Emotion-focused coping consists of efforts to change or reduce the negative emotions associated with stress. Common strategies include:
- **Avoiding, minimizing, or distancing:** Efforts to avoid thinking about or dealing with the stressor.
- **Positive comparisons:** Reframing one's situation by comparing it to others who are worse off (e.g., 'I'm not as bad off as she is').
- **Seeking something positive:** Finding positive meaning or opportunities in a negative event (e.g., viewing being fired as a chance to catch up on sleep).
- **Cognitive Reappraisal:** Reinterpreting the stressor to construe it differently and reduce its emotional threat without changing the actual situation.

Google

A style of coping that involves the management of emotional distress. These coping styles tend to be unhealthy, but there are some examples, like turning to religion, that are healthy in situations in which one has no control.

Emotion-focused coping

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

Certain shifts in the marital relationship must be made in the face of chronic illness in order for it to survive.  Some coping strategies are unhealthy, and partners must adapt their coping strategies to be more congruent with each other in order to preserve the marriage.  Otherwise, the coping strategies of one partner might inhibit those of the other partner.

Learn Before

Related