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Key Words coping critique, coping measurement, positive emotion, coping effectiveness, coping and meaning
Abstract Coping, defined as the thoughts and behaviors used to manage the internal and external demands of situations that are appraised as stressful, has been a focus of research in the social sciences for more than three decades. The dramatic proliferation of coping research has spawned healthy debate and criticism and offered insight into the question of why some individuals fare better than others do when encountering stress in their lives. We briefly review the history of contemporary coping research with adults. We discuss three primary challenges for coping researchers (measurement, nomenclature, and effectiveness), and highlight recent developments in coping theory and research that hold promise for the field, including previously unaddressed aspects of coping, new measurement approaches, and focus on positive affective outcomes.
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 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 itself to cognitive-behavioral intervention. As such, its allure is not only as an explanatory concept regarding variability in response to stress, but also as a portal for interventions.
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...