Professional Documents
Culture Documents
COPING: Pitfalls and Promise
COPING: Pitfalls and Promise
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746
Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746
The Contextual, Cognitive Model of Coping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747
What Have We Learned? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747
CHALLENGING ISSUES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748
Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748
Coping Nomenclature: Conceptual and Empirical Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751
Coping Effectiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753
NEW DEVELOPMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 756
Future-Oriented Proactive Coping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757
Dual Process Model of Coping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757
Social Aspects of Coping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 758
Religious Coping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 759
Emotional Approach Coping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 761
Emotion Regulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 762
Coping and Positive Emotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 764
CONCLUSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 768
0066-4308/04/0204-0745$14.00 745
2 Dec 2003 18:53 AR AR207-PS55-26.tex AR207-PS55-26.sgm LaTeX2e(2002/01/18) P1: GCE
INTRODUCTION
The past 35 years have seen a dramatic proliferation of coping research across social
and behavioral science, medicine, public health, and nursing. Research ranges
from small-sample qualitative studies to large-scale population-based studies, with
content ranging from the exploration of abstract theoretical relationships to applied
studies in clinical settings. Many investigators undertook this research with the
hope that the concept of coping might help explain why some individuals fare
Access provided by Eastern Kentucky University - Crabbe Library on 01/12/19. For personal use only.
better than others do when encountering stress in their lives. Many other concepts,
such as culture, developmental history, or personality, can also help explain these
individual differences, but coping is unlike these other concepts in that it lends
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004.55:745-774. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
Background
A large proportion of contemporary coping research can be traced back to the
publication of Richard Lazarus’s 1966 book, Psychological Stress and the Coping
Process. Previously, most research on coping had been couched in the framework
of ego-psychology and the concept of defense, as exemplified by the work of Haan
(1969), Menninger (1963), and Vaillant (1977). This research was often concerned
with pathology and depended on the evaluation of unconscious processes. In his
book, Lazarus presented a contextual approach to stress and coping that helped set
a new course. Lazarus’s formulation expanded the boundaries of coping beyond
defense and an emphasis on pathology to include a wider range of cognitive and
behavioral responses that ordinary people use to manage distress and address the
problems of daily life causing the distress. Lazarus’s theory placed great emphasis
on the role of cognitive appraisal in shaping the quality of the individual’s emotional
response to a troubled person-environment relationship and to the ways in which
the person coped with the appraised relationship. His cognitively oriented theory
of stress and coping occurred within the context of the “cognitive revolution” and
its intense interest in the relation between cognition and emotion (e.g., Mandler
1975, Simon 1967) and information processing under conditions of stress (e.g.,
Horowitz 1976, Janis & Mann 1977, Leventhalet al. 1980). This historical context
undoubtedly helped create the fertile environment in which Lazarus’s theory of
stress and coping took root.
Coping as a distinct field of psychological inquiry emerged during the 1970s and
1980s. By 1974 publications included a major book edited by Coelho, Hamburg,
& Adams titled Coping and Adaptation, as well as scholarly books on coping
with illness (Antonovsky 1979, Moos & Tsu 1977) and coping with childhood
and adolescence (Murphy & Moriarty 1976). Lazarus & Folkman (Folkman &
Lazarus 1980, Lazarus & Folkman 1984) defined coping as thoughts and behaviors
that people use to manage the internal and external demands of situations that
2 Dec 2003 18:53 AR AR207-PS55-26.tex AR207-PS55-26.sgm LaTeX2e(2002/01/18) P1: GCE
COPING 747
are appraised as stressful. This definition became widely accepted (Tennen et al.
2000) and tools with which to measure these coping thoughts and behaviors were
developed (e.g., Billings & Moos 1981, Folkman & Lazarus 1980, Pearlin &
Schooler 1978). By the early 1980s, reports of empirical studies of coping began to
appear in growing numbers. Since then many new measures have been developed
and tens of thousands of studies have been published (Somerfield & McCrae
2000). Major books on coping were published, including Stress, Coping, and
Development (Aldwin 1994) and The Handbook of Coping (Zeidner & Endler
Access provided by Eastern Kentucky University - Crabbe Library on 01/12/19. For personal use only.
over the life span. And we have learned that coping skills can be taught through
cognitive-behavioral therapies.
Despite the substantial gains that have been made in understanding coping per
se, we seem only to have scratched the surface of understanding the ways in which
coping actually affects psychological, physiological, and behavioral outcomes both
in the short- and the longer-term. The discovery task is not simple. Coping is not
a stand-alone phenomenon. It is embedded in a complex, dynamic stress process
that involves the person, the environment, and the relationship between them.
Access provided by Eastern Kentucky University - Crabbe Library on 01/12/19. For personal use only.
Our goals in this chapter are twofold: first, to review central issues in coping
research, and second, to review recent developments in coping theory and research
that hold promise for the field. The literature on coping is vast, and we found it
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004.55:745-774. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
necessary to limit our review in several ways. We focus on coping research that is
consistent with the cognitive, contextual approach as opposed to trait approaches
or approaches based primarily on defense processes. We also focus on research
with adults as opposed to children, and on populations that are not impaired by
severe psychopathology.
CHALLENGING ISSUES
Numerous articles have been published that contain forceful criticisms of coping
research, especially methodology (for review, see Somerfield & McCrae 2000). In
this section we discuss three major issues that are widely debated in the coping
literature: measurement, nomenclature, and the determination of effectiveness.
Measurement
The widespread interest in a contextual approach to stress and coping of the 1970s
and 1980s motivated the development of new measures to assess coping in spe-
cific stressful situations. For the most part, the first generation of these new coping
measures took the form of a checklist of thoughts and behaviors that people use to
manage stressful events. Respondents were usually asked to provide a retrospec-
tive report of how they coped with a specific stressful event or they were asked
to respond to vignettes that portrayed stressful situations. Answers were scored
Yes/No or on Likert scales. Examples of inventories intended to be applicable
in general populations include the Ways of Coping (Folkman & Lazarus 1980,
1988); the COPE (Carver et al. 1989); Coping Response’s Inventory (Moos 1993);
the Coping Strategy Indicator (Amirkhan 1990); and the Coping Inventory for
Stressful Situations (Endler & Parker 1990; see Schwarzer & Schwarzer 1996 for
a comprehensive review of coping measures).
These inventories are helpful in that they allow multidimensional descriptions
of situation-specific coping thoughts and behaviors that people can self-report
(Stone et al. 1992). Nevertheless, the inventory approach has many limitations,
including:
2 Dec 2003 18:53 AR AR207-PS55-26.tex AR207-PS55-26.sgm LaTeX2e(2002/01/18) P1: GCE
COPING 749
The most prominent of all the criticisms of the checklist approach concerns the
problem of retrospective report and the accuracy of recall about specific thoughts
and behaviors that were used one week or one month earlier. Stone & Neale (1984)
developed the Daily Coping Inventory, a measure of daily coping efforts, to remedy
the problem of recall. Instead of asking subjects to recall their most stressful
event retrospectively across one week, two weeks, or a month, as most inventories
request, subjects are asked to think about the most bothersome event that occurred
that day. A study by Ptacek et al. (1994) provided support for shortening the
recall period to one day. They compared brief daily coping reports completed by
college students over seven days with retrospective reports of coping over the same
period. Correlations between daily coping measures (averaged across days) and
the retrospective measures ranged from 0.47 to 0.58.
Stone and his colleagues subsequently developed momentary coping assess-
ments using ecological momentary assessment techniques (Stone et al. 1998) in a
study that compared the “real-time” approach of the momentary assessments with
one- and two-day retrospectively reported coping. Approximately 30% of the par-
ticipants failed to retrospectively report items they had reported on the momentary
assessments, and conversely, approximately 30% of the participants retrospectively
reported items that were not reported on the momentary assessments.
Momentary and retrospective accounts yield different information about cop-
ing. Approaches with short recall are especially useful in intraindividual designs
to study the relationship between changes in coping and changes in proximal out-
comes such as mood or illness symptoms (Tennen et al. 2000). Some suggest that
intraindividual designs are by far the preferred way to understand how coping
affects physical and emotional well-being (Lazarus 2000). The momentary as-
sessment procedure, however, has its own shortcomings. As Stone et al. (1998)
point out, their subjects were asked repeatedly to recall their coping efforts, which
may have resulted in some coping not being reported, perhaps because participants
thought they already had reported it. Further, the momentary focus may result in
reports of very concrete, discrete events, thereby missing ongoing problems or
more abstract, complex problems. The momentary assessments might also elicit
literal reports of specific thoughts and actions, and miss the broader conceptual-
izations of coping that are better perceived with the benefit of some retrospection,
2 Dec 2003 18:53 AR AR207-PS55-26.tex AR207-PS55-26.sgm LaTeX2e(2002/01/18) P1: GCE
A great deal can be learned by asking people to provide narratives about stressful
events, including what happened, the emotions they experienced, and what they
thought and did as the situation unfolded. Narrative approaches are helpful in
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004.55:745-774. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
understanding what the person is coping with, which is especially important when
the stressful event is not a specific event named by the investigator, such as coping
with exams, or a particular health-related procedure, such as an endoscopy. For
example, Folkman et al. (1994) analyzed the narratives of the caregiving partners
of men with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) who had been asked to
report the most stressful event related to caregiving. Within the general category of
caregiving, narratives revealed many different sources of stress, including adjusting
to illness progression, the shifting of responsibilities from the caregiver to the
patient, unexpected improvement in the patient’s health, and role conflict. These
insights were helpful in understanding the caregivers’ perspectives regarding what
they were actually coping with in their daily lives.
Narrative approaches are also useful for uncovering ways of coping that are
not included on inventories. In their analysis of narratives provided by caregivers
of people with dementia, for example, Gottlieb & Gignac (1996) identified ways
of coping not included on most inventories, such as ways of making meaning
(normalizing experiences and feelings, “reading” cognitions and internal states of
the care recipient) and vigilance (continuous watchfulness). Moskowitz & Wrubel
(2000) analyzed 246 stressful event narratives in a sample of 20 human immuno-
deficiency virus positive (HIV+) men who each had up to 13 interviews over a two-
year period. They coded the narratives for coping thoughts and behaviors and tried
to match them to the eight categories of coping contained in the Ways of Coping
(Folkman & Lazarus 1988). Moskowitz & Wrubel identified coping processes
not included on the Ways of Coping inventory, such as offering support, mentally
preparing for what was coming, and venting emotion through crying or writing.
Moskowitz & Wrubel also examined the overlap between a quantitative measure
(the Ways of Coping, Folkman & Lazarus 1988) and their narrative analysis. First
they examined the extent to which the eight kinds of coping measured by the Ways
of Coping appeared spontaneously in the narratives and found the proportion of
matches ranging from 8% to 42%. They then looked in the opposite direction and
found that spontaneous accounts of the eight kinds of coping that appeared in the
narratives were matched by reports on the Ways of Coping much more consistently,
the proportion of matches ranging from 57% to 100%. These findings suggest that
narrative and quantitative approaches overlap, but are not equivalent.
2 Dec 2003 18:53 AR AR207-PS55-26.tex AR207-PS55-26.sgm LaTeX2e(2002/01/18) P1: GCE
COPING 751
narrative methods generate ways of coping that are not contained in checklists.
However, without the prompting of a checklist, people may overlook some of the
ways they coped.
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004.55:745-774. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
ing of a situation. Pearlin & Schooler (1978), for example, included the responses
of positive comparisons or selective ignoring in this category. Park & Folkman
(1997) also proposed a meaning-making factor as a useful way to think about
coping efforts in which the person draws on values, beliefs, and goals to modify
the meaning of a stressful transaction, especially in cases of chronic stress that
may not be amenable to problem-focused efforts. Gottlieb & Gignac (1996) found
that meaning-making coping, including making causal attributions and searching
for meaning in adversity, was caregivers’ most frequently reported way of coping
with demented care recipients’ behavior.
Empirically derived categories of coping usually include the three theoretically
derived factors mentioned above—problem-focused coping, emotion-focused cop-
ing, and meaning-focused coping—but also often include a social factor. In de-
veloping the Coping Strategy Indicator, Amirkhan (1990) started with 161 coping
responses. Principal-factor analysis produced a three-factor solution of Problem-
Solving, Seeking Support, and Avoidance that provided a good fit to the data.
Zautra et al. (1996) compared several empirical structures of coping based on an
11-subscale dispositional version of the COPE inventory (Carver et al. 1989) in a
sample of 169 recently divorced women. A four-factor solution that reflected the
now-familiar pattern of problem-focused, emotion-focused, social coping, and
meaning-focused coping provided an adequate fit to the data: Active (active,
restraint, planning), Avoidance (denial, drugs, mental disengagement), Support
(seeking instrumental support, seeking emotional support), and Positive Cognitive
Restructuring (positive reinterpretation, humor, acceptance).
Although nomenclature such as problem-focused, emotion-focused, social cop-
ing, and meaning-focused coping helps the synthesis of findings across studies,
it also runs the risk of masking important differences within categories. For ex-
ample, distancing, which is a form of coping in which the person recognizes a
problem but deliberately makes efforts to put it out of his or her mind, and escape-
avoidance, which is more of an escapist flight that can include behaviors such as
drinking, are both avoidant forms of coping that are usually grouped together under
“emotion-focused coping.” Distancing, however, is often adaptive when nothing
can be done, such as when waiting for the outcome of a test, whereas escape-
avoidance is usually a maladaptive way of coping with the same kind of situation.
2 Dec 2003 18:53 AR AR207-PS55-26.tex AR207-PS55-26.sgm LaTeX2e(2002/01/18) P1: GCE
COPING 753
not necessarily appropriate for coping scales. Billings & Moos summarized this
problem more than 20 years ago: “. . .typical psychometric estimates of internal
consistency may have limited applicability in assessing the psychometric adequacy
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004.55:745-774. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
Coping Effectiveness
An important motivation for studying coping is the belief that within a given
culture certain ways of coping are more and less effective in promoting emotional
well-being and addressing problems causing distress, and that such information
can be used to design interventions to help people cope more effectively with the
stress in their lives. Despite the reasonableness of this expectation, the issue of
determining coping effectiveness remains one of the most perplexing in coping
research (Somerfield & McCrae 2000).
The contextual approach to coping that guides much of coping research states
explicitly that coping processes are not inherently good or bad (Lazarus & Folkman
1984). Instead, the adaptive qualities of coping processes need to be evaluated in
the specific stressful context in which they occur. A given coping process may be
effective in one situation but not in another, depending, for example, on the extent
to which the situation is controllable. Further, the context is dynamic, so that what
2 Dec 2003 18:53 AR AR207-PS55-26.tex AR207-PS55-26.sgm LaTeX2e(2002/01/18) P1: GCE
OUTCOMES Broadly viewed, outcomes refer to the status of diverse goals that are
personally significant to the individual or that are selected by the researcher on
an a priori basis for their relevance to the question at hand. Several investigators
have identified coping goals that are fairly generic, such as solving the problem
and feeling better (Cummings et al. 1994, McCrae & Costa 1986), or problem-
solving, managing emotional distress, protecting self-esteem, and managing social
interactions (Laux & Weber 1991). Zeidner & Saklofske (1996) name eight goals:
resolution of the conflict or stressful situation, reduction of physiological and
biochemical reactions, reduction of psychological distress, normative social func-
tioning; return to prestress activities, well-being of self and others affected by the
situation, maintaining positive self-esteem, and perceived effectiveness.
These lists are helpful, but they mask important complexities. First, some out-
comes tend to be proximal and are probably influenced by momentary coping (e.g.,
biochemical reactions) and others are more distal and are probably influenced by
coping over time (e.g., normative social functioning, return to prestress activities).
These distinctions actually make it useful to consider both distal and proximal
outcomes in the same study so that we can learn more about how coping works
both in the short- and long-term. Menaghan (1982), for example, used distress as
an indicator of emotional well-being in the near term and numbers of life problems
as an indicator of longer-term effectiveness.
Second, coping responses that are effective with respect to one outcome may
have a negative impact on another (Folkman 1992, Zeidner & Saklofske 1996). In a
study of physicians’ mistakes, for example, Wu et al. (1993) found that physicians
who coped by accepting responsibility for the mistake made constructive changes
in their practice (problem-solving), but also experienced more distress.
A third point has to do with an assumption that a successful goal outcome
involves mastery or resolution. Zeidner & Saklofske (1996, p. 158) for example,
state that adaptive coping “should lead to a permanent problem resolution with no
additional conflict or residual outcomes while maintaining a positive emotional
state.” This approach does a disservice to the chronic, inherently unresolvable
situations and conditions that characterize the stress most people are most troubled
by such as chronic illness, caregiving, unemployment, and bereavement, and which
are the most challenging in terms of coping (Mattlin et al. 1990). Gignac & Gottlieb
2 Dec 2003 18:53 AR AR207-PS55-26.tex AR207-PS55-26.sgm LaTeX2e(2002/01/18) P1: GCE
COPING 755
of their family member’s dementia they found most upsetting. Importantly, these
efficacy appraisals were made in terms of progress toward goal outcomes identified
in qualitative analysis of interview data (a problem-solving/instrumental goal, the
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004.55:745-774. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
adherence, Christensen et al. (1995) found that coping involving planful problem
solving was associated with more favorable adherence when the stressor involved
a relatively controllable aspect of the hemodialysis context. For stressors that were
less controllable, emotional self-control, a form of emotion-focused coping, was
associated with more favorable adherence. Terry & Hynes (1998) made distinctions
among problem- and emotion-focused kinds of coping in a study of women coping
with a medical procedure, in vitro fertilization, which they considered uncontrol-
lable. Direct attempts to manage the problem were related to poorer adjustment,
Access provided by Eastern Kentucky University - Crabbe Library on 01/12/19. For personal use only.
which supported the goodness-of-fit hypothesis. They also found that emotion-
focused approach to coping was better related to adjustment. Escape, another form
of emotion-focused coping, was not. Park et al. (2001) found support for the fit
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004.55:745-774. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
NEW DEVELOPMENTS
Coping research is itself dynamic and new directions are emerging that are help-
ing the field move forward, including future-oriented proactive coping, a dual-
process model of coping, social aspects of coping, and three new directions that
2 Dec 2003 18:53 AR AR207-PS55-26.tex AR207-PS55-26.sgm LaTeX2e(2002/01/18) P1: GCE
COPING 757
mute the impact of events that are potential stressors, such as a pending lay-off, a
medical procedure that has been scheduled, or having to deal with the results of a
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004.55:745-774. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
test that is scheduled in the near future (Aspinwall & Taylor 1997).
Aspinwall & Taylor (1997) refer to these responses to potential stressors as
“proactive coping.” Their model defines five interrelated components of the proac-
tive coping process: (a) the importance of building a reserve of resources (includ-
ing temporal, financial, and social resources) that can be used to prevent or offset
future net losses (see also Hobfoll 1989), (b) recognition of potential stressors,
(c) initial appraisals of potential stressors, (d) preliminary coping efforts, (e) and
the elicitation and use of feedback about the success of one’s efforts (Aspinwall
2003).
Schwarzer & Knoll (2003) distinguish among reactive coping, which alludes to
harm or loss experienced in the past; anticipatory coping, which refers to efforts
to deal with a critical event that is certain or fairly certain to occur in the near
future (e.g., preparing for an exam); preventive coping, which foreshadows an
uncertain threat potential in the distant future (e.g., beginning an exercise program
to prevent an age-related medical condition such as osteoporosis); and proactive
coping, which involves upcoming challenges that are potentially self-promoting.
According to Schwarzer & Knoll the proactive person creates opportunities for
growth, and though like Aspinwall & Taylor (1997), they emphasize the importance
of accumulating resources, the purpose of these resources is to enable the individual
to move toward positively valanced goals that are challenging and associated with
personal growth.
Future-oriented coping, including anticipatory, preventive, and proactive cop-
ing, deserves attention. This type of coping may be a particularly good candidate
for inclusion in cognitive-behavioral or psychoeducational interventions. Measures
need to be developed that tap coping methods that are distinctly future-oriented so
we can learn how people manage to reduce the potential adverse impact of future
events and maximize opportunities for benefit.
The DPM specifies a dynamic process of coping whereby the bereaved person
oscillates between two orientations: loss and restoration. Loss-oriented coping
includes grief work, breaking bonds and thinking of the deceased person in a
different place, and denying and avoiding changes associated with restoration.
Restoration-oriented coping includes attending to secondary stressors that come
about as a consequence of the bereavement, such as changing identity and role from
“wife” to “widow,” or mastering new skills and responsibilities that had previously
been the provenance of the deceased. Each of these orientations can be thought of
Access provided by Eastern Kentucky University - Crabbe Library on 01/12/19. For personal use only.
as a set of related goals. Importantly, the DPM defines adaptive coping as involving
oscillation between loss- and future-orientations, between approach and avoidant
coping, and between positive and negative reappraisals. Thus, the DPM specifies
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004.55:745-774. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
the major adaptive tasks associated with bereavement, specific cognitive processes
associated with each adaptive task, and describes what “effective” coping might
look like in this context. Several studies have tested various aspects of the model,
and findings suggest that the DPM, with its characteristic pattern of oscillation, is
helpful in explaining adjustment to bereavement (for review see M.S. Stroebe, H.
Schut, & W. Stroebe, under review).
COPING 759
influenced both by the individual and the spouse. The pattern of findings suggests
that women and men tend to experience each other’s coping strategies differently.
Women, for example, benefited from their male partner’s problem-focused cop-
ing, but the converse was not true, and avoidance by female partners contributed
to distress in men, but the converse was not true.
Religious Coping
Religious coping received little attention until relatively recently. Now it has be-
come one of the most fertile areas for theoretical consideration and empirical
research. The interest in religious coping is spurred in part by evidence that reli-
gion plays an important role in the entire stress process, ranging from its influence
on the ways in which people appraise events (Park & Cohen 1993) to its influence
on the ways in which they respond psychologically and physically to those events
over the long term (Seybold & Hill 2001). But people also use religion specifically
to help cope with the immediate demands of stressful events, especially to help
find the strength to endure and to find purpose and meaning in circumstances that
can challenge the most fundamental beliefs.
The recent interest in religious coping has been fueled by increasing evidence
that religious involvement affects mental and physical health (Seybold & Hill
2001). Religious involvement is not synonymous with religious coping. Religious
involvement can be a part of an individual’s life independent of stress in that
person’s life. However, some people do become involved with religion as a way
of coping with stress. Further, studies by Holland et al. (1999) and Baider et al.
(1999) show a relationship between a measure of religious and spiritual beliefs
and practices and active forms of coping.
Kenneth Pargament (1997) has articulated complicated conceptual issues inher-
ent in the study of religious coping in his seminal book, The Psychology of Religion
2 Dec 2003 18:53 AR AR207-PS55-26.tex AR207-PS55-26.sgm LaTeX2e(2002/01/18) P1: GCE
and Coping, and in subsequent publications. One issue is the need to distinguish
religious coping from religious dispositions and psychological and religious out-
comes (Smith et al. 2000) that parallel similar issues in the conceptualization and
measurement of coping more generally (cf. Lazarus & Folkman 1984, Stanton
et al. 1994). A second issue is the need to define methods of religious coping that
are distinct from methods of secular coping. Pargament et al. (1988), for example,
defined three such methods: the self-directing approach, in which people rely on
their God-given resources in coping; the deferring approach, in which people pas-
Access provided by Eastern Kentucky University - Crabbe Library on 01/12/19. For personal use only.
sively defer the responsibility for problem solving to God; and the collaborative
approach, in which people work together with God as partners in the problem-
solving process (preprint, ms pp. 6–7). A third issue has to do with the potential
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004.55:745-774. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
COPING 761
the world, and a religious struggle in the search for significance” (Pargament et al.,
p. 712). It includes punitive religious reappraisals, demonic religious reappraisals,
reappraisals of God’s powers, and spiritual discontent.
Pargament et al. (2001) conducted one of the few studies to examine religious
coping (as opposed to religious involvement) as a predictor of mortality. The study
produced mixed findings. The authors used items from the RCOPE (Pargament
et al. 2000) to measure positive religious coping and religious struggle in a two-
year longitudinal study of 596 hospitalized persons 55 years of age or older. They
Access provided by Eastern Kentucky University - Crabbe Library on 01/12/19. For personal use only.
found that religious struggle items (e.g., “Wondered whether God had abandoned
me,” “Questioned God’s love for me”), but not positive religious coping, predicted
mortality after controlling for demographic, physical health, and mental health
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004.55:745-774. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
variables. The authors point out that their study was the first empirical study to
identify religious variables that increase the risk of mortality. Their study shows
the importance of using measures of religious coping that include methods that
are potentially maladaptive as well as those that are potentially adaptive.
over a one-month period for women but increased depression and decreased life
satisfaction for men. In a subsequent set of studies in which emotional processing
and expression were analyzed as separate subscales, neither was associated with
depression but emotional expression was associated with life satisfaction for both
men and women. In addition, emotional processing and emotional expression were
associated with hope in women (but not in men). In a study of women with stage
I or II breast cancer (Stanton et al. 2000), coping with cancer through emotional
expression was associated with improved perceptions of health, decreased dis-
Access provided by Eastern Kentucky University - Crabbe Library on 01/12/19. For personal use only.
tress, fewer medical visits, and increased vigor at a three-month follow up. Coping
through emotional processing, however, was associated with increases in distress
over the three-month study period. Stanton et al. (2000) suggest that although
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004.55:745-774. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
Emotion Regulation
Emotion regulation is the process “by which individuals influence which emotions
they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express these emo-
tions. Emotion regulatory processes may be automatic or controlled, conscious
or unconscious, and may have their effects at one or more points in the emotion
generative process” (Gross 1998b, p. 275). To the extent that coping is aimed at
ameliorating negative emotions or promoting positive emotions, it falls under the
rubric of emotion regulation. However, emotion regulation also includes noncon-
scious processes that, according to our definition, do not fall under the purview of
coping. In addition, since the coping process is prompted by negative emotion, it
happens after the occurrence of emotion in the stress process, not prior, as with
some forms of emotion regulation (but see our discussion of proactive and antici-
patory coping). Eisenberg et al. (1997) classify both coping and emotion regulation
under the larger category of self-regulation and note that coping involves the regu-
latory processes that occur in stressful contexts. Finally, although problem-focused
coping is initiated by the occurrence of a negative emotion, problem-focused forms
of coping do not fall under the category of emotion regulation in the sense that
they are aimed at changing the source of the stress and, therefore, can be seen as
nonemotional actions (Gross 1998b).
Eisenberg et al. (1997) identify two types of emotion regulation: one that in-
volves regulating the internal feeling states and associated physiological processes
2 Dec 2003 18:53 AR AR207-PS55-26.tex AR207-PS55-26.sgm LaTeX2e(2002/01/18) P1: GCE
COPING 763
(what they label emotion regulation) and the second that involves regulating the
behavioral concomitants of emotion (labeled emotion-related behavior regulation).
Gross (1998b) distinguishes two general classes of emotion regulation depending
on where they occur in the emotion-generating process. Antecedent-focused regu-
lation includes situation selection, situation modification, attentional deployment,
and cognitive change. Response-focused regulation includes response modulation.
In a series of lab studies (e.g., Butler et al. 2003; Gross 1998a; Gross & John
2003b; Gross & Levenson 1993, 1997). Gross and colleagues have compared
Access provided by Eastern Kentucky University - Crabbe Library on 01/12/19. For personal use only.
& John 2003b for a review). For example, compared to participants in a control
condition who were instructed to simply watch a distressing film clip, participants
who were told to inhibit their emotional expression while watching the clip (the
suppression condition) had poorer recall for details of the clip in an unexpected test
at the end of the session (Richards & Gross 2000). In a second study, one group of
participants was instructed to reappraise a set of emotionally evocative slides by
viewing them as medical professionals would. When compared to the suppression
group, which was instructed to suppress their emotional expression in response to
the slides, the reappraisal group had better performance on a subsequent test in
which they were asked to write down information associated with each slide as
the slides were viewed again (Richards & Gross 2000).
Gross & John (2003a) developed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, a
measure of individual differences in the tendency to reappraise or suppress. When
compared to those who report using less suppression, those individuals who re-
port using higher levels of suppression also reported having poorer memory for
conversations and performed more poorly when asked to recall events they had
reported in a daily diary a week earlier. Reappraisal was not related to either form
of memory test.
Butler et al. 2003 examined the social consequences of reappraisal and suppres-
sion by having unacquainted female dyads watch an upsetting film, then discuss
their reactions. One of the pair was given a secret instruction to suppress, reap-
praise, or interact naturally with the other member of the pair. Interestingly, the
partners of the suppressors had greater increases in blood pressure than the partners
of the reappraisers or those who acted naturally. It appears that interacting with a
partner who suppresses emotional reactions is stressful for the person with whom
he or she is interacting.
The work on emotion regulation adds to the coping literature by providing an
in-depth look at the effects of some forms of emotion-focused types of coping.
The forms of emotion regulation that Gross and colleagues are studying in the lab
can be considered emotion-focused coping because they are elicited in response
to the depiction of disturbing, stressful events that the individual is unable to
control or change. One challenge for future work in this area is to delineate the
extent to which these lab studies generalize to more applied stressful contexts. For
2 Dec 2003 18:53 AR AR207-PS55-26.tex AR207-PS55-26.sgm LaTeX2e(2002/01/18) P1: GCE
example, when receiving frightening news such as the diagnosis of cancer, would
suppressing one’s emotional reaction lead to poorer recall for the information from
the physician than immediate reappraisal of the news?
Keltner 1997, Folkman 1997, Folkman & Moskowitz 2000). This awareness has
been fueled by growing interest in positive emotion more generally among emotion
researchers (e.g., Danner et al. 2001; Fredrickson & Joiner 2002; Fredrickson &
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004.55:745-774. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
Levenson 1998; Fredrickson et al. 2000; Haidt 2000; Harker & Keltner 2001; Isen
1993, 2002) and a trend in psychology in general to focus on positive traits and
concepts (e.g., Aspinwall & Clark 2003, Major et al. 1998, O’Leary & Ickovics
1995, Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi 2000). Interest in positive emotion in the
stress process has opened a new avenue for coping research.
A number of studies have documented that positive emotion can occur with
relatively high frequency, even in the most dire stressful context, and can occur
during periods when depression and distress are significantly elevated. Silver &
Wortman (1987; as reported in Wortman 1987), assessed positive and negative
emotions in a sample of people who had severe spinal cord injuries and a sample
of parents who had lost a child to sudden infant death syndrome. In both samples,
despite the severity of the loss and the high levels of negative emotions reported,
positive emotions occurred with surprising frequency. In the sample of people
with spinal cord injury, happiness was reported more frequently than negative
emotions by the third week after injury. In a sample of parents who lost a child
to sudden infant death syndrome, positive and negative emotions were reported
with approximately the same frequency three weeks after the child’s death, and
by three months positive emotions were reported more frequently than negative
emotions.
Westbrook & Viney (1982) interviewed a sample of patients who were hos-
pitalized with a chronic or disabling illness and a comparison group of healthy
adults regarding their “life at the moment, the good things and the bad; what it’s
like for you” (p. 901). As expected, when compared to the control group, patients’
responses revealed significantly more anxiety, depression, anger, and helpless-
ness. However, their responses also showed significantly more positive feelings
than did the responses of the comparison group. Viney et al. (1989) also found
co-occurrence of positive and negative emotions in a sample of chronically ill men.
Although the negative emotions of anxiety, depression, and helplessness were more
frequent in the chronically ill groups when compared to a healthy control group,
the positive emotion of enjoyment was also more frequent in the ill groups.
A similar co-occurrence of positive and negative emotion was found in a sample
of caregiving partners of men with AIDS. Although the depression scores of the
caregivers in the study were in the range that would classify them as at risk for
2 Dec 2003 18:53 AR AR207-PS55-26.tex AR207-PS55-26.sgm LaTeX2e(2002/01/18) P1: GCE
COPING 765
clinical depression, when asked to report how often they experienced various
positive and negative emotions in the previous week, the participants reported
experiencing positive emotion as least as frequently as they experienced negative
emotion, with the exception of the time immediately surrounding the death of the
partner (Folkman 1997). Three years after the death of the partner, although the
mean depression score of the bereaved caregivers was still significantly higher
than the general population mean, positive emotions were reported significantly
more frequently than negative emotions in the past week (Moskowitz et al. 2003).
Access provided by Eastern Kentucky University - Crabbe Library on 01/12/19. For personal use only.
tive emotion, and vice versa. On the other, the co-occurrence phenomenon suggests
there may be a degree of independence, in which case different kinds of coping
may be associated with the regulation of positive and negative affect.
There is mounting evidence that although some coping strategies affect both
positive and negative emotion, a number of strategies are related to just one or
the other. Stone et al. (1995) examined the association of distraction, situation
redefinition, direct action, catharsis, acceptance, seeking social support, relaxation,
and religion with positive and negative affect as reported in end-of-day diaries.
They found that relaxation and direct action were uniquely associated with positive
affect, whereas distraction and acceptance were also associated with lower levels
of negative affect.
Carver & Scheier (1994) studied the associations of coping with positive and
negative emotion over the course of an exam. None of the coping responses mea-
sured prior to the exam was associated with positive challenge or benefit emotions
during the postexam, pregrade period. However, use of problem-focused coping
and positive reframing after the exam predicted challenge emotions (e.g., excited,
eager) after the grades were announced.
Prospective data from a study of 110 caregiving partners of men with AIDS
assessed bimonthly pre- and postbereavement indicated problem-focused coping
and positive reappraisal were consistently associated with increases in positive
affect, but only inconsistently related to decreases in negative affect (Moskowitz
et al. 1996).
Analyses of narrative data from the AIDS caregiver study indicated that other
types of coping, not captured by traditional checklist measures of coping, are likely
to be related to positive emotion in the context of ongoing stress (Folkman 1997).
At the conclusion of the interview, participants were asked to describe a positive
meaningful event about “something that you did, or something that happened to
you that made you feel good and that was meaningful to you and helped you get
through the day.”
This question was posed to 1794 participants, and 99.5% were able to report
a positive meaningful event. In an in-depth analysis of 215 events reported by 36
participants, Folkman et al. (1997) found that the events often concerned some-
thing other than caregiving or bereavement (the subject of the focal stressors)
2 Dec 2003 18:53 AR AR207-PS55-26.tex AR207-PS55-26.sgm LaTeX2e(2002/01/18) P1: GCE
and instead were associated with other roles that participants had (e.g., coworker,
family member). In addition, they often concerned what on the surface appeared to
be comparatively minor events (e.g., a beautiful sunset, a kind word from a friend,
a good grade on a test). These findings suggested that under enduring stressful
conditions such as caregiving or bereavement, people consciously seek out posi-
tive meaningful events or infuse ordinary events with positive meaning to increase
their positive affect, which in turn provides respite from distress and thereby helps
replenish resources and sustain further coping.
Access provided by Eastern Kentucky University - Crabbe Library on 01/12/19. For personal use only.
COPING, THE SEARCH FOR MEANING, AND POSITIVE EMOTION One of the central
tasks in coping with severe stress is to integrate the occurrence of the stressor with
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004.55:745-774. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
one’s beliefs about the world and the self (Janoff-Bulman 1989, 1999; Park &
Folkman 1997). A common theme in the coping processes related to positive
emotion is their link to the individual’s important values, beliefs, and goals that
comprise the individual’s sense of meaning (Folkman 1997).
Positive reappraisal, for example, involves a reinterpretation of the event in
terms of benefits to one’s values, beliefs, and goals. Problem-focused coping, when
effective, is associated with feelings of mastery and control, goals that are generally
valued in Western culture. Positive meaningful events are linked to positive emotion
precisely because they reaffirm what one values and help one to focus on those
values while coping with the ongoing stressful event.
COPING 767
more strongly about the quality of life and living life in a satisfying way as much as
possible,” “I certainly appreciated more the friends that I have and became much
closer with them,” and “I would say that (his) death lit up my faith.”
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004.55:745-774. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
CONCLUSIONS
Thirty-five years ago, when coping research was just emerging, the concept of
coping was still somewhat akin to a black box in the stress process. Over subsequent
years, we have begun to see what’s inside the black box. Throughout this period,
there has also been extensive and sometimes contentious debate about the merits
of coping research. Healthy debate and thoughtful criticism are signs that a field is
maturing. At the same time, new methodologies and new ways of thinking about
Access provided by Eastern Kentucky University - Crabbe Library on 01/12/19. For personal use only.
coping are emerging. Despite the complexities inherent in the study of coping,
the area continues to hold great promise for explaining who thrives under stress
and who does not, and it continues to hold great promise for informing effective
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004.55:745-774. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
interventions to help people better handle both acute and chronic stress.
LITERATURE CITED
Affleck G, Tennen H. 1996. Construing bene- ence of alternatives. Motiv. Emot. 23(3):221–
fits from adversity: adaptational significance 45
and dispositional underpinnings. J. Personal. Aspinwall LG, Taylor SE. 1997. A stitch in
64:899–922 time: self-regulation and proactive coping.
Aldwin CM. 1994. Stress, Coping, and De- Psychol. Bull. 121:417–36
velopment: An Integrative Perspective. New Baider L, Russak SM, Perry S, Kash K, Gronert
York: Guilford M, et al. 1999. The role of religious and
Aldwin CM, Revenson TA. 1987. Does cop- spiritual beliefs in coping with malignant
ing help? A reexamination of the relation be- melanoma: an Israeli sample. Psychooncol-
tween coping and mental health. J. Personal. ogy 8:27–35
Soc. Psychol. 53:337–48 Berghuis JP, Stanton AL. 2002. Adjustment to a
Amirkhan JH. 1990. A factor analytically de- dyadic stressor: a longitudinal study of cop-
rived measure of coping: the coping strat- ing and depressive symptoms in infertile cou-
egy indicator. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 59: ples over an insemination attempt. J. Consult.
1066–74 Clin. Psychol. 70(2):433–38
Antonovsky A. 1979. Health Stress and Cop- Billings AG, Moos RH. 1981. The role of cop-
ing. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass ing responses and social resources in attenu-
Aspinwall LG. 2003. Proactive coping, well- ating the stress of life events. J. Behav. Med.
being, and health. In The International 4:139–57
Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Bonanno GA, Keltner D. 1997. Facial expres-
Sciences, ed. NJ Smelser, PB Baltes. Oxford: sions of emotion and the course of conjugal
Elsevier. In press bereavement. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 106:126–
Aspinwall LG, Clark A. 2003. Taking positive 37
changes seriously: toward a positive psychol- Bower JE, Kemeny ME, Taylor SE, Fahey
ogy of cancer survivorship and resilience. JL. 1998. Cognitive processing discovery
Cancer. In press of meaning CD4 decline and AIDS-related
Aspinwall LG, Richter L. 1999. Optimism and mortality among bereaved HIV-seropositive
self-mastery predict more rapid disengage- men. J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 66(6):979–86
ment from unsolvable tasks in the pres- Butler EA, Egloff B, Wilhelm FH, Smith NC,
2 Dec 2003 18:53 AR AR207-PS55-26.tex AR207-PS55-26.sgm LaTeX2e(2002/01/18) P1: GCE
COPING 769
Gross JJ. 2003. The social consequences of Danner DD, Snowdon DA, Friesen WV. 2001.
emotion regulation. Emotion 3:48–67 Positive emotions in early life and longevity:
Carpenter BN, ed. 1992. Personal Coping: The- findings from the nun study. J. Personal. Soc.
ory, Research, and Application. Westport, Psychol. 80:804–13
CT: Praeger/Greenwood DeLongis A, O’Brien T. 1990. An interpersonal
Carver CS, Scheier MF. 1994. Situational cop- framework for stress and coping: an applica-
ing and coping dispositions in a stress- tion to the families of Alzheimer’s patients.
ful transaction. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. In Stress and Coping in Later-life Families,
66:184–95 eds. MAP Stephens, JH Crowther, SE Hob-
Access provided by Eastern Kentucky University - Crabbe Library on 01/12/19. For personal use only.
Carver CS, Scheier MF. 1998. On the Self- foll, DL Tennenbaum, pp. 221–39. Washing-
Regulation of Behavior. London: Cambridge ton, DC: Hemisphere
Univ. Press Dunahoo CL, Hobfoll SE, Monnier J, Hulsizer
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004.55:745-774. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
Carver CS, Scheier MF, Weintraub JK. 1989. MR, Johnson R. 1998. There’s more than
Assessing coping strategies: a theoretically rugged individualism in coping. Part 1: Even
based approach. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. the Lone Ranger had Tonto. Anxiety, Stress,
56:267–83 Coping: An Int. J. 11(2):137–65
Cheng C. 2001. Assessing coping flexibility Eisenberg N, Fabes RA, Guthrie IK. 1997. Cop-
in real-life and laboratory settings: a multi- ing with stress: the roles of regulation and de-
method approach. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. velopment. In Handbook of Children’s Cop-
80(5):814–33 ing: Linking Theory and Intervention, ed. SA
Christensen AJ, Benotch EG, Wiebe JS, Law- Wolchik, IN Sandler, pp. 41–70. New York:
ton WJ. 1995. Coping with treatment- Plenum
related stress: effects on patient adherence Endler NS, Parker JDA. 1990. Multidimen-
in hemodialysis. J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. sional Assessment of coping: a critical eval-
63:454–59 uation. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 58:844–
Coelho GV, Hamburg DA, Adams JE, eds. 54
1974. Coping and Adaptation. New York: Folkman S. 1984. Personal control and stress
Basic Books and coping processes: a theoretical analysis.
Conway VJ, Terry DJ. 1992. Appraised control- J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 46:839–52
lability as a moderator of the effectiveness Folkman S. 1992. Making the case for coping.
of different coping strategies: a test of the See Carpenter 1992, pp. 31–46
goodness of fit hypothesis. Aust. J. Psychol. Folkman S. 1997. Positive psychological states
44:1–7 and coping with severe stress. Soc. Sci. Med.
Coyne JC, Gottlieb BH. 1996. The mismeasure 45:1207–21
of coping by checklist. J. Personal. 64:959– Folkman S, Chesney MA, Christopher-
91 Richards A. 1994. Stress and coping in
Coyne JC, Smith DA. 1991. Couples coping caregiving partners of men with AIDS.
with a myocardial infarction: a contextual Psychiatr. Clin. N. Am. 17:35–53
perspective on wives’ distress. J. Personal. Folkman S, Lazarus RS. 1980. An analysis of
Soc. Psychol. 61(3):404–12 coping in a middle-aged community sample.
Cramer P. 2000. Defense mechanisms in psy- J. Health Soc. Behav. 21:219–39
chology today: further processes for adapta- Folkman S, Lazarus RS. 1985. If it changes it
tion. Am. Psychol. 55(6):637–46 must be a process: study of emotion and cop-
Cummings EM, Davies PT, Simpson KS. 1994. ing during three stages of a college examina-
Marital conflict gender and children’s ap- tion. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 48:150–70
praisals and coping efficacy as mediators of Folkman S, Lazarus RS. 1988. Ways of Cop-
child adjustment. J. Fam. Psychol. 8(2):141– ing Questionnaire. Palo Alto, CA: Consult.
49 Psychol. Press
2 Dec 2003 18:53 AR AR207-PS55-26.tex AR207-PS55-26.sgm LaTeX2e(2002/01/18) P1: GCE
Folkman S, Moskowitz JT. 2000. Positive affect Gross JJ, Levenson RW. 1993. Emotional sup-
and the other side of coping. Am. Psychol. pression: physiology self-report and expres-
55:647–54 sive behavior. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 64:
Folkman S, Moskowitz JT, Ozer EM, Park CL. 970–86
1997. Positive meaningful events and cop- Gross JJ, Levenson RW. 1997. Hiding feel-
ing in the context of HIV/AIDS. See Gottlieb ings: the acute effects of inhibiting negative
1997, pp. 293–314 and positive emotion. J. Abnorm. Psychol.
Fredrickson BL, Joiner T. 2002. Positive emo- 106:95–103
tions trigger upward spirals toward emotional Haan N. 1969. A tripartite model of ego func-
Access provided by Eastern Kentucky University - Crabbe Library on 01/12/19. For personal use only.
well-being. Psychol. Sci. 13(2):172–75 tioning: values and clinical research applica-
Fredrickson BL, Levenson RW. 1998. Positive tions. J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. 148:14–30
emotions speed recovery from the cardiovas- Haidt J. 2000. The positive emotion of eleva-
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004.55:745-774. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
cular sequelae of negative emotions. Cogn. tion. Prev. Treat. 3. Article 3. http://journals.
Emot. 12:191–220 apa.org/prevention/volume3/pre0030003c.
Fredrickson BL, Mancuso RA, Branigan C, html
Tugade MM. 2000. The undoing effect of Harker L, Keltner D. 2001. Expressions of pos-
positive emotions. Motiv. Emot. 24:237–58 itive emotion in women’s college yearbook
Gignac MAM, Gottlieb BH. 1996. Caregivers’ pictures and their relationship to personality
appraisals of efficacy in coping with demen- and life outcomes across adulthood. J. Per-
tia. Psychol. Aging 11(2):214–25 sonal. Soc. Psychol. 80:112–24
Gignac MAM, Gottlieb BH. 1997. Changes Hobfoll SE. 1989. Conservation of resources:
in coping with chronic stress: the role of a new attempt at conceptualizing stress. Am.
caregivers’ appraisals of coping efficacy. See Psychol. 44:513–24
Gottlieb 1997, pp. 245–67 Holland JC, Passik S, Kash KM, Russak SM,
Gottlieb BH, ed. 1997. Coping with Chronic Gronert MK, et al. 1999. The role of religious
Stress. Plenum Series on Stress and Coping. and spiritual beliefs in coping with malignant
New York: Plenum melanoma. Psychooncology 8:14–26
Gottlieb BH, Gignac MAM. 1996. Content and Horowitz M. 1976. Stress Response Syndromes.
domain specificity of coping among family New York: Jason Aronson
caregivers of persons with dementia. J. Ag- Hull JG, Lehn DA, Tedlie JC. 1991. A gen-
ing Stud. 10(2):137–55 eral approach to testing multifaceted person-
Gross JJ. 1998a. Antecedent- and response- ality constructs. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol.
focused emotion regulation: divergent con- 61(6):932–45
sequences for experience expression and Ironson G, Solomon GF, Balbin EG, O’Cleirigh
physiology. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 74: C, George A, et al. 2002. The Ironson-Woods
224–37 Spirituality/Religiousness Index is associ-
Gross JJ. 1998b. The emerging field of emotion ated with long survival health behaviors,
regulation: an integrative review. Rev. Gen. less distress and low cortisol in people with
Psychol. 2:271–99 HIV/AIDS. Ann. Behav. Med. 24(1):34–48
Gross JJ, John OP. 2003a. Wise emotion regu- Isen AM. 1993. Positive affect and decision
lation. In The Wisdom of Feelings: Psycho- making. In Handbook of Emotions, ed. M
logical Processes in Emotional Intelligence, Lewis, JM Haviland, pp. 417–35. New York:
ed. LF Barrett, P Salovey, pp. 297–319. New Guilford
York: Guilford Isen AM. 2002. A role for neuropsychology
Gross JJ, John OP. 2003b. Individual differ- in understanding the facilitating influence of
ences in emotion regulation processes: af- positive affect on social behavior and cog-
fective and social consequences. J. Personal. nitive processes. See Snyder & Lopez 2002,
Soc. Psychol. 85:348–62 pp. 528–40
2 Dec 2003 18:53 AR AR207-PS55-26.tex AR207-PS55-26.sgm LaTeX2e(2002/01/18) P1: GCE
COPING 771
Janis I, Mann L. 1977. Decision Making. New Menaghan E. 1982. Measuring coping effec-
York: Free Press tiveness: a panel analysis of marital prob-
Janoff-Bulman R. 1989. Assumptive worlds lems and coping efforts. J. Health Soc. Behav.
and the stress of traumatic events: applica- 23(3):220–34
tions of the schema construct. Soc. Cogn. Menninger K. 1963. The Vital Balance: The Life
7:113–36 Process in Mental Health and Illness. New
Janoff-Bulman R. 1999. Rebuilding shattered York: Viking
assumptions after traumatic life events: cop- Monnier J, Hobfoll SE, Dunahoo CL, Hulsizer
ing processes and outcomes. See Snyder MR, Johnson R. 1998. There’s more than
Access provided by Eastern Kentucky University - Crabbe Library on 01/12/19. For personal use only.
approach. Anxiety Res. 3(4):233–55 Moos RH. 1993. Coping Responses Inventory.
Lazarus RS. 1966. Psychological Stress and the Odessa, FL: Psychol. Assess. Resourc.
Coping Process. New York: McGraw-Hill Moos RH, Tsu VD. 1977. The crisis of physical
Lazarus RS. 2000. Toward better research on illness; an overview. In Coping with Physical
stress and coping. Am. Psychol. 55(6):665– Illness, ed. RH Moos, pp. 1–22. New York:
73 Plenum
Lazarus RS, Folkman S. 1984. Stress Appraisal Moskowitz JT, Folkman S, Acree M. 2003.
and Coping. New York: Springer Do positive psychological states shed light
Lester N, Smart L, Baum A. 1994. Measuring on recovery from bereavement? Findings
coping flexibility. Psychol. Health 9(6):409– from a 3-year longitudinal study. Death Stud.
24 27:471–500
Leventhal H, Meyer D, Nerenz D. 1980. Moskowitz JT, Folkman S, Collette L, Vit-
The commonsense representation of illness tinghoff E. 1996. Coping and mood during
danger. In Contributions to Medical Psy- AIDS-related caregiving and bereavement.
chology, ed. S Rachman, 2:7–30. Oxford: Ann. Behav. Med. 18(1):49–57
Pergamon Moskowitz JT, Wrubel J. 2000. Apples and or-
Macrodimitris SD, Endler NS. 2001. Coping anges: using qualitative and quantitative ap-
control and adjustment in Type 2 diabetes. proaches to coping assessment. Presented at
Health Psychol. 20:208–16 Am. Psychol. Soc., Miami, FL
Major B, Richards C, Cooper ML, Cozzarelli C, Murphy LB, Moriarty AE. 1976. Vulnerability,
Zubek J. 1998. Personal resilience, cognitive Coping and Growth. New Haven, CT: Yale
appraisals and coping: an integrative model Univ. Press
of adjustment to abortion. J. Personal. Soc. Nolen-Hoeksema S. 2000. The role of rumi-
Psychol. 74:735–52 nation in depressive disorders and mixed
Mandler G. 1975. Mind and Emotion. New anxiety/depressive symptoms. J. Abnorm.
York: Wiley Psychol. 109(3):504–11
Mattlin JA, Wethnigton E, Kessler RC. 1990. Nolen-Hoeksema S, Davis CG. 1999. “Thanks
Situational determinants of coping and cop- for sharing that”: ruminators and their social
ing effectiveness. J. Health Soc. Behav. 31: support networks. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol.
103–22 77:801–14
McCrae RR. 1984. Situational determinants of Nolen-Hoeksema S, Larson J, Grayson C. 1999.
coping responses: Loss threat and challenge. Explaining the gender difference in depres-
J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 76:117–22 sive symptoms. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol.
McCrae RR, Costa PT. 1986. Personality cop- 77:1061–77
ing and coping effectiveness in an adult sam- Ntoumanis M, Biddle SJH. 1998. The relation-
ple. J. Personal. 54:385–405 ship of coping and its perceived effectiveness
2 Dec 2003 18:53 AR AR207-PS55-26.tex AR207-PS55-26.sgm LaTeX2e(2002/01/18) P1: GCE
to positive and negative affect in sport. Per- Ptacek JT, Smith RE, Espe K, Raffety B. 1994.
sonal. Indiv. Differ. 24:773–88 Limited correspondence between daily cop-
O’Brien TB, DeLongis A. 1997. Coping with ing reports and retrospective coping recall.
chronic stress: an interpersonal perspective. Psychol. Assess. 6:41–49
See Gottlieb 1997, pp. 161–90 Richards JM, Gross JJ. 2000. Emotion regu-
O’Leary VE, Ickovics JR. 1995. Resilience and lation and memory: the cognitive costs of
thriving in response to challenge: an opportu- keeping one’s cool. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol.
nity for a paradigm shift in women’s health. 79:410–24
Women’s Health 1:121–42 Schwartz CE, Daltroy LH. 1991. Measuring
Access provided by Eastern Kentucky University - Crabbe Library on 01/12/19. For personal use only.
Pargament KI. 1997. The Psychology of Reli- coping flexibility: development of the Flex
gion and Coping. New York: Guilford measure. Presented at Annu. Meet. Soc. Be-
Pargament KI, Kennell J, Hathaway W, Greven- hav. Med.. Washington, DC
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004.55:745-774. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
goed N, Newman J, Jones W. 1988. Religion Schwarzer R, Knoll N. 2003. Positive coping:
and the problem-solving process: three styles mastering demands and searching for mean-
of coping. J. Sci. Study Relig. 27(1):90–104 ing. In Comprehensive Handbook of Psy-
Pargament KI, Koenig HG, Perez LM. 2000. chology, Vol. 9, ed. AM Nezu, CM Nezu,
The many methods of religious cop- PA Geller. New York: Wiley. In press
ing: development and initial validation of Schwarzer R, Schwarzer C. 1996. A critical sur-
the RCOPE. J. Clin. Psychol. 56(4):519– vey of coping instruments. See Zeidner &
43 Endler 1996, pp. 107–32
Pargament KI, Koenig HG, Tarakeshwar N, Seligman MEP, Csikszentmihalyi M. 2000.
Hahn J. 2001. Religious struggle as pre- Positive psychology: an introduction. Am.
dictor of mortality among medically ill Psychol. 55:5–14
elderly patients. Arch. Intern. Med. 161: Seybold KS, Hill PC. 2001. The role of reli-
1881–85 gion and spirituality in mental and physical
Pargament KI, Smith BW, Koenig HG, Perez L. health. Curr. Direct. Psychol. Sci. 10(1):21–
1998. Patterns of positive and negative reli- 24
gious coping with major life stressors. J. Sci. Silver R, Wortman CB. 1987. The role of posi-
Study Relig. 37(4):710–24 tive emotions in the coping process. Unpub-
Park CL, Cohen LH. 1993. Religious and non- lished manuscript. Univ. Waterloo, Waterloo,
religious coping with the death of a friend. Ontario, Can.
Cogn. Ther. Res. 17(6):561–77 Simon HA. 1967. Motivational and emotional
Park CL, Cohen LH, Murch RL. 1996. Assess- controls of cognition. Psychol. Rev. 74:29–
ment and prediction of stress-related growth. 39
J. Personal. 64(1):71–105 Smith BW, Pargament KI, Brant C, Oliver JM.
Park CL, Folkman S. 1997. Meaning in the con- 2000. Noah revisited: religious coping by
text of stress and coping. Rev. Gen. Psychol. church members and the impact of the 1993
1:115–44 Midwest flood. J. Community Psychol. Spec.
Park CL, Folkman S, Bostrom A. 2001. Ap- Iss.: Spiritual Relig. Community Psychol.
praisals of controllability and coping in 28(2):169–86
caregivers and HIV+ men: testing the Snyder CR, ed. 1999. Coping: The Psychol-
goodness-of-fit hypothesis. J. Consult. Clin. ogy of What Works. New York: Oxford Univ.
Psychol. 69(3):481–88 Press
Pearlin LI, Schooler C. 1978. The structure of Snyder CR, Lopez SJ, eds. 2002. Handbook of
coping. J. Health Soc. Behav. 9:3–21 Positive Psychology. London: Oxford Univ.
Porter LS, Stone AA. 1996. An approach to as- Press
sessing daily coping. See Zeidner & Endler Somerfield MR, McCrae RR. 2000. Stress and
1996, pp. 133–50 coping research: methodological challenges,
2 Dec 2003 18:53 AR AR207-PS55-26.tex AR207-PS55-26.sgm LaTeX2e(2002/01/18) P1: GCE
COPING 773
ally expressive coping predicts psychological adversity. See Snyder 1999, pp. 279–304
and physical adjustment to breast cancer. J. Tennen H, Affleck G. 2002. Benefit-finding
Consult. Clin. Psychol. 68(5):875–82 and benefit-reminding. See Snyder & Lopez
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004.55:745-774. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
Stanton AL, Kirk SB, Cameron CL, Danoff- 2002, pp. 584–97
Burg S. 2000. Coping through emotional ap- Tennen H, Affleck G, Armeli S, Carney MA.
proach: scale construction and validation. J. 2000. A daily process approach to coping:
Personal. Soc. Psychol. 78:1150–69 linking theory research and practice. Am.
Stanton AL, Parsa A, Austenfeld JL. 2002. The Psychol. 55(6):626–36
adaptive potential of coping through emo- Terry DJ, Hynes GJ. 1998. Adjustment to a
tional approach. See Snyder & Lopez 2002, low-control situation: reexamining the role
pp. 148–58 of coping responses. J. Personal. Soc. Psy-
Stein N, Folkman S, Trabasso T, Richards TA. chol. 74(4):1078–92
1997. Appraisal and goal processes as pre- Vaillant GE. 1977. Adaption to Life. Boston,
dictors of psychological well-being in be- MA: Little, Brown
reaved caregivers. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. Vaillant GE. 2000. Adaptive mental mecha-
72:872–84 nisms: their role in a positive psychology.
Stone AA, Kennedy-Moore E, Neale JM. Am. Psychol. 55:89–98
1995. Association between daily coping and Viney LL, Henry R, Walker BM, Crooks L.
end-of-day mood. Health Psychol. 14:341– 1989. The emotional reactions of HIV an-
49 tibody positive men. Br. J. Med. Psychol.
Stone AA, Kennedy-Moore E, Newman MG, 62(2):153–61
Greenberg M, Neale JM. 1992. Conceptual Wells JD, Hobfoll SE, Lavin J. 1997. Resource
and methodological issues in current coping loss, resource gain, and communal coping
assessments. See Carpenter 1992, pp. 15– during pregnancy among women with mul-
29 tiple roles. Psychol. Women Q. 21(4):645–
Stone AA, Neale JM. 1984. New measure of 62
daily coping: development and preliminary Westbrook MT, Viney LL. 1982. Psychological
results. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 46(4):892– reactions to the onset of chronic illness. Soc.
906 Sci. Med. 16:899–905
Stone AA, Schwartz JE, Neale JM, Shiffman Wortman CB. 1987. Coping with irrevocable
S, Marco CA, et al. 1998. A comparison loss. In Cataclysms, Crises and Catastro-
of coping assessed by ecological momentary phes: Psychology in Action, ed. GR Van den
assessment and retrospective recall. J. Per- Bos, BK Bryant, pp. 189–235. Washington,
sonal. Soc. Psychol. 74(6):1670–80 DC: Am. Psychol. Assoc.
Stroebe MS, Schut H. 1999. The dual process Wu A, Folkman S, McPhee S, Lo B. 1993.
model of coping with bereavement: rationale Do house officers learn from their mistakes?
and description. Death Stud. 23:197–224 JAMA 265:2089–94
Stroebe MS, Schut H. 2001. Meaning making Zautra AJ, Sheets VL, Sandler IN. 1996. An
in the dual process model of coping with examination of the construct validity of
2 Dec 2003 18:53 AR AR207-PS55-26.tex AR207-PS55-26.sgm LaTeX2e(2002/01/18) P1: GCE
coping dispositions for a sample of recently maladaptive coping. See Zeidner & Endler
divorced mothers. Psychol. Assess. 8:256– 1996, pp. 505–31
64 Zinnbauer BJ, Pargament KI, Cole B, Rye MS,
Zeidner M, Endler NS. 1996. Handbook of Cop- Butter EM, et al. 1997. Religion and spiri-
ing. New York: Wiley tuality: unfuzzying the fuzzy. J. Sci. Study
Zeidner M, Saklofske D. 1996. Adaptive and Relig. 36(4):549–64
Access provided by Eastern Kentucky University - Crabbe Library on 01/12/19. For personal use only.
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004.55:745-774. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
P1: FDS
December 9, 2003 14:49 Annual Reviews AR207-FM
CONTENTS
Frontispiece—Walter Mischel xvi
Access provided by Eastern Kentucky University - Crabbe Library on 01/12/19. For personal use only.
PREFATORY
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004.55:745-774. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
vii
P1: FDS
December 9, 2003 14:49 Annual Reviews AR207-FM
viii CONTENTS
CONTENTS ix
Coping: Pitfalls and Promise, Susan Folkman and Judith Tedlie Moskowitz 745
SURVEY METHODOLOGY
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004.55:745-774. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
INDEXES
Author Index 833
Subject Index 877
Cumulative Index of Contributing Authors, Volumes 45–55 921
Cumulative Index of Chapter Titles, Volumes 45–55 926
ERRATA
An online log of corrections to Annual Review of Psychology chapters
may be found at http://psych.annualreviews.org/errata.shtml