Dimensions of perfectionism and constructive thinking as a coping response

The present study examined perfectionism and general coping ability as assessed by a new measure of constructive thinking. A sample of 77 students completed the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS) and the Constructive Thinking Inventory (CTI). The MPS provides measures of selforiented, other-oriented, and socially prescribed perfectionism, while the CTI provides various measures, including summary scores of global constructive thinking, emotional coping, behavioral coping, categorical thinking, personal superstitious thinking, naive optimism, and esoteric thinking. Subjects also completed a measure of depressive symptoms so that we could examine perfectionism and coping independent of current levels of adjustment. The main finding was that socially prescribed perfectionism was associated with less constructive thinking and more negative coping across most of the CTI subscales, and these associations remained significant after removing variance due to levels of depression symptoms. Self-oriented perfectionism was adaptive in that it was associated with active forms of behavioral coping, but it was maladaptive in that it was associated with a form of emotional coping involving reduced self-acceptance. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the cognitive treatment of perfectionists. Queen's University This research was supported by grant #410-91-0856 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada awarded to the authors     

Shopping as a coping behavior for stress

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the effectiveness of diversion buying for stress release. Diversion buying was examined by survey, and it was found that women engaged in it more often than men. In Experiment 1, diversion buying was divided into an expenditure factor and an acquisition factor, in order to examine which was more effective for stress release; both had a significant main effect. The effectiveness of the acquisition factor was confirmed in Experiment 2. In Experiment 3, the expenditure factor was divided into the amount available for expenditure and the amount spent, in order to examine the effectiveness of each. It was shown that a certain amount of expenditure was needed for stress release; however, a high expenditure rate (spending most of the money) did not relieve stress.     

Sensitization of amphetamine-stereotypy reduces plasma corticosterone: implications for stereotypy as a coping response.

The potential coping functions of amphetamine-induced stereotypy were investigated using a physiological index of stress or arousal, plasma corticosterone level. A series of five injections of d-amphetamine was used to enhance stereotyped behavior in control animals as well as in rats with bilateral dopamine-depleting lesions of the caudate-putamen. This regimen of amphetamine injections significantly increased stereotyped behavior and also reduced the normal elevation in corticosterone produced by treatment with d-amphetamine. This effect was apparent in both control and lesioned animals. These results support the hypothesis that amphetamine-induced stereotyped behavior functions to reduce stress or arousal and additionally suggest that this effect is largely independent of underlying dopaminergic mechanisms.     

Automatic coping mechanisms in committed relationships: Increased interpersonal trust as a response to stress

In order to maintain a satisfying committed relationship, individuals have to cope successfully with stressors, especially those that concern both partners (i.e., dyadic stress). The aim of our study is to investigate automatic up-regulation of interpersonal trust as an adaptive response to relationship challenges. In three experiments, we manipulated relationship stress by instructing half of the participants to imagine a relationship threat (Experiments 1 and 2: a longer period of physical separation, Experiment 3: any possible stressor that could challenge their relationship). Participants subsequently played an anonymous, one-shot trust game (Experiments 1 and 2) or rated the trustworthiness of unknown faces (Experiment 3) to assess automatic up-regulation of interpersonal trust. Results revealed that participants in the relationship stress condition displayed higher trusting behavior in the trust game, and rated the trustworthiness of unknown faces as higher compared to participants in the control condition. These findings suggest that interpersonal trust is situationally and automatically attuned to relationship demands and challenges.     

Cynicism: a differential coping strategy as a function of gender

The main objective of the present study is to analyse the role of cynicism as a coping strategy in the process of burnout, considering gender as a key variable in this process. The sample comprised 555 teachers from Spanish primary and secondary schools. A two-wave panel study was carried out: data were gathered during the first term and again during the third and last term of the academic year. Several t-tests for independent samples and moderated hierarchical regression analysis were carried out. Results showed that women have a higher level of exhaustion than men, whereas men have a higher level of cynicism than women. Furthermore, cynicism has a direct and positive effect on exhaustion for women. In the case of men, cynicism is not an effective coping strategy but it has some buffering effect on exhaustion. Thus, a high level of cynicism seems to lead to a lower increase of exhaustion. Results, contributions, and limitations of the present study are discussed.     

The role of esteem and coping in response to a threat communication

Two experiments examined the relations among self-esteem, perceived competency to cope, and actual coping behaviors following a threat communication. Leventhal's “parallel response model” (in Advances in experimental social psychology, L. Berkowitz (Ed.), New York: Academic Press, 1970, Vol. 5) predicts that low-esteem subjects will show deficits in both competency and coping behaviors. Experiment 1 manipulated threat level of a tetanus communication. Low-esteem subjects showed coping deficits on measures of free associations, free recall, fatalism, and coping. Threat groups differed only on fear and danger measures. Experiment 2 manipulated the fear level of an antismoking film and used false feedback to alter perceived competency. Positive feedback increased perceived competency to quit smoking among low-esteem subjects only. Without feedback, low-esteem subjects reduced smoking less than high-esteem subjects; positive feedback reversed the pattern. The discussion argued that, consistent with Leventhal's model, the low-esteem coping deficit has two independent causes: (1) excessive concern with fear, and (2) inadequate perceived competency.     

Determinants of reduction in intended effort as a strategy for coping with anticipated failure

The present study investigated the use of reduction in intended effort as a strategy for protecting self-esteem from the threat of anticipated failure. It was hypothesized that people reduce the amount of effort they intend to exert when they expect a low probability of success on a highly ego-relevant task. Female subjects anticipated taking an easy (high probability of success) or difficult (low probability of success) test that was either high or low in ego relevance. Subjects' levels of intended effort and other task-relevant cognitions were assessed. It was found that subjects in the low-probability condition intended to exert less effort on the highly ego-relevant test than did subjects in the high-probability condition; probability of success had no effect on intended effort level on the low ego-relevance test. Subjects also reported that it was a worse day for a test in the low-probability condition than in the high-probability condition. The relevance of these findings to the egotism explanation of learned helplessness effects and general theories of motivation was discussed.     

Comparing thought suppression and mindfulness as coping techniques for spider fear

The current study compared thought suppression, focused attention (mindfulness) and unfocused attention as strategies for managing spider fear. Spider fearful participants were exposed to a strategy induction before completing a Behavioural Approach Test (BAT). The BAT is a 10 step measurement of how close participants are willing to move towards a spider. Participants were instructed to use what they learned in the pre-BAT induction to help them advance through the steps of the BAT. The results of the study indicated that participants given the thought suppression or the unfocused attention induction moved through significantly less steps of the BAT than did those given the focused attention (mindful) induction. Additionally, the thought suppression group felt significantly more anxious than the focused and unfocused attention groups following completion of the BAT. These results are discussed in terms of the impact of thought suppression on avoidance behaviour in phobias.     

Religion and emotional compensation: results from a prospective study of widowhood

Based on recent applications of attachment theory to religion, the authors predicted that the loss of a spouse would cause widowed individuals to increase the importance of their religious/spiritual beliefs. This hypothesis was examined using the Changing Lives of Older Couples sample from which preloss measures of religiosity were available for widowed individuals and matched controls. A total of 103 widowed individuals provided follow-up data, including reports of religious beliefs and grief, at 6 months, 24 months, and 48 months after the loss. Results indicated that widowed individuals were more likely than controls to increase their religious/spiritual beliefs. This increase was associated with decreased grief but did not influence other indicators of adjustment such as depression. Finally, insecure individuals were most likely to benefit from increasing the importance of their beliefs. Results are discussed in terms of the potential value of applying psychological theory to the study of religion.     

Affective isolation as a coping strategy for persons with low and high amounts of life stress

Previous research has investigated two diverse operational definitions of stress, experimentally induced, short-term stress and long-term, life stress. The purpose of this study was to intersect these two research methodologies and determine the effect of a laboratory-induced stress (failure feedback) on persons with differing levels of life stress. Women with high or low amounts of life stress were given failure feedback, no failure feedback, or a cognitive coping strategy (affective isolation) in addition to failure feedback. Failure feedback increased self-reported anger and anxiety immediately following feedback and also after a follow-up test and decreased expectations about performance for the second test. Affective isolation significantly reduced anger and anxiety but failed to affect expectations. Women with high amounts of life stress reported significantly less anxiety than women with low amounts of life stress in response to failure feedback. These results were interpreted within C. D. Spielberger's (in C. D. Spielberger & R. Diaz-Guerrero (Eds.), Cross-cultural anxiety, New York: Wiley, 1976) cognitive model. It was proposed that differing levels of previous life stress cause people to make varying judgments about the degree of threat in a short-term stressful situation. Persons with high amounts of life stress may not be aroused in response to short-term stress because they perceive the short-term stress as only a “drop in the bucket” compared to the other events which they have experienced.     

Fear as a discriminative stimulus for an appetitive instrumental response

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that anticipation of shock could be established as a discriminative stimulus for an appetitive instrumental response. In multiphase experiments, bar pressing for food was brought under the discriminative control of intermittent and gradually increasing electric shock. In a second phase, tones were estalished as either a CS+, or CS? for shock. Subsequently, the CSs were introduced on to the operant baseline. Animals trained with shock as the S^D showed an increase in responding to the CS+ and a slight decrease to the CS?. Conversely, animals trained with shock as the S^Δ showed decreased responding to the CS+ and slight increase to the CS?. These findings are seen as supportive of the Discriminative Stimulus hypothesis of learned resistance to punishment.     

Detachment and coping: The construction and validation of a new scale for measuring coping strategies

The present study describes the construction and validation of a new scale for measuring coping strategies entitled the Coping Styles Questionnaire (CSQ). Earlier studies had suggested that there were three primary coping components: task, emotion, and avoidance. In part, the validation of the CSQ confirmed these results, extracting factors concerned with problem-solving (Rational Coping, RATCOP), emotion (Emotional Coping, EMCOP) and avoidance (Avoidance Coping, AVCOP). However, a new factor was uncovered which tapped distancing or detachment (Detached Coping, DETCOP). Subsequent analyses suggested a grouping of two adaptive (RATCOP and DETCOP) and two maladaptive (EMCOP and AVCOP) coping styles, which was confirmed by the concurrent validation of the scale using the Emotional Control Questionnaire.     

Self-defense as an exoskeletal coping mechanism in women

Women enrolled in a Beginners' Judo-jujitsu class, as compared to women in Crafts, Physical Fitness, and Advanced Judo-jujitsu classes, were found to perceive the world as more threatening as measured by word lists involving bodily concern and fearfulness and to employ exoskeletal defenses as measured by adornment on the DAP. It was suggested that the exoskeletal coping mechanism may play an important role in the way in which women defensively handle threat.     

Comparative assessment of a coping model for school adolescents

Four brief, interpersonal coping courses were conducted in a junior high school setting for early adolescent students who volunteered for the experience. Two of the classes (N=24) consisted of students who regularly utilized school guidance personnel; the remaining two classes (N=19) consisted of adolescents from the general school population. Course objectives included higher self-esteem and increased ability to perceive, interpret, and express nonverbal communication and feeling. Session tape recordings provided verbal data for analysis by the Hill Interaction Matrix (HIM) procedure. Results showed that the intervention had significant impact on students' patterns of interaction: interactions were fewer, but longer; conventional interactions decreased, while speculative ones increased; and personal and relationship content increased. Generally, the two class types exhibited similar patterns and changes, although some specific differences were detected. Social class background, stressful life events, and the intensity of the problems experienced by the two types of student were postulated as the sources of this variability. When coupled with ancillary postcourse data, these results support the conclusion that students' interpersonal coping skills were improved by the experience.     

Social support as a moderator of the relationship between poverty and coping behavior

This study examined the relationship between poverty and coping and defense behaviors and the way social support moderates this relationship. One hundred fifty Indian adults responded to scales of income, perceived economic status, coping, defense and social support. In addition, physical quality of living was rated on the basis of observation and a short interview. Results showed that income and physical quality of living were positively associated with perceived economic status. Income, physical quality of living, and perceived economic status were negatively related to coping and defense behaviors. Finally, social support did not moderate the impact of poverty on coping and defense behaviors.     

Searching for the structure of coping: a review and critique of category systems for classifying ways of coping

From analyzing 100 assessments of coping, the authors critiqued strategies and identified best practices for constructing category systems. From current systems, a list of 400 ways of coping was compiled. For constructing lower order categories, the authors concluded that confirmatory factor analysis should replace the 2 most common strategies (exploratory factor analysis and rational sorting). For higher order categories, they recommend that the 3 most common distinctions (problem- vs. emotion-focused, approach vs. avoidance, and cognitive vs. behavioral) no longer be used. Instead, the authors recommend hierarchical systems of action types (e.g., proximity seeking, accommodation). From analysis of 6 such systems, 13 potential core families of coping were identified. Future steps involve deciding how to organize these families, using their functional homogeneity and distinctiveness, and especially their links to adaptive processes.     

Body temperature as a conditional response measure for pavlovian fear conditioning

On six days rats were exposed to each of two contexts. They received an electric shock in one context and nothing in the other. Rats were tested later in each environment without shock. The rats froze and defecated more often in the shock-paired environment; they also exhibited a significantly larger elevation in rectal temperature in that environment. The rats discriminated between each context, and we suggest that the elevation in temperature is the consequence of associative learning. Thus, body temperature can be used as a conditional response measure in Pavlovian fear conditioning experiments that use footshock as the unconditional stimulus.     

Nonreligious coping and religious coping as predictors of expressed emotion in relatives of patients with schizophrenia

Expressed emotion (EE) is a measure of the amount of criticism and emotional over involvement expressed by a key relative towards a relative with a disorder or illness. Research has established that living in a high EE environment, which is characterised by increased levels of critical and emotionally exaggerated communication, leads to a poorer prognosis for patients with a mental illness when compared to low EE environments. Despite evidence that EE is a strong predictor of the course of the illness, there continue to be questions concerning why some family members express excessive levels of high EE attitudes about their mentally ill relatives while others do not. Based on indirect evidence from previous research, the current study tested whether religious and nonreligious coping serve as predictors of EE. A sample of 72 family members of patients with schizophrenia completed an EE interview, along with questionnaires assessing situational nonreligious coping and religious coping. In line with the hypotheses, results indicated that nonreligious coping predicted EE. Specifically, less use of adaptive emotion-focused coping predicted high EE. Also consistent with predictions, maladaptive religious coping predicted high EE above and beyond nonreligious coping.