Life is stressful, and there is no doubt about it. We all juggle daily challenges that seem overwhelming at times. The question is, are we effectively coping with these daily stressors? Are we responding with supportive behaviors, or are these response behaviors counterproductive to our effective coping? The American Institute of Stress states that coping with stress when we are older affects our bodies differently. It is essential to effectively manage our stress with positive coping behaviors before it becomes dangerous to our bodies. Some lasting damaging effects include high blood pressure, a weakened immune system, anxiety, depression, insomnia, heartburn, indigestion, and an increased risk for heart disease.
Positive psychology tools like the COPE Inventory questionnaire may help us better assess our coping strategies. COPE stands for Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced. The COPE Inventory is a 60-item multidimensional inventory questionnaire developed by Charles Carver, Michael Scheier, and Jadish Weintraub in 1989 to evaluate people’s coping strategies in response to stress.The two main components of the COPE Inventory are problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping.
Problem-focused coping
- Active Coping – an adaptive way of dealing with stressful events
- Planning – making specific plans to overcome anticipated challenges
- Suppression of Competing Activities – putting aside other activities not connected to the problem in order to better deal with it
- Restraint Coping – waiting until an appropriate opportunity to deal with stressful events
- Seeking of Instrumental Social Support – seeking assistance in a tangible and/or physical way when needed
Emotion-focused coping
- Seeking of Emotional Social Support – seeking support for emotions (non tangible), and turning to others to provide support
- Positive Reinterpretation – reassessing a stressful situation to see it in a positive light
- Acceptance – acknowledging that something is what it is
- Denial – attempting to avoid uncomfortable situations
- Turning to Religion – seeking comfort, support, and/or guidance from a divine being
Within these two main component areas are a list of simple questions that allow the survey taker to answer with a scale from 1-4. This is how the scale is measured:
- =I usually don’t do this at all
- =I usually do this a little bit
- =I usually do this a medium amount
- =I usually do this a lot
Positive Psychology’s website provides examples of questions that may be found on the COPE Inventory questionnaire. Some see the questionnaire to be relatively cumbersome. There is an abbreviated version called the Brief COPE Inventory available for use. The abbreviated questionnaire comprises 28 questions that assess the frequency with which a person uses different coping strategies. The COPE inventory is a crucial tool to use when feeling stressed and overwhelmed with life or when needing a reminder of the benefits of positive coping behaviors. It is available to anyone who may want to improve their coping strategies with daily stressors.
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By: Ashley Augsburger
Senior Care Advising Intern at WellPath Partners
Health Science Student, California State University, Long Beach
