Q.Enumerate the different ways of coping with stress.

Coping is a dynamic, situation-specific reaction to stress, a set of concrete responses meant to resolve the problem and reduce stress. Endler and Parker gave three coping strategies: task-oriented (gathering information, setting priorities and acting directly on the stressful situation), emotion-oriented (managing one's feelings, maintaining hope, or venting anger and frustration), and avoidance-oriented (denying or minimising the problem, suppressing stressful thoughts and distracting oneself). Lazarus and Folkman similarly divide coping into **problem-focus …

What coping means

In recent years the conviction has grown that it is how we cope with stress, and not just the stress we experience, that influences our psychological well-being, social functioning and health. Coping is a dynamic, situation-specific reaction to stress, a set of concrete responses to stressful situations intended to resolve the problem and reduce stress. To manage stress we often need to reassess the way we think and learn coping strategies. People show consistent individual differences in the coping strategies they use, which can involve both overt and covert activities.

Endler and Parker's three coping strategies

1. Task-oriented strategy: obtaining information about the stressful situation and about alternative courses of action and their probable outcomes; deciding priorities and acting so as to deal directly with the situation. For example, scheduling one's time better, or thinking about how one solved similar problems before.
2. Emotion-oriented strategy: efforts to maintain hope and to control one's emotions; it can also involve venting feelings of anger and frustration, or deciding that nothing can be done to change things. For example, telling oneself 'it is not really happening to me', or worrying about what one is going to do.
3. Avoidance-oriented strategy: denying or minimising the seriousness of the situation; conscious suppression of stressful thoughts and their replacement by self-protective thoughts. Examples are watching TV, phoning a friend, or trying to be with other people.

Lazarus and Folkman's two types

Lazarus and Folkman conceptualise coping as a dynamic process rather than a fixed trait, and divide coping responses into two types: …