing a social psychology of adaptation to stress. In Social and Psychological Factors in Stress (ed. McGrath, J. E.), pp. 104–123. HoIt, Rinehart and Winston: New York.Google Scholar
Murphy, L. B. (1962). The Widening World of Childhood: Paths toward Mastery. Basic Books: New York.Google Scholar
Parkes, C. M. (1972). Bereavement: Studies of Grief in Adult Life. Tavistock: London.Google Scholar
Paykel, E. S. (1974). Life stress and psychiatric disorder. In Stressful Life Events (ed. Dohrenwend, B. S. and Dohrenwend, B. P.), pp. 135–150. Wiley: New York.Google Scholar
Pearlin, L. I. & Schooler, C. (1978). The structure of coping. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour 19, 2–21.Google Scholar
Ray, C. (1982). The surgical patient: psychological stress and coping resources. In Social Psychology and Behavioural Medicine (ed. Eiser, J. R.), pp. 483–507. Wiley: London.Google Scholar
Rotter, J. B. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs, no. 609, 80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shontz, F. C. (1975). The Psychological Aspects of Physical Illness and Disability. Macmillan: New York.Google Scholar
Sidle, A., Moos, R. H., Adams, J. & Cady, P. (1969). Development of a coping scale. Archives of General Psychiatry 20, 225–232.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vaillant, G. E. (1976). Natural history of male psychological health: V. The relation of choice of ego mechanisms of defense to adult adjustment. Archives of General Psychiatry 33, 535–545.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weisman, A. D. (1972). On Dying and Denying. Behavioural Publications: New York.Google Scholar
Weisman, A. D. & Sobel, H. J. (1979). Coping with cancer through self instruction: a hypothesis. Journal of Human Stress 5, 3–8.Google Scholar
White, R. W. (1959). Motivation reconsidered: the concept of competence. Psychological Review 66, 296–333.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed