Negative perfectionism increases the risk of fatigue following a period of stress

Abstract

There is a considerable amount of research concerning (he relationship between psychological variables and the postoperative outcome of surgery. However, little attention has been paid to the potential influence of psychological factors on infra-operative variables, most notably on anaesthetic requirement. The present study investigates the influence of surgery-related trail and slate anxiety as well as of dispositional and surgery-related actual coping on several indicators of intra- and postoperative adjustment. In addition, a possible mediating effect of stress-induced analgesia on the relationships between anxiety, coping, and intraoperative anaesthetic requirements was evaluated. Sixty-one patients undergoing elective lumbar iniclcotomy completed questionnaires regarding anxiety and coping variables one day before surgery. Intraoperative adjustment was assessed by measuring EEG-controlled anaesthetic requirements for induction and maintenance of anaesthesia, β-endorphin plasma concentration was collected preoperatively in the induction room. Postoperative outcome was assessed on the third day after surgery by questionnaires regarding pain experience, physical condition and emotional state. For preoperative anxiety as well as vigilant coping behaviour, there were opposite relationships with subjective measures of adjustment (e.g. self-reported postoperative pain experience), on the one side, and objective measures on the other (e.g., intraoperative anaesthetic requirement). Stress-induced analgesia was found for the subgroup of high-anxious patients. The results indicate that psychological programmes aimed at facilitating patients' perioperative adjustment should consider the different effects of anxiety and coping on subjective and objective measures.     

The assessment of surgery-related coping: The coping with surgical stress scale (COSS)

Abstract

Surgery can be regarded as a major stressor for any patient. High preoperative emotional arousal may negatively influence adjustment during surgery as well as the postoperative recovery rate. Consequently, the strategies individuals employ for coping with this stress are of prime importance for the quality of their adaptation. This paper reports the construction and empirical assessment of a new instrument for measuring strategies employed to cope with surgical stress. Factor analysis of this instrument, the Coping with Surgical Stress Scale (COSS), yielded five factors: Rumination, Optimism and Trust, Turning to Social and Religious Resources, Threat Avoidance, and Information Seeking. Internal consistencies of the corresponding subscales were satisfactory. Results concerning external relationships of the COSS with dispositional coping, state and trait anxiety, and indicators of perioperative adjustment showed that the COSS is a useful instrument for measuring surgery-related coping.     

Stress coping and the adjustment process among university freshmen

The purpose of the present study was to investigate causal relationships between dispositional and situational coping and health status in university freshmen. Two hundred and twenty-nine university freshmen completed questionnaires at Time 1 (immediately after university matriculation) and at Time 2 (approximately three months later) in a short-term, prospective study. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze causal relationships between four coping strategies (i.e., emotion expression, emotional support seeking, cognitive reinterpretation, and problem solving) and four health status variables (i.e., somatic symptoms, anxiety and insomnia, social dysfunction, and depression). Increases in dispositional coping predicted increases in situational coping at certain time points. In addition, increases in dispositional emotion-focused coping, such as emotion expression and emotional support seeking, predicted poor health status. This relationship was mediated by situational coping variables. Finally, increases in dispositional problem-focused coping, such as cognitive reinterpretation and problem solving, predicted better health status. This relationship was direct or indirectly mediated by situational coping variables. Our data suggest that the use of coping skills such as cognitive reinterpretation and problem solving may promote better health and adaptation in university freshmen.     

Keep your eyes open: dispositional vigilance moderates the relationship between operational police stress and stress symptoms

Background: Vigilant coping is characterized by a deep processing of threat-related information. In many cases, vigilant coping increases stress symptoms, whereas avoidant coping decreases negative affect. However, vigilance may be beneficial when stress-eliciting situations involve a risk of injury or escalation as is usually the case in police operations. Design: We investigated the roles of vigilance and cognitive avoidance in police operations in a cross-sectional survey. Methods: The participants were 137 students (104?men, M_age?=?28.54, SD?=?8.04) from the Federal University of Applied Administrative Sciences; 76 of them were already police officers (work experience: M?=?12.59?years), and 61 were police officer candidates who had completed a 3- to 6-month police internship. Participants completed a paper-and-pencil survey and reported their operational stress, dispositional vigilance and cognitive avoidance in police operations, and stress symptoms. Results: We found that vigilance was negatively associated with stress symptoms and moderated the relationship between operational stress and stress symptoms. Cognitive avoidance, on the other hand, just missed the level of statistical significance in our test of whether it was positively associated with stress symptoms. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that vigilance may protect against the negative consequences of stress in police operations.     

An analysis of coping profiles and adjustment in persons with rheumatoid arthritis

This study examined dispositional and situative antecedents of vigilant and avoidant coping behavior. Seventy-two subjects were classified in coping style on the basis of their responses to the vigilance and cognitive avoidance scales of the Mainz Coping Inventory (MCI, Krohne, 1989), and alternatively, on their trait anxiety and defensiveness scores (cf. Weinberger, Schwartz, & Davidson, 1979). In a subsequent laboratory task, subjects were exposed to various conditions of predictability of an aversive event. In anticipation of an aversive loud tone, coping behavior was operationally defined as choosing to listen either to a warning channel (i.e., vigilance) or instead to music (i.e., avoidance). Probability of occurrence of a warning signal while listening to the warning channel varied across trials, being either 0%, 33%, 66%, or 100%. Subjects were exposed to each level and were informed about the respective probability in advance. In general, listening to the warning channel increased with an increase in the probability of the warning signal. However, four groups of subjects who differed in their pattern of coping behavior across trials were observed: rigid-avoidant copers (always listening to music), rigid-vigilant copers (always monitoring the warning channel), flexible copers (switching from music to warning channel with increasing probability of warning), and inconsistent copers (vacillating between music and warning channel regardless of probability of warning). Coping style classifications did not show substantial associations with coping behavior. However, subjects demonstrating the inconsistent coping pattern scored high on trait anxiety.     

A revaluation of the adaptiveness of avoidant and vigilant coping with surgery

Abstract

It has been assumed that an avoidant coping style is less adaptive in patients coping with surgery than a vigilant coping style. Empirical evidence, however, has indicated the contrary. This article, therefore, revaluated the adaptiveness of these coping styles. A review of the literature yielded three conditions of the situation that determine the adaptiveness of coping: controllability of the situation, time-reference and interpretational set. Problem-focused coping, vigilance, active coping and monitoring seem to be more adaptive in controllable situations; emotion-focused coping, avoidance, blunting and passive coping more adaptive when little control is possible. For short-term adaptation, avoidance seems the more adaptive strategy, whereas in the long run vigilance is a better strategy. Regarding interpretational set, avoidance seems more adaptive when patients have to cope with the emotional value of the event; vigilance seems more adaptive when coping with sensory elements of the event. Implications of the situational conditions for the adaptiveness of coping with surgical stress and consequences for future research are discussed.     

Repression versus sensitization in response to media violence as predictors of cognitive avoidance and vigilance

Repression and sensitization as situational modes of coping with anxiety were examined as predictors of trait measures of cognitive avoidance and vigilance. In this study, 303 undergraduates saw a violent film clip to elicit anxiety. Increases in skin conductance level (SCL) and state anxiety (STA) from baseline were measured to identify repressors (high SCL, low STA) and contrast them with sensitizers (low SCL, high STA) and genuinely low anxious individuals (low SCL, low STA). State anger was also recorded. Trait measures of vigilance and cognitive avoidance were collected 2 weeks earlier. Significant SCL × STA interactions indicated that repressors scored higher on cognitive avoidance and lower on vigilance compared to sensitizers and low anxious participants. Repressors were less likely than sensitizers to report gaze avoidance during the clip. The anger by SCL interaction was nonsignificant, suggesting that repressors and sensitizers differ specifically in the processing of anxiety rather than negative affect in general.     

Emotional information processing in repressors: The vigilance–avoidance theory

A vigilance–avoidance theory of the repressive coping style (low trait anxiety and high defensiveness) is presented. The new theory attempts to account for several key findings, including the discrepancy between low self-reported anxiety and high behavioural and physiological indicators of anxiety shown by individuals with a repressive coping style. According to the theory, repressors have an initial rapid vigilant response triggering behavioural and physiological responses and involving attentional and interpretive biases to self-relevant threat stimuli. These biases may be based on negative self-relevant schematic information. This initial vigilant stage is followed by an avoidance stage involving avoidant cognitive biases (attentional, interpretive, and memory) that inhibit the conscious experience of anxiety. Future research should examine systematically the time course of repressors’ reactions to threatening and non-threatening stimuli.     

Preference for local or general anesthesia,coping dispositions,learned resourcefulness and coping with surgery

Abstract

People were found to differ in their coping dispositions (as measured with the MBSS, Miller, 1987): those who habitually attend to threatening cues (“monitors”) and those who distract themselves from these cues (“blunters”). However, some people are equally high on both coping dispositions and they were considered to be in a “dispositional conflict”. Furthermore, under certain circumstances people may prefer to act in a way that is inconsistent with their coping disposition; monitors who prefer blunting strategies and blunters who prefer monitoring strategies (labeled here as “disposition-behavior conflict”). Both conflicts were hypothesized to be associated with higher levels of trait anxiety and poorer coping. 59 men scheduled for surgery were assessed as to their coping disposition (monitors or blunters) and their preference for local or general anesthesia, and their learned resourcefulness (selfantrol skills). Monitors who chose general anesthesia (and thus were unable to monitor their own surgery) and blunters who chose local anesthesia (and thus were unable to blunt) were defined as being in a disposition-behavior conflict. Re- and post-surgery measures of anxiety and dysphoria and post-surgery nurses' ratings were used for assessing coping with surgery. Patients who were either high on dispositional conflict or showed a disposition-behavior conflict were higher on trait anxiety and showed poorer post-surgery coping in comparison to patients without such conflicts. Learned resourcefulness was not related to better coping nor to the two conflicts with the exception that patients with a disposition-behavior conflict reported less confidence in their self-control abilities. Overall, preference for local anesthesia predicted better post-surgery coping.     

Coping and anxiety in women recalled for additional diagnostic procedures following an abnormal screening mammogram.

This study characterized women's concurrent and subsequent levels of emotional distress associated with a questionable mammogram screening and relationships between women's coping and psychosocial adjustment. State anxiety was assessed in 98 women 1 day after receiving a mammogram screening (Time 1), after notification of a questionable screening result that necessitated additional testing (Time 2), and after being informed of their breast-cancer-free status (Time 3). Key findings include (a) women reported a significant increase in anxiety following notification of the need to return for follow-up testing; (b) significant and positive associations were found between anxiety and behavioral approach, behavioral avoidance, cognitive approach, and cognitive avoidance coping in cross-sectional analyses; and (c) cognitive avoidance coping was a strong predictor of final levels of state anxiety in women. Findings suggest that cognitive avoidance coping plays an important role in reducing anxiety in women recalled to clarify an initially ambiguous screening procedure.     

The effect of induced anxiety on cognition: threat of shock enhances aversive processing in healthy individuals

Individuals with anxiety disorders demonstrate altered cognitive performance including (1) cognitive biases towards negative stimuli (affective biases) and (2) increased cognitive rigidity (e.g., impaired conflict adaptation) on affective Stroop tasks. Threat of electric shock is frequently used to induce anxiety in healthy individuals, but the extent to which this manipulation mimics the cognitive impairment seen in anxiety disorders is unclear. In this study, 31 healthy individuals completed an affective Stroop task under safe and threat-of-shock conditions. We showed that threat (1) enhanced aversive processing and abolished a positive affective bias but (2) had no effect on conflict adaptation. Threat of shock thus partially models the effects of anxiety disorders on affective Stroop tasks. We suggest that the affective state of anxiety—which is common to both threat and anxiety disorders—modulates the neural inhibition of subcortical aversive processing, whilst pathologies unique to anxiety disorders modulate conflict adaptation.     

Impact of emotional approach coping and hope on PTSD and depression symptoms in a trauma exposed sample of Veterans receiving outpatient VA mental health care services

Abstract

The present investigation evaluates the relationship between coping style, dispositional hope, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression symptom severity in a trauma-exposed Veteran sample. Specifically, we evaluated the adaptive value of emotional avoidant and approach coping strategies and perceptions of hope in a sample of 209 trauma-exposed Veterans receiving outpatient mental health care at a VA facility. Participants completed a life events questionnaire and inventories assessing coping, dispositional hope, and PTSD and depression symptom severity. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted controlling for relevant demographic variables. Greater levels of emotional avoidance and lower levels of emotional expression were significantly associated with increased PTSD and depression symptom severity. Dispositional hope was positively associated with depression symptoms only and perceptions of hope moderated the association between emotional avoidance coping and depression symptoms. Findings highlight the value of emotional coping strategies and perceptions of hope in posttraumatic adjustment. Specifically, employing coping techniques that encourage emotional expression may promote improved adjustment among trauma-exposed individuals, while reduced perceptions of hope and the use of avoidant coping strategies may place individuals at greater risk for depression following exposure to traumatic events.     

Relations Among Children's Coping Strategies and Anxiety: The Mediating Role of Coping Efficacy

The current study tests a model that depicts the relationships among coping strategies (active, distraction, avoidance, and support seeking) and anxiety symptoms. SEM is used to test if the relationship between these variables is mediated by coping efficacy. A large sample of Canadian children (N = 506) aged 8 to 11 years (boys = 249, girls = 245, unknown gender = 12) participated in the study. Results showed that coping efficacy is a partial mediator of the relations between active coping strategies and anxiety symptoms, however support was not found for it to be an effective mediator for other coping strategies. This study contributes to the understanding of childhood anxiety by highlighting the importance of the relationship between anxiety and the methods children use to cope with stress and how perceptions of their coping abilities influence this relationship.     

Cognitive coping with the threat of rape: vigilance and cognitive avoidance

Individual differences in women's avoidant and vigilant style in coping with the threat of rape were explored in four studies. In the first study, 97 women read a rape scenario and completed measures of cognitive vigilance and avoidance. They also provided ratings of fear of rape and anticipated coping problems in case of sexual assault. Vigilance was associated with significantly higher levels of fear of rape and anticipation of more severe coping problems. No effects were found for cognitive avoidance. Study 2 replicated these findings with a sample of 275 women. In addition, it showed that high vigilance was associated with significantly more rape-preventive behaviors. Study 3, including 172 women, was an online study on the effect of cognitive coping style on fear of rape, anticipated coping problems, and two behavioral measures of rape avoidance. High vigilance was related to higher levels of fear of rape, anticipation of more severe coping problems, and more rape-preventive behaviors. Finally, Study 4 (N=210) showed that individual differences in cognitive coping style affected rape-related affect and behavior in the absence of a rape scenario, underlining the chronic salience of the threat of rape for women. Vigilance was positively related to fear of rape, rape-avoidance behavior, and anticipated coping problems. In contrast, a negative relationship was found between cognitive avoidance and fear of rape, rape-avoidance strategies, and anticipated coping problems. Across the four studies, no evidence was found for an interactive effect of cognitive avoidance and vigilance, as suggested by the construct of repression versus sensitization. The findings are discussed in the light of previous research on repression-sensitization in coping with threatening information.     

Coping strategies and quality of life in women with advanced breast cancer and their family caregivers

Abstract

This study examines the effects of personal resources of both heart patients and their close social partners on patients' coping and quality of life. Generalized personal resources (self-efficacy beliefs, dispositional optimism, self-regulation competence) and outcomes were assessed by questionnaire 1–3 days before surgery (n = 122) and again six months later (n= 50). Outcome variables were coping styles, social resources (social support and social integration), emotional states, and further measures of quality of life. Patients' personal resources were dominant in the prediction of most of the outcomes. Partners' resources were uniquely related to social support, social integration, and quality of life as perceived by the patients. Further, partners' personality resources predicted changes in patients' loneliness and energy levels during the six-month interval.     

Religiousness,religious coping methods,and cognitive test anxiety among African-American college students

This study explored the roles of religiousness and religious coping methods in predicting cognitive test anxiety. A convenience sample of 121 African-American students (97 females and 24 males) ranging in age from 18 to 39 (M_age?=?20.16), attending a historically Black university completed an online questionnaire assessing demographic information, religiousness, religious coping methods, and cognitive test anxiety. Results showed that negative religious coping methods were significant factors in predicting cognitive test anxiety. These relationships may be pertinent for understanding salient factors that influence cognitive test anxiety in African-American college students.     

MARITAL SATISFACTION AMONG MOTHERS OF INFANTS WITH CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE: THE CONTRIBUTION OF ILLNESS SEVERITY,ATTACHMENT STYLE,AND THE COPING PROCESS

This study examined the contribution of illness severity and attachment style to marital satisfaction among mothers of infants with Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) as well as the mediating role of cognitive appraisal and ways of coping with motherhood tasks. Eighty-five mothers of newborns with CHD rated their attachment style 2 weeks after the infant's CHD diagnosis and two physicians rated the severity of the disease. One year later, mothers completed self-reports scales tapping marital satisfaction, appraisal of motherhood tasks, and ways of coping with these tasks. The severity of infant's disease and mothers’ attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance were related to less marital satisfaction. Moreover, whereas illness severity and attachment anxiety had direct effects on marital satisfaction, the negative effects of attachment avoidance were mediated by the appraisal of motherhood in threatening terms and the reliance on emotion-focused coping. The interconnections between attachment style, the process of coping with the stress of a chronic illness, and marital satisfaction were discussed.     

应对方式与认知训练对青少年情绪障碍易感性的影响

以往研究指出青少年阶段是情绪障碍的高发时期, 各种情绪问题深刻影响青少年的身心健康。通过文献分析得出青春期压力所采取的应对方式(即个体对压力事件做出反应的稳定方式)可能是决定青少年情绪障碍易感程度的核心因素; 而认知训练可降低该易感性, 从而提高青少年的心理健康水平。为了验证上述观点, 综合采用行为调查与生理测量, EEG/ERP与fMRI手段, 拟开展如下4个方面的研究工作：1)青春期发育阶段影响个体负性情绪易感性的大脑机制; 2)认知应对方式与青春期发育阶段的交互作用对负性情绪易感性的影响及大脑机制; 3)认知训练(包括注意训练、解释训练与接受训练)对健康青少年负面情绪易感性的调节作用及大脑可塑性机制; 4)认知训练对青少年抑郁/焦虑症患者情绪应对方式与临床症状的影响及大脑可塑性机制。通过上述系列研究, 揭示青少年更高情绪障碍易感性的认知神经机制, 找出并培养有利于青少年身心健康的情绪应对方法, 从而为情绪障碍的临床治疗奠定理论与实践基础。     

Is academic buoyancy anything more than adaptive coping?

Abstract

Academic buoyancy refers to a positive, constructive, and adaptive response to the types of challenges and setbacks experienced in a typical and everyday academic setting. In this project we examined whether academic buoyancy explained any additional variance in test anxiety over and above that explained by coping. Two hundred and ninety-eight students in their final two years of compulsory schooling completed self-report measures of academic buoyancy, coping, and test anxiety. Results suggested that buoyancy was inversely related to test anxiety and unrelated to coping. With the exception of test-irrelevant thoughts, test anxiety was positively related to avoidance coping and social support. Test-irrelevant thoughts were inversely related to task focus, unrelated to social support, and positively related to avoidance. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that academic buoyancy explained a significant additional proportion of variance in test anxiety when the variance for coping had already been accounted for. These findings suggest that academic buoyancy can be considered as a distinct construct from that of adaptive coping.     

Coping-related expectancies and dispositions as prospective predictors of coping responses and symptoms

We used Rotter's (1954, 1982) social learning theory and Kirsch's (1985, 1999) response expectancy extension thereof to clarify distinctions between coping-related expectancies (beliefs about the outcomes of coping efforts) and coping dispositions (tendencies to use particular coping responses), specifically focusing on the role of generalized expectancies for negative mood regulation (NMR) as a predictor of individual differences in coping and well-being. Two studies using structural equation modeling provided support for direct and indirect associations between NMR expectancies and symptoms of depression. In Study 1 NMR expectancies predicted situational avoidance coping responses and symptoms of depression and anxiety, independent of dispositional avoidance coping tendencies. In Study 2, NMR expectancies were associated with depressive symptoms, concurrently and prospectively, independent of dispositional optimism and pessimism. Both studies indicated that NMR expectancies are more strongly associated with depressive symptoms than with symptoms of anxiety and physical illness. Results underscore the importance of distinguishing between expectancies and other personality variables related to coping.