Coping strategies and working with them. Active and passive coping

Strategies for coping with stress

The theory of a person's coping with difficult life situations (coping) arose in psychology in the second half of the 20th century. The term was introduced by the American humanist psychologist A. Maslow. Under coping(from English to cope- cope, cope) means constantly changing cognitive and behavioral attempts to cope with specific external and / or internal requirements that are assessed as stress or exceed the ability of a person to cope with them (I.G. Malkina-Pykh, 2005).

Coping behavior is a form of behavior that reflects the readiness of an individual to solve life problems. This is behavior aimed at adapting to circumstances and involving the formed ability to use certain means to overcome emotional stress. When choosing active actions, the likelihood of eliminating the impact of stressors on a person increases. The features of this skill are associated with the "I-Concept", locus of control, empathy, environmental conditions. According to Maslow, kopnig behavior is opposed to expressive behavior.

The following ways of coping behavior are distinguished:

Problem resolution

Seeking Social Support

Avoidance

Coping behavior is implemented through the use of various coping strategies based on the resources of the individual and the environment. One of the most important resources of the environment is social support. Personal resources include an adequate "I-concept", positive self-esteem, low neuroticism, internal locus of control, optimistic worldview, empathic potential, affiliative tendency (ability to interpersonal relationships) and other psychological constructs.

During the action of a stressor on a person, an initial assessment takes place, on the basis of which the type of the created situation is determined - threatening or favorable (Averill et al., 1971). It is from this moment that the mechanisms of personal protection are formed. Lazarius (1991) viewed this defense (coping processes) as the ability of the individual to exercise control over threatening, upsetting, or pleasurable situations. Coping processes are part of the emotional response. Maintaining emotional balance depends on them. They are aimed at reducing, eliminating or removing the current stressor. At this stage, a secondary assessment of the latter is carried out. The result of the secondary assessment is one of three possible types of coping strategies:

Direct active actions of an individual in order to reduce or eliminate danger (attack or flight, delight or love pleasure):

Indirect or thought form without direct impact, impossible due to internal or external inhibition, for example, repression (“this does not concern me”), overestimation (“this is not so dangerous”), suppression, switching to another form of activity, changing the direction of an emotion in order to neutralize it, etc. .d.;

Coping without emotions, when the threat to the individual is not assessed as real (contact with means of transport, household appliances, everyday dangers that we successfully avoid).

Protective processes seek to rid the individual of mismatched urges and ambivalence of feelings, to protect him from awareness of unwanted or painful emotions, and most importantly, to eliminate anxiety and tension. The effective maximum of protection is at the same time the minimum of what successful coping is capable of. "Successful" coping behavior is described as increasing the adaptive capabilities of the subject, realistic, flexible, mostly conscious, active, including the right choice.

There are a fairly large number of strategies for coping behavior (Fineman, 1987, 1983; Lazarus, 1966). There are three main criteria by which these classifications are built:

1. Emotional/problematic

Emotionally focused coping is aimed at regulating an emotional reaction.

Problem-focused - aimed at coping with a problem or changing the situation that caused stress.

2. Cognitive/Behavioral:

2.1 "Hidden" internal coping is a cognitive solution to a problem, the purpose of which is to change an unpleasant situation that causes stress.

2.2 "Open" behavioral coping - focused on behavioral actions, coping strategies are used that are observed in behavior.

3. Successful / unsuccessful

3.1 Successful coping - constructive strategies are used that ultimately lead to overcoming a difficult situation that caused stress.

3.2 Unsuccessful coping - non-constructive strategies are used that prevent overcoming a difficult situation.

Depending on the chosen starting point, the authors define the goals of studying protective and coping behavior in different ways. This is an analysis of the problems of adaptation of the individual in the surrounding society, and the problems of spiritual self-determination, which allows making a choice taking into account personal potential. According to a leading specialist in the field of study copy styles(“coping methods”) of Lazarus (Lazarus, 1966, 1991), despite the significant individual diversity of behavior in stress, there are two global response styles.

Problem-oriented style, aimed at a rational analysis of the problem, is associated with the creation and implementation of a plan for resolving a difficult situation and manifests itself in such forms of behavior as an independent analysis of what happened, seeking help from others, searching for additional information.

Subjectively oriented style is a consequence emotional response to a situation that is not accompanied by specific actions, and manifests itself in the form of attempts not to think about the problem at all, involving others in one’s experiences, a desire to forget oneself in a dream, dissolve one’s hardships in alcohol or compensate negative emotions food. These forms of behavior are characterized by a naive, infantile assessment of what is happening.

English psychologist D. Roger (Roger et al., 1993) in his measurement questionnaire copy styles identifies four factors - rational and emotional response, detachment and avoidance. At the same time, emotional response also means only negative experiences.

The paper (Libina, Libin, 1998) proposes a typology of protective and coping styles of regulation based on a structural-functional model of behavior. Table 1 lists individual examples of items (1a - 4c) of the Behavioral Style questionnaire (Lazarus, 2000).

Structurally - functional model human behavior in difficult situations

The modern rhythm of life is characterized by high speed and large quantity changes in the environment. Every day a person is affected by many events, most of which cause emotional stress and discomfort. The human personality reacts to any psychological stress factors with special protective mechanisms: psychological defense or coping strategy. And if psychological defense is an unconscious process aimed at reducing negative experiences, then coping strategies are conscious certain methods of activity that allow you to adapt to a difficult life situation, restore and maintain emotional balance.

What it is?

Coping strategies are behavioral, emotional and cognitive strategies used by the human personality to overcome and cope with stress. The term was introduced by L. Murphy in the 60s of the XX century in the study of child psychology and was developed thanks first to the psychologist Richard Lazarus, and then to other scientists studying ways to overcome negative impact stress on the body. Russian psychological school to define the phenomenon uses a similar concept: "experience", "coping behavior".

Each individual determines the situation as stressful for himself. Environmental conditions, which for one person are a normal imperceptible load, for another can become an almost insurmountable barrier to self-realization and life. A stressful situation for a particular person always causes him anxiety, emotional instability, psychological and often physiological discomfort. Under such conditions psychological adaptation personality occurs with the help of coping strategies and psychological defense mechanisms.

Psychological defenses are a special system for stabilizing the personality by protecting consciousness from unpleasant, traumatic factors. Intrapersonal tension is reduced due to the distortion of existing reality or the emergence of various psychosomatic dysfunctions (neurotic disorders) in a person, leading to maladaptation. In contrast to psychological defenses, when coping strategies work, the response thoughts, feelings and actions of the individual form constructive efforts aimed at normalizing the relationship "man - environment".

At first, coping strategies were defined as a reaction of the human personality to excessive demands that exceeded its internal resources. Then the concept of coping strategies expanded significantly and now includes reactions to daily stressful situations.

Classification of strategies

At the moment, several classifications of coping strategies have been developed. The most famous is the classification developed by R. Lazarus together with S. Folkman and separating strategies are two main types:

1. 1. Problem-oriented coping (transformation of the external situation) - overcoming a stressful situation occurs by rethinking the problem, searching for information about it and solutions. Allows in many cases to avoid rash actions and impulsive actions.
2. 2. Emotionally-oriented coping (transformation of the internal situation) - aimed at changing the attitude to the problem different ways that reduce emotional stress, but do not contribute to its direct solution.

One of the simplest and most successful methods for identifying basic coping strategies was developed by J. Amirkhan (“Indicator of coping strategies”) and includes three main groups of coping strategies:

1. 1. Problem solving - strategy involves the maximum use of a person's capabilities to solve a problem.
2. 2. Avoiding the problem - the strategy includes various forms avoiding contact with the environment in order to get away from the problem both in a passive form (use of psychoactive substances: alcohol, drugs, tranquilizers) and in an active form (commission of suicide).
3. 3.

   Seeking social support - the strategy involves active actions to obtain help from the social environment.

Efficiency and adaptability of coping

There are a lot of coping strategies, of which each individual, under the influence of a certain stress factor, forms his own complex. Among them, there may be both productive forms (effective and adaptive) that help to get out of stressful condition and relatively productive and unproductive.

R. Lazarus and S. Folkman's testing methodology relies on eight predominant coping strategies:

1. 1. Planning for future actions to solve the problem, critical analysis of the situation, various efforts made.
2. 2. Confrontational strategy. Attempts to resolve difficult situation through conflicts, stubborn self-interest and hostility. Using this strategy in conflict situation, the individual has difficulty planning and often has little idea of ​​the consequences of his actions.
3. 3. Taking responsibility for the problem. The reassessment of one's own role in the situation that has arisen is followed by attempts to correct the difficult situation.
4. 4. Self-control. The individual keeps his cool, controlling his emotions and actions.
5. 5. Search for positive aspects as a result of a stressful situation.
6. 6. Seeking help from others: either to relatives and friends, or to those in power and the general public - depending on the stress factor.
7. 7. Distancing from the problem, that is, moving away from the situation, reducing its significance using various methods.
8. 8. Avoiding problems, running away from difficulties.

The diagnosis of coping strategies, which was created by E. Heim, allows you to analyze in detail the style and productivity of the strategies of a particular person. The test examines 26 situation-specific types of response, divided into three main areas mental activity personality and a clear indication of their productivity in solving the problem:

1. 1. Cognitive (rethinking, analysis) coping mechanism:
   1. Productive Strategies: Problem Analysis.
   2. 2. Relatively productive: ignoring, dissimulation (a conscious desire to hide the problem or its downplaying), maintaining self-control, relativity (comparing one's problem with the problems of others and concluding that it is insignificant), religiosity, giving the problem a special meaning (the problem as a way of self-improvement), setting self-worth (persuasion of the individual in the ability to overcome even great difficulties in the future).
   3. 3. Unproductive: humility, confusion.
2. Emotional coping mechanism:
   1. 1. Productive strategies: optimism.
   2. 2. Relatively productive: protest, passive cooperation (the individual trusts others to solve his problems).
   3. 3. Unproductive: emotional discharge (exit of emotions), suppression of emotions, humility (a state of hopelessness), self-accusation, aggressiveness.
3. Behavioral coping mechanism:
   1. 1. Productive: collaboration.
   2. 2. Relatively productive: distraction (immersion in work, hobbies), altruism (solving other people's problems to distract from one's own), compensation (distraction and calming with the help of drugs, food, alcohol), constructive activity (fulfillment of an old dream), appeal ( getting advice from others).
   3. 3. Unproductive: active avoidance of the problem (conscious unwillingness to think and analyze), retreat (self-isolation from other people).

Studies have shown a sufficient influence of certain coping strategies on the increase and decrease in the success and effectiveness of an individual. Thus, problem-focused coping reactions are associated with lower levels of negative emotions. Children who do not use problem-oriented coping more often have more difficulties in adapting, and the use of emotionally-oriented coping is often associated with serious behavioral problems and increased levels of anxiety and depression. Active problem solving and the search for social support are recognized as effective and positively influencing adaptation.

It should be noted that depending on characteristic features personality and severity of the stressor, some coping mechanisms can significantly improve or worsen the development of the situation. For example, in some cases a normally unproductive emotional release is necessary and is followed by a much more calm analysis of the situation. And vice versa, relatively productive protest and ignoring, taking inadequate and hypertrophied forms, can lead to the expansion and deepening of the crisis, as well as the involvement of new factors in it.

One of the aspects of the general fund is considered a fairly wide range of resources of the environment surrounding the individual:

• accessibility for him of the instrumental help of the environment;
• availability of moral and emotional support of the social environment.

The second aspect is the personal characteristics of the individual:

• innate abilities;
• acquired skills and abilities.

Different researchers name different resources as key. According to S. Seligman, the main key resource that helps to cope with stress is optimism. A. Bandura considers the construct "self-efficacy" to be an important key resource in dealing with stress. Many other scientists consider the construct "hardiness" to be the guide in the formation of coping styles. With all the difference of opinions, coping styles are formed gradually during a person's life under the influence of constantly changing reality and the resources available at the moment.

Since childhood, an environment depleted of resources, both material and social, does not allow the development of abilities and the acquisition of skills, and with a high degree of probability will narrow the range of preferred coping strategies. The coping strategies applied by the individual also affect the ownership and management of resources. An example is the conscious reluctance of a person to effectively interact with the social environment, as a result of which his social circle is significantly narrowed and, accordingly, the resources of the environment are depleted.

The main function of coping mechanisms is compensatory, which allows coping with stress with minimal losses to the individual.

Coping strategies aimed at directly solving problems are generally recognized as more effective than strategies designed only for the individual to cope with his attitude to the problem. In addition, studies confirm the higher efficiency of the complex use of several types of productive or relatively productive coping, in comparison with the choice of only one of the coping methods.

Coping- These are the actions of a person with the help of which he fights stress. The term coping comes from the English "coping" or also "to cope with", which means to cope with stress. Coping consists of cognitive, behavioral and emotional elements that ensure the preservation of the integrity of the individual and the resistance to external or internal factors that cause tension or create too difficult circumstances and situations that a person cannot cope with, since the amount of his resources is limited.

Coping strategies were formed in an individual so that he could definitely respond to a crisis situation that had arisen, and on the degree of significance of this situation for him. Regarding the characteristics of the crisis situation and his attitude to it, a person will act in a certain way, while expressing true emotions and feelings. varying degrees intensity through your behavior. The main characteristics of such a situation are meaningful feelings, their intensity, mental tension, a change in self-esteem, a change in motivation, internal experiences, with the help of which the trauma associated with a crisis situation is processed and significant need in psychocorrection and support.

Coordination with oneself, with one's experiences depends on the personality itself, its characterological features and the actual situation. One person is capable of completely different attitudes to the same situation in different time when it affects him in a traumatic way.

The phenomenon of coping with a traumatic situation arose relatively recently, so there is not even a single classification of coping strategies, almost every researcher who is interested in this topic creates his own classification.

Coping strategies

Coping strategies are such sets of actions that are applied in relation to a certain stressful situation. These are a kind of individual habitual schemes, thanks to which a person can quickly get out of a problem situation, since no one wants to stay in a state of crisis for a long time, this unbalances. There are two types of directed tactics of behavior.

Coping Behavior Strategies Problem-Based, they are aimed at the situation itself and the desire to correct it, to find a faster way out of it, to act actively.

Coping Behavior Strategies Emotionally Oriented, respectively, are focused on features emotional state, reactions associated with a stressful situation, human feelings and experiences.

Coping style defines behavior based on three types of response to a stressful situation. In the animal kingdom, this is escaping, attacking, in relation to human behavior, they are called capitulation, avoidance, overcompensation.

Coping mechanisms are coping mechanisms that determine a person's adaptation to a stressful situation, successful or not. They are also defined as a tactic of human behavior in a situation of threat, especially in circumstances of adaptation to a threat to psychological and physical well-being, as well as personal and social.

Coping mechanisms can take the following forms: cognitive, emotional and behavioral. Cognitive forms are expressed in switching thoughts from a painful topic to a more positive one, distraction from thoughts about the consequences of a crisis, acceptance of the current situation, manifestation of stoicism, ignoring the problem, reducing its severity, the desire to create the impression that nothing happened, comparing previously similar situations, studying information necessary to overcome the crisis, religiosity, giving a new state of new meaning.

Behavioral forms of coping mechanisms are expressed through: distraction, changing the type of activity, going into work headlong, caring for others when you need to think more about your own well-being, altruism, the desire to avoid, fulfillment own desires, compensation, satisfaction of needs, the desire to be alone, in peace, the search for support, understanding, the desire for cooperation.

The specificity of coping mechanisms is very close to the work of the protective mechanisms of the psyche. As you can see, they are divided into constructive and non-constructive, or adequate and inadequate, or active and passive. If a person is going to work with a psychotherapist in the direction of finding a way out of a stressful situation, then the most productive in this vein will be: cooperation throughout the counseling process, the desire for support, an adequate degree of ignoring the stressful circumstance, looking at it from a humorous side, patience, self-control, stoicism , opposition to the problem, altruism, emotional release. Sometimes it is difficult for a psychotherapist to carry out a constructive modification of psychological defense mechanisms or their complete elimination, even when an empathic connection with the patient is created, with the help of which the need for defense mechanisms weakens, therefore, attention is focused on developing coping mechanisms.

The study of the problems of coping strategies led researchers to the concept of coping resources. The resource approach determines that there is a distribution of resources, therefore explaining that a person manages to maintain mental health and adapt to the current situation. The resource approach also considers the diversity of resources: external - moral, emotional and material assistance from social environment; personal - the abilities and skills of a person. There is also a theory in which coping resources are divided into material and social. Most researchers agree that the best resource for coping with stress is optimism. But he must be healthy, because an overly optimistic attitude can be an obstacle in adequate perception current event.

Coping avoidance strategy is one of the most important ways to overcome the situation during the formation of pseudo-possessive or maladaptive behavior. Such a coping strategy serves as a way of overcoming or alleviating distress in a person who was a little lowest level personality development. A person who uses such a strategy is not sufficiently developed in terms of personal and environmental coping resources and the ability to quickly and adequately solve problems. It is important to note that this tactic may or may not be adequate, depending on the problem itself, its intensity, personality traits, age and state of the system of resources available in the individual.

The most effective and adequate option in solving the problem is the use and synchronization of three types of coping strategies of behavior, depending on the circumstances. It happens that a person may well rely on himself and cope with the circumstances without outside interference. Sometimes, he does not feel confident in himself, so he seeks support in environment. Using avoidance tactics, a person predicts possible failures or consequences, so the emu manages to avoid trouble. If the same tactic is used all the time by one person, then soon he can emotionally burn out, he will not have the strength to live.

Coping behavior in stressful situations

As already mentioned, there are many different theories to classify coping strategies. Psychologists Folkman and Lazarus have been actively studying the topic: “copin strategies and stress” and have created the most popular classification, in which they distinguish eight basic strategies.

A list of these coping strategies:

- drawing up a plan for solving the problem, which will involve efforts to make changes to the situation, the use of an analytical approach in drawing up an algorithm of actions applied to coping with stress;

- confrontational coping, includes attempts and measures filled with aggression to overcome a stressful stimulus, a high degree of hostility, readiness for a solution with the use of risk;

- taking responsibility for solving the situation, and recognizing one's own role when problems arise;

- enhanced self-control in regulating emotions and their own actions;

- enhanced search actions positive sides, merits in the current state of affairs, a positive reassessment;

- focus on finding support in the immediate environment;

- distancing, cognitive-behavioral efforts to isolate from a stressful situation, reducing its importance, materiality;

- avoidance-flight, increased attempts to avoid the problem or its consequences.

In turn, they are systematized into four groups. The first group has the following tactics: decision planning, confrontation, taking responsibility for the decision. Namely, thanks to their active interaction, the strengthening of the connection between them is achieved, which strengthens their action and strengthens the connection between the justice of interaction and the emotional background of the individual. The use of tactics implies that a person will actively act independently, try to change the problematic circumstances that caused stress, show a desire to be fully informed about this case. Consequently, a person turns his attention to the special conditions of interaction, to justice and analyzes these features. Thanks to this process, a significant impact of the assessment of justice on the general condition of a person, his emotions and feelings is ensured.

In the second group there are coping strategies of self-control and positive reassessment. They are very efficient. Their strength contributes to the connection of justice in the interaction and emotions of people. Such processes occur because these coping strategies are a precondition for a person's self-control over the state, the search for a solution to a way out of a stressful situation through its modification. Individuals who use these coping strategies perceive the conditions of interaction as a tool with which to carry out their plans. good example it may be that people who find themselves in stressful circumstances try to look for a positive aspect in them, a new meaning, new idea think of them as new experiences. And the consequence of this process is the great influence and significance of the assessment of justice, as a condition for interaction.

The third group of coping strategies includes the following strategies: distancing and avoidance. Using such strategies, there is no effect at all on the connection between the fairness of interaction and emotions. This happens because a person refuses to somehow change his state or situation, he simply walks away from all responsibility. Individuals using the avoidance strategy do not want to receive any information about the conditions of interaction, since they do not take part in it and do not attach any importance to it. important therefore, it does not affect their state in any way.

The fourth group of strategies is the search for social support. Its use also has no effect on the relationship between the fairness of the interaction and emotions. Since such a strategy does not imply that a person himself seeks and finds a solution in a problem situation, nor is it aimed at avoiding the problem. And such a person is not interested in additional information.

Copin's strategies and stress and their interactions are better understood through research. Especially foreign authors paid more attention to this topic, they defined coping as inter-individual and intra-individual approaches. However, anyway, in any case, they rely on the self-report of the subjects about their behavior as the main methodological technique in the study of coping strategies, specific actions and stress.

In an interindividual approach to study coping strategies, the technique is used as a research tool, such is a questionnaire on coping methods. Using his ambushes, other techniques began to develop. The most common WCQ technique in coping strategy research. It is based on fifty questions, which make up eight scales, and calculates two main coping strategies: emotionally focused and problem-focused coping in specific stressful situations (eg, pain, illness, loss).

According to the intra-individual approach, the styles used by a person in his coping behavior are studied. These styles are based on personal variables in the role of stable dispositional structures. For this study, the Coping Scale method is used.

The third method for studying coping strategies is the “Multidimensional measurement of coping”, it is used in empirical studies of coping behavior. It is a very affordable and high-quality domestic material.

Canadian clinical and health psychology researchers have developed the popular C1SS technique. It includes forty-eight statements, grouped into three factors. Each of which has a scale consisting of sixteen questions. In the third factor - avoidance, it has two subscales - these are personal distraction and social distraction. In this technique, the main three coping styles are well and reliably measured. The first style is decision-oriented in a stressful situation, that is, a problem-oriented coping style, the second is emotionally-oriented, and the third style is a style with a focus on avoiding a problem or stressful situation. This method, or rather its factorial structure, has been validated on samples of students, senior university students, and adequate healthy adults.

Coping strategies in adolescents

Copin strategies and stress in adolescents in different periods of age manifest themselves and interact in different ways. With age, cognitive coping (emotionally oriented, positive reassessment, positive internal dialogue, switching and controlling attention, avoidance coping) appear more and more strongly and become even more diverse. But there is also evidence that children with age are less likely to need social support in a stressful situation.

There are as many classifications of adolescent coping strategies as there are general classifications. Basically, many theories highlight such basic strategies as problem solving, seeking support, and avoidance. There are also three planes in which the implementation of strategies in behavior takes place: cognitive, behavioral, emotional spheres.

Types of coping strategies of behavior can be distributed, taking into account their level of adaptive capabilities.

Life events change with great speed and there are many problems among them, therefore the variety of solutions to such life situations very big. At the beginning of the teenage period of 10-11 years, there is a manifestation of specific features, among which the main ones are the focus on communication with peers, the desire to assert one's independence and personal independence. Teenagers begin to move away from their parents, alienated from adults. The focus on confrontation is strongly expressed, the desire to demonstrate oneself as an adult, to defend one's rights and independence. But along with such heroic impulses for independence, there is still a desire to receive help from adults, to feel their protection and support. The most important factor in growing up a child and shaping a teenager as a person is communication with peers and older teenagers. During this period - 14-15 years, there is a very large susceptibility of consciousness, so that, since communication will win back leading role and determines the leading activity, this affects the entire later life teenager, depending on how much he will fall under the influence of this company.

Increased conformity to the rules and values ​​of the group to which the adolescent belongs determines his desire to satisfy his need to occupy a respectable position among his peers. Adolescence is a very turbulent age, filled with the productive development of cognitive processes. It is characterized by the formation of purposefulness of perception, stable voluntary attention, theoretical and creative thinking, logical memory and selectivity. The central new formation of the personality in this period is the exit of consciousness to new level, strengthening the self-concept, which expresses the desire to understand oneself, one's true personal nature, one's abilities and characteristics, to understand one's uniqueness, difference from others.

Coping strategies of adolescents are not fully understood.

Depending on the progress of a teenager, he will have a different coping strategy. Those with good academic performance are characterized by a high expression of the coping strategy of "problem resolution", a slightly less pronounced strategy of "search for social support" and not expressed "avoidance". In adolescents with average academic performance, the leading coping strategy is “search for social support”, “problem resolution” in second place and the least pronounced “avoidance from problems”. And among the worst-performing adolescents, the “avoidance” strategy is most pronounced for all three, “search for social support” in second place and “problem resolution” in last. This is due to the fact that students who are not successful are prevented from studying well by internal psychological traumas, or the peculiarities of their development, as a result of which they have not learned to adequately respond to a stressful situation, and choose the easiest way to solve the problem - ignore it altogether, run away and not look for solutions. If a certain coping strategy is formed in adolescence, it can remain leading for life, so it is very important to provide the child with the necessary normal conditions in which he will develop as an adult.

Psychological adaptation of a person occurs mainly through coping strategies and psychological defense mechanisms.

Coping and psychological defenses

The same life events can have a different stress load depending on their subjective assessment.

A stressful event begins with an assessment of some internal (for example, a thought) or external (for example, a reproach) stimulus, as a result, a coping process occurs. The coping reaction is triggered when the complexity of the task exceeds the energy capacity of the body's usual reactions. If the demands of the situation are judged to be overwhelming, then overcoming can take the form of psychological defense.

In the general continuum of psychological regulation, coping strategies play a compensatory function, and psychological defenses occupy the last level in the adaptation system - the level of decompensation. Diagram 1 shows two possible styles of responding to negative events.

Scheme 1. Coping strategy and psychological protection. Stress response styles.

Two styles of responding to a problem situation

Problem Oriented(problem-focused) style is a rational analysis of the problem associated with the creation and implementation of a plan for resolving a difficult situation, its manifestation can be seen in such reactions: an independent analysis of what happened, seeking help from others, searching for additional information.

subjectively oriented(emotion-focused) style is a consequence of an emotional response to a situation. It is not accompanied by specific actions, but manifests itself in the form of attempts not to think about the problem, involving others in one's experiences, the desire to forget oneself in a dream, dissolve one's hardships in alcohol, drugs, or compensate for negative emotions with food.

Psychological defenses

The principle of psychological defense is to weaken intrapersonal tension by distorting the existing reality or leading the body to the following changes:

• mental restructuring, bodily disorders (dysfunctions), manifested in the form of chronic psychosomatic symptoms,
• behavioral changes.

With prolonged neurosis, the appearance of so-called secondary defense mechanisms is allowed, which reinforce neurotic behavior (for example, rationalization arises in order to justify one's insolvency, withdrawal into illness, freeing one from responsibility for solving problems).

Coping

The problem situation is characterized by uncertainty, increased complexity, stressfulness, inconsistency.

Types of stressful situations

macrostressors- critical life events requiring long-term social adaptation, costs a large number forces and accompanied by persistent affective disorders.

Microstressors- everyday overloads and troubles, localized in time, entailing a deterioration in well-being to restore adaptation, requiring a small amount of time (minutes).

Psychotrauma- traumatic events characterized by an exorbitant threshold of intensity, a sudden and unpredictable onset.

Chronic stressors- these are overloads with a long duration in time, characterized by repeated stress loads of the same type.

Stress can also perform a protective and sanogenic function.

The cognitive-phenomenological approach is the theory of overcoming stress according to Lazarus (R. Lazarus, 1966-1998)

This theory describes the interaction between a person and stress, the concept of coping with stress consists of two stages:

1) Initial assessment allows the individual to conclude that he is threatened: the stressor is a threat or prosperity. The initial assessment of stressful impact is to ask: “what does this mean for me personally?”

When assessing an event as destabilizing, there is a need for adaptation, its satisfaction is carried out through three channels:

1. The first channel is the release of emotions.
2. The second is the development of a co-ownership strategy.
3. The third one is the social channel, it influences less and is not taken into account.

2) Secondary cognitive assessment is considered the main one and is expressed in the formulation of the question: “What can I do in this situation?” - own resources and personal factors are evaluated, such as:

• emotional stability;
• psychological endurance is a belief system;
• the ability to set a goal and the ability to see the meaning in what you do;
• used type of psychological protection;
• state at the time of stress;
• predisposition to states of fear and anger;
• social support.

Criteria by which we learn the characteristics of social support:

• Are there those people who are significant.
• Assessment of the social status of these people.
• How influential they are in the social environment.
• Can they influence the stressor with their personality?
• The frequency of contact with these people.

Social support acts as a buffer; it softens the blow.

The evaluation stages can occur independently and synchronously. The result of the ratio of primary and secondary assessment is the decision on the priority type of reaction for the body to stress, as well as the development of a coping strategy.

Classification of coping strategies (Perret, Reicherts, 1992)

Theories about psychological defense mechanisms and coping strategies are used during the planning of psychotherapeutic intervention.

At the same time, the diagnosed defense mechanisms indicate the presence of rigidity of the "I-concept", a huge layer of psychotherapeutic work.

The diagnosed coping reaction, in turn, speaks of the possible coping options and those personal resources that effectively help to overcome the problem situation.

literature:

1. Perret M., Bauman W. Clinical Psychology - Peter, 2007 - 1312 pages.
2. Karvasarsky B.D. Clinical Psychology - Peter, 2004 - 539 pages
3. Nabiullina R.R., Tukhtarova I.V. Mechanisms of psychological defense and coping with stress / Teaching aid- Kazan, 2003 - 98 pages.
4. Demina L.D., Ralnikova I.A. mental health and defense mechanisms personalities - Altai Publishing House state university, 2000 - 123 pages
5. Anneliese H., Franz H., Jurgen O., Ulrich R. Basic guide to psychotherapy - Rech Publishing House, 1998 - 784 pages.
6. Lectures on clinical psychology - GrSMU, Belarus, 2006.

Today I want to present you an article by a wonderful psychologist - Lyudmila Ponomareva about coping strategies and their role in dealing with stress.Choosing the right coping strategy is important in order to cope successfully with stress, and knowing the types of coping strategies is useful in order to see the full range of tools available to us.

What is "coping"?

How are coping strategies formed?

What are coping strategies?

According to R. Lazarus, there are 8 types of coping with stress:

It turns out that there are effective and ineffective coping strategies? Why do we keep using them then?

Yes, coping - strategies come with a plus and a minus sign. Productive coping- strategies are those that are aimed at solving the problem, do not reduce the level of health, do not lead to social maladaptation. Unproductive ones are antagonists of productive strategies, i.e. lead to poor health, decreased activity and social adaptation against the background of stress. We continue or use for various reasons:

1. Previously, this behavior brought positive changes. Several times a person managed to cope with stress. However, conditions have changed, and now this type of behavior is unproductive. But a person, by virtue of past experience, continues to use it.

2. Parental experience. Roughly speaking, that's how they were taught. Often parents tell their children to "hit back" - coping of interaction with the situation, or "don't touch him, don't get your hands dirty" - avoidance coping. At the same time, the child may have completely different feelings in relation to the situation, but he learns to regulate himself in accordance with the learned rules of behavior.

3. Social experience. The society in which we live dictates to us how we should behave. Not always existing clichés are effective in stress resistance. For example, a man should always react aggressively to a stressful situation.

4. Personal experience. These are the patterns of behavior and reactions that were formed by a person in the process of life.

5. Availability of resources, personal and social characteristics. This includes self-esteem, self-acceptance, locus of control and level of anxiety, self-efficacy resources, gender and age, belonging to a particular social group.

How can I understand that I am not coping effectively with stress and what should I do about it?

Lazarus test*

· Certain coping strategies may or may not be effective depending on the situation. You yourself can assess how much this type of behavior is inductive for you, yourself.

Nartova-Bochaver S.K. "CopingBehavior" in the system of concepts of personality psychology. Psychological Journal, vol. 18, no. 5, 1997.

Lazarus, R.S. & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, Appraisal and Coping. New York, Springer.
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