What is Coping Theory?

What is your first reaction in the face of sudden stress? Do you make a plan to overcome it? Talk it out with your friends? Avoid confronting the situation? Or try to hide the fear by resorting to comfort food or other substances?

There are so many different ways of adapting to a stressful situation. Coping is the conscious and unconscious efforts we put in to solve problems and reduce stress. It is the mind’s built-in troubleshoot program that aims to restore its optimum functioning state.

In psychology, coping skills or coping strategies are a set of adaptive tools that we proactively administer to avoid burnout. These tools can be our thoughts, emotions, and actions and are dependent on our personality patterns.

For example, a sociable and friendly person is more likely to use solution-focused and communication-based coping skills for getting rid of his troubles. On the contrary, a timid person has chances of using defensive and self-oriented coping strategies for psychological adjustments.

This article was written by Madhuleena Roy Chowdhury and posted on positivepsychology.com. You can read the article in its entirety by clicking here.