Coping Processes

As ubiquitous as it is in everyday life, in media accounts of disasters, and in old and new cinema, it has proved difficult for investigators to capture the coping process in a way that is faithful to its complexity and dynamic character. Lazarus and Folkman’s groundbreaking work on the cognitive and behavioral ways that people deal with the alarms of life is replete with phrases like “constantly changing,” “process-oriented,” and “contextual,” signaling that the landscape surrounding the study of coping is steep and treacherous, and certainly not for the faint of heart (Stress, Appraisal, and Coping. NY: Springer, 1984). Even their definition of coping is daunting: “constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding a person’s resources” (p. 141). Indeed, the many empirical studies, literature reviews, and conceptual papers launched in the wake of their formulations of the appraisal and coping process have borne out the challenges that await those entering this field of study. They range from such fundamental questions as how coping differs from ordinary and routine behaviors and thoughts to profound questions about the contribution that coping makes to the survival of the human species. The principal foci of coping research since the late 20th century have been the measurement of coping; productive exploration of particular modes of coping, notably social support and social comparison; examination of coping with specific life stressors; cultural variations in coping; and recent research on proactive and religious/spiritual coping. Social and clinical research psychologists have been most active as investigators in this field of study, followed by sociologists and nurses. Remarkably, psychodynamic concepts associated with Freud’s formulation of such defensive mechanisms as repression and projection have largely been replaced by a daily process approach that eschews unconscious desires, conflicts, and wishes in favor of emotion-regulatory and adjustment goals. This article offers a path for students, professional researchers, clinicians, and human services personnel seeking their way through the coping literature on adults from the 1980s to the present.