Coping

Coping refers to the application of coping mechanisms, conscious and unconscious cognitions that people use to manage unpleasant emotions, stress and anxiety. Coping mechanisms can be adaptive, meaning that they successfully improve the well-being of the person applying them, or maladaptive, meaning they may manage a specific unpleasant emotion, but at the expense of other aspects of one's mental and/or physical health.

Theories of coping

Hundreds of coping strategies have been proposed to explain how people manage stress. However, no universal classification system has been agreed upon. Researchers have grouped coping responses through rational, empirical, or hybrid approaches.
Early work by Folkman and Lazarus categorized coping into four main types:

Problem-focused coping
Emotion-focused coping
Support-seeking coping
Meaning-making coping

Weiten and Lloyd identified four related types: appraisal-focused, problem-focused, emotion-focused, and occupation-focused coping.
Billings and Moos later added avoidance coping as a subset of emotion-focused strategies. However, some scholars have questioned the psychometric validity of such strict categorizations, noting that coping strategies often overlap and that individuals may employ multiple strategies simultaneously.
People typically use a combination of coping functions that change over time. While all strategies can be useful, individuals who rely more on problem-focused coping tend to adjust better overall. This may be because problem-focused coping provides a greater sense of control, whereas emotion-focused coping sometimes reduces perceived control.
Lazarus noted a link between his concept of “defensive reappraisal” and Freud’s notion of “ego defenses” illustrating that coping strategies can overlap with psychological defense mechanisms

Appraisal-focused coping strategies

Appraisal-focused coping involves changing the way a person thinks about or conceptualizes a stressful situation. Individuals may deny or cognitively distance themselves from the situation, in an effort to reframe their perspective to a less emotionally difficult outlook.

Adaptive behavioral coping strategies

Adaptive behavioral coping strategies are coping mechanisms that involve direct behavioral action.
Coping is often reactive, meaning it occurs in response to a stressor. This differs from proactive coping, which aims to prepare for or prevent future stressors. Defense mechanisms, which operate unconsciously, are typically considered separate from coping.
The effectiveness of coping depends on the stressor type, the individual’s traits, and the surrounding environment. People using problem-focused strategies attempt to address the source of stress directly, often by gathering information or developing new skills. Folkman and Lazarus identified three main problem-focused approaches: taking control, information seeking, and evaluating pros and cons.
However, problem-focused coping may backfire when stressors are uncontrollable, such as chronic illness or loss.

Emotion-focused coping strategies

Emotion-focused strategies involve:

releasing pent-up emotions
distracting oneself
managing hostile feelings
meditating
mindfulness practices
using systematic relaxation procedures.
situational exposure

Emotion-focused coping "is oriented toward managing the emotions that accompany the perception of stress". The five emotion-focused coping strategies identified by Folkman and Lazarus are:

disclaiming
escape-avoidance
accepting responsibility or blame
exercising self-control
and positive reappraisal.

Emotion-focused coping is a mechanism to alleviate distress by minimizing, reducing, or preventing, the emotional components of a stressor. This mechanism can be applied through a variety of ways, such as:

seeking social support
reappraising the stressor in a positive light
accepting responsibility
using avoidance
exercising self-control
distancing

The focus of this coping mechanism is to change the meaning of the stressor or transfer attention away from it. For example, reappraising tries to find a more positive meaning of the cause of the stress in order to reduce the emotional component of the stressor. Avoidance of the emotional distress will distract from the negative feelings associated with the stressor.
Emotion-focused coping is well suited for stressors that seem uncontrollable. Some mechanisms of emotion focused coping, such as distancing or avoidance, can have alleviating outcomes for a short period of time, however they can be detrimental when used over an extended period.
Positive emotion-focused mechanisms, such as seeking social support, and positive re-appraisal, are associated with beneficial outcomes. Emotional approach coping is one form of emotion-focused coping in which emotional expression and processing is used to adaptively manage a response to a stressor. Other examples include relaxation training through deep breathing, meditation, yoga, music and art therapy, and aromatherapy.

Health theory of coping

The Health Theory of Coping addresses limitations of earlier models by classifying coping strategies as healthy or unhealthy based on likely outcomes.
Healthy coping categories:

Self-soothing
Relaxation/distraction
Social support
Professional support

Unhealthy coping categories:

Negative self-talk
Harmful activities
Social withdrawal
Suicidality
Reactive and proactive coping

Most coping is reactive in that the coping response follows stressors. Anticipating and reacting to a future stressor is known as proactive coping or future-oriented coping. Anticipation is when one reduces the stress of some difficult challenge by anticipating what it will be like and preparing for how one is going to cope with it.

Social coping

Social coping recognizes that individuals are embedded within a social environment, which can be stressful, but also is the source of coping resources, such as seeking social support from others.

Humor

Humor used as a positive coping method may have useful benefits to emotional and mental health well-being. However, maladaptive humor styles such as self-defeating humor can also have negative effects on psychological adjustment and might exacerbate negative effects of other stressors. By having a humorous outlook on life, stressful experiences can be and are often minimized. This coping method corresponds with positive emotional states and is known to be an indicator of mental health. Physiological processes are also influenced within the exercise of humor. For example, laughing may reduce muscle tension, increase the flow of oxygen to the blood, exercise the cardiovascular region, and produce endorphins in the body.
Using humor in coping while processing feelings can vary depending on life circumstance and individual humor styles. In regards to grief and loss in life occurrences, it has been found that genuine laughs/smiles when speaking about the loss predicted later adjustment and evoked more positive responses from other people. A person might also find comedic relief with others around irrational possible outcomes for the deceased funeral service. It is also possible that humor would be used by people to feel a sense of control over a more powerless situation and used as way to temporarily escape a feeling of helplessness. Exercised humor can be a sign of positive adjustment as well as drawing support and interaction from others around the loss.

Negative techniques (maladaptive coping or non-coping)

Whereas adaptive coping strategies improve functioning, a maladaptive coping technique will just reduce symptoms while maintaining or strengthening the stressor. Maladaptive techniques are only effective as a short-term rather than long-term coping process.
Examples of maladaptive behavior strategies include anxious avoidance, dissociation, escape, use of maladaptive humor styles such as self-defeating humor, procrastination, rationalization, safety behaviors, and sensitization. These coping strategies interfere with the person's ability to unlearn, or break apart, the paired association between the situation and the associated anxiety symptoms. These are maladaptive strategies as they serve to maintain the disorder.

Anxious avoidance is when a person avoids anxiety provoking situations by all means. This is the most common method.
Dissociation is the ability of the mind to separate and compartmentalize thoughts, memories, and emotions. This is often associated with dissociative disorders and post traumatic stress syndrome.
Escape is closely related to avoidance. This technique is often demonstrated by people who experience panic attacks or have phobias. These people want to flee the situation at the first sign of anxiety.
The use of self-defeating humor means that a person disparages themselves in order to entertain others. This type of humor has been shown to lead to negative psychological adjustment and exacerbate the effect of existing stressors.
Procrastination is when a person willingly delays a task in order to receive a temporary relief from stress. While this may work for short-term relief, when used as a coping mechanism, procrastination causes more issues in the long run.
Rationalization is the practice of attempting to use reasoning to minimize the severity of an incident, or avoid approaching it in ways that could cause psychological trauma or stress. It most commonly manifests in the form of making excuses for the behavior of the person engaging in the rationalization, or others involved in the situation the person is attempting to rationalize.
Sensitization is when a person seeks to learn about, rehearse, and/or anticipate fearful events in a protective effort to prevent these events from occurring in the first place.
Safety behaviors are demonstrated when individuals with anxiety disorders come to rely on something, or someone, as a means of coping with their excessive anxiety.
Overthinking
Emotion suppression
Emotion-driven behavior