Masculine Instrumentality and Feminine Expressiveness: Their Relationships with Sex Role Attitudes and Behaviors

Data from the Bern Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ) Masculinity and Femininity scales have led to the hypothesis that androgynous individuals are more "behaviorally flexible" than others, manifesting both masculine and feminine role behaviors. Sex-role androgyny is also said to have other beneficial consequences such as high self esteem. The content of these instruments, however, is largely confined to socially desirable instrumental (masculine) and expressive (feminine) personality traits. A review of the literature indicates that these abstract trait dimensions have only minimal relationships with sex-role attitudes and sex-role behaviors not tapping instrumentality and expressiveness, and provide little support for the general behavioral flexibility hypothesis. Although PAQ and BSRI findings cannot be generalized to sex-role behaviors in general, the literature suggests that instrumentality and expressiveness per se have important implications. Appreciation of their contributions may be advanced more rapidly if these trait dimensions are disentangled from global concepts of sex-roles or masculinity, femininity, and androgyny.     

Path Models of the Relationships of Instrumentality and Expressiveness to Social Self-Efficacy, Shyness, and Depressive Symptoms

This study was designed to examine path models of the relationships of instrumentality, expressiveness, and social self-efficacy to shyness and depressive symptoms in college students. Models indicated strong relationships between social self-efficacy and instrumentality; the relationship of instrumentality to depressive symptoms was mediated by its relationship to social self-efficacy. The relationship of social self-efficacy to depressive symptoms was direct and was also mediated by its relationship to expressiveness. These findings provide new information on how gender role-related personality traits may be protective against depression.     

Integrating Expressiveness and Instrumentality in Real-Life Settings: A New Perspective on the Benefits of Androgyny

Personality trait research has failed to substantiate a link between androgyny and well-being. Using an alternate, social context approach, the present study investigated (a) positive and negative aspects of situations in which expectations for androgynous behavior were salient (dual expectation situations), and (b) associations between gender role coping strategies and well-being in these situations. Interviews were conducted with 124 female and 70 male undergraduates, most of whom were African American (14%) or White American (81%). Participants reported significantly more negative aspects of the process of coping with dual expectation situations and more positive aspects of the outcomes of the situations. Androgynous coping strategies were associated with greater positive well-being and lesser negative well-being than were instrumental or indeterminate strategies. Well-being scores of expressive strategists were not significantly different from those of androgynous strategists.     

Coping Styles,Pain Expressiveness,and Implicit Theories of Chronic Pain

Whereas some individuals use active coping strategies and are able to adaptively cope with their pain, others use passive strategies and catastrophic appraisals, which are often associated with increased displays of pain behavior and negative pain-related outcomes. To investigate attribution-based implicit theories as a potential underlying mechanism that might affect coping success, we hypothesized that pain patients with an incremental implicit theory of pain (i.e., view pain as malleable) would have more active coping strategies, lower levels of pain expressiveness, and better pain-related outcomes than those with an entity implicit theory of pain (i.e., view pain as nonmalleable). Patients with chronic back pain undergoing a functional assessment completed a variety of self-report measures and participated in a pain-inducing physiotherapy procedure. The results revealed those with an incremental theory of pain used more active coping strategies, displayed less pain behavior, and reported better pain-related outcomes (e.g., lower levels of depression) than individuals with an entity theory of pain. The findings suggest implicit theories of pain may represent an underlying social-cognitive mechanism linked to important coping, emotional, and expressive reactions to chronic pain. Identifying such a mechanism may provide valuable information for the assessment and treatment of chronic pain.     

Gender, Appraisal, and Coping: A Longitudinal Analysis

ABSTRACT For 21 consecutive days, 186 male and female college students recalled the most stressful event of the day, recorded how the event was appraised, and indicated the coping methods they employed as well as their perceived effectiveness and the sequence in which they were used. Gender differences in seven coping strategies were examined in terms of frequency of use, extent of use, relative use, and the frequency with which each method was used first in the coping sequence. The gender differences that emerged were consistent with a socialization hypothesis that predicts more problem-focused coping in men and more use of support seeking and emotion-focused coping in women. Both men and women rated problem-focused coping responses as more generally effective than seeking social support, and the latter as more effective than emotion-focused coping responses. Additionally, we explored the roles of stressor type and of threat, challenge, and control appraisals in the observed gender differences.     

Appraisal and Coping as Mediators of the Effects of Cumulative Risk on Preadolescent Adjustment

This study examined the concurrent and longitudinal relations among cumulative risk, appraisal, coping, and adjustment. Longitudinal path models were tested in a community sample of 316 children in preadolescence to examine hypotheses that threat appraisal and avoidant coping mediate the effects of cumulative risk on child adjustment, whereas positive appraisal and active coping were hypothesized to predict better adjustment independently. Children and their mothers were assessed during in-home interviews at three time points at one-year intervals. Children reported on appraisal and coping strategies. Mothers and children reported on child adjustment problems and positive adjustment. Rank-order changes in appraisal and coping predicted rank-order changes in adjustment. Cumulative risk was concurrently related to higher threat appraisal and avoidant coping at each time point. Threat appraisal and avoidant coping mediated the relations of cumulative risk to rank-order changes in adjustment. There is specificity in the relations of cumulative risk to threat appraisal and avoidant coping, whereas positive appraisal and active coping are independent of risk and operate as individual resource factors.     

Instrumentality Gives Girls the Edge: Gender-Differential Relations Between Instrumentality,Achievement Motivation,and Self-Esteem

Sex Roles - Gender differences in school are often discussed in reference to a particular type of masculinity, negative masculinity, which is often conceptualized as detrimental to success. Another...     

College Adjustment and Subjective Well‐Being When Coping With a Family Member's Illness

Individuals coping with the chronic or terminal illness of a family member are presented with a unique challenge that may influence their adjustment and overall well‐being. This study investigated variables that relate to college adjustment and subjective well‐being, including attachment, social support, coping, and illness‐related constructs, in a sample of undergraduate students (N = 171) faced with this family crisis. The findings and counseling implications for this group are discussed.     

When Meaning Matters: Coping Mediates the Relationship of Religiosity and Illness Appraisal with Well-Being in Older Cancer Patients

When individuals face serious, traumatic illnesses such as cancer, religion can contribute to their coping processes and psychosocial adjustment. In the current study, we examined the relationship between religiosity conceptualized as the religious meaning system, illness appraisal, and psychological well-being with religious and nonreligious coping as potential mediators of this relationship among older cancer patients. In a cross-sectional design, 215 older Polish patients (60–83 years of age; 80% Catholic, 9% Protestant) with gastrointestinal cancer completed measures of religiosity, illness appraisal, religious coping, nonreligious coping, and psychological well-being. Using structural equation modeling analysis, we found support for our model depicting a mediated relationship between religiosity, illness appraisal, and psychological well-being. Three forms of coping—negative religious, problem focused, and meaning focused—were key mechanisms in the relationship between the religious meaning system, positive and negative illness appraisal, and psychological well-being. These findings suggest that both religious factors (religiosity and religious coping) and nonreligious factors (illness appraisal and nonreligious coping) can operate together in influencing older cancer patients’ well-being.     

The Moderating Roles of Personal and Social Resources on the Relationship Between Dual Expectations (for Instrumentality and Expressiveness) and Weil-Being

Abstract

The authors examined the roles of self-esteem and perceived social support in moderating the relationship between dual social expectations (instrumentality and expressivity) and well-being. Participants were 166 female and 87 male students in an urban community in the midwestern United States. After the authors controlled for the main effects of instrumental and expressive expectations, social support, as predicted, moderated the relationship between dual expectations and well-being: With higher levels of social support, higher levels of dual expectations were associated with higher levels of well-being; with lower levels of social support, higher levels of dual expectations were associated with lower levels of well-being. Contrary to predictions, however, self-esteem did not moderate the relation between dual expectations and well-being. The discussion focuses on the importance of social resources in enhancing the potential benefits of dual expectations in interpersonal contexts.     

Career Choice Barriers, Supports, and Coping Strategies: College Students' Experiences

This study used qualitative methods to examine the perceived influences on college students' selection and implementation of career choices. Students at two universities participated in a structured interview examining (a) factors that had affected their choice of occupational field, (b) supports and barriers to pursuing their choices, and (c) methods they had used to cope with choice barriers. Across both samples, person factors (e.g., interests) and work-relevant experiences were frequently cited bases for choice selection, although contextual factors (e.g., financial constraints, social supports) were among the most salient barriers and supports to choice implementation. Each sample also reported choice selection and implementation influences and coping strategies that may have been linked to their particular environmental and developmental contexts. Implications of these findings for career theory, research, and practice are considered.     

Cognitive,Behavioral and Goal Adjustment Coping and Depressive Symptoms in Young People with Diabetes: A Search for Intervention Targets for Coping Skills Training

The aim of the present study was to find relevant coping factors for the development of psychological intervention programs for young people with Type 1 (T1) diabetes. A wide range of coping techniques was studied, including cognitive coping, behavioral coping and goal adjustment coping. A total of 78 young people with T1 diabetes participated. They were contacted through a social networking website, several Internet sites, and flyers. A wide range of coping techniques appeared to be related to depressive symptoms. Especially the cognitive coping strategies self-blame, rumination, refocus positive, and other-blame, together with goal adjustment coping, were of importance. A large proportion of the variance of depressive symptoms could be explained (65 %). These findings suggest that these specific coping strategies should be part of coping skills trainings for young people with T1 diabetes.     

The Relationships Among Differing Loss Experiences,Adjustment, Beliefs,and Coping

Abstract

Losses are often equated for conceptual purposes, and it is often assumed that different types of losses result in similar grief reactions and exert similar effects on cognitive structures and coping patterns. This article examines the expectancies, beliefs, coping patterns, and psychological adjustment associated with loss due to death, parental. divorce, or illness and disability in a college student population. Loss groups did not differ from each other or from a no-loss group on cognitive variables, coping, or psychological adjustment. In instances in which associations between the cognitive measures and either coping or adjustment were indicated, the typical pattern was for loss groups to differ from the no-loss condition but not from each other.     

Expressed Emotion,Appraisal and Coping by Patients with Recent-onset Schizophrenia: A Pilot Investigation

This pilot study sought to follow up on indications that patients from households with high levels of expressed emotion (EE) differ from those from households with low levels of EE in ways not assessed in typical symptom rating profiles. We examined how patients appraised and coped with a prominent societal stressor. Soon after the start of the Gulf War, 22 patients with recent-onset schizophrenia living in Los Angeles appraised the stressor and completed a coping questionnaire. Results indicated that patients from high-EE homes were likely to use emotion-based confrontational methods to cope with the crisis, while patients from low-EE environments were likely to use avoidance and denial. Patients from high-EE homes thus coped with this non-familial, societal stressor in a way similar to the way in which they have been observed to cope with family conflict: they more readily expressed their anger and frustration than patients from low-EE homes. These pilot data suggest that increased attention should be directed toward those patient behaviours that may be associated with either an increase or decrease in negative affective behaviour from relatives. It may also be fruitful to consider more broadly the adaptive and maladaptive features of the preferred coping strategies of patients from high-EE and low-EE environments.     

Prediction of Health Patterns from General Appraisal,Attributions, Coping,and Trait Anxiety

We examined the relationships among general appraisal style, attributional style, trait anxiety, coping styles, and health status (i.e., depression, hostility, and flu-like symptoms) in a study for which we also examined the validity of a trait measure of general appraisal. Participants completed personality measures at the beginning of an academic semester, and health assessments at regular intervals throughout the semester. Consistent with our predictions, after removing the influence of neuroticism and attributional style, general appraisal style led to more negative, and less positive affect 2 weeks later, and to more stressful and threatening appraisals of a life event occurring 3 months later. Multiple regression techniques showed that as predicted, after controlling for baseline health general appraisal style and attributional style predicted hostility and flu-like symptoms, and attributional style also predicted depression. These effects were mediated by trait anxiety. We discuss why both negative general appraisal and attributional styles may be risk factors for ill health.     

The Relationship Between Religion and Religious Coping: Religious Coping as a Moderator Between Religion and Adjustment

This study examined the relationship between and among religion, religious coping, and positive/negative psychological adjustment and investigated whether the four religious coping styles of Self-Directing, Deferring, Collaborative, and Turning to Religion would significantly moderate the relationship between religion and psychological adjustment. Each of the four religious coping measures were significant moderators between religion and positive and negative adjustment. However, the high self-directing and high religion group showed opposite results from the other three coping styles, in that they were the most maladjusted and least satisfied with life compared to the other three integration and religious coping groups. The participants high on religion and high deferring, high collaborative, and high turning to religion groups were less maladjusted and more satisfied than the other three groups in each of these religious coping styles.     

Psychological Adjustment,Coping, and Emotion Regulation as Predictors of Posttraumatic Growth

Abstract

The present study examined factors contributing to reported benefits of traumatic experiences or posttraumatic growth (PTG) in a college sample. Specifically, we examined dimensions typically associated with trauma recovery (i.e., psychological functioning, coping, emotion regulation) and features of the trauma (i.e., number and recency of traumatic events, average, and maximal distress). Participants (N= 193) completed standardized questionnaires measuring these constructs. Results indicated that active coping and subjective well-being independently contributed to PTG, but social desirability and symptom distress were independent of growth. These results were consistent with study expectations. Although not specifically predicted, maximal trauma distress also uniquely predicted PTG. Contrary to expectations, effective emotion regulation did not contribute to PTG.     

Reading the Bible,Stressful Life Events,and Hope: Assessing an Overlooked Coping Resource

Journal of Religion and Health - Many people rely on religion to deal with the stressors in their lives. The purpose of this study is to examine a religious coping resource that has received...