Coping mechanisms are ways to which external or internal stress is

managed, adapted to or acted upon. Susan Folkman and Richard

Lazarus define coping as "constantly changing cognitive and behavioral
efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands that are
appraised as taxing".

Defining Coping Mechanisms

Psychologists Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkman scientifically defined coping as the sum of
cognitive and behavioural efforts, which are constantly changing, that aim to handle particular
demands, whether internal or external, that are viewed as taxing or demanding. Simply put,
coping is an activity we do to seek and apply solutions to stressful situations or problems that
emerge because of our stressors. Actually, the term "coping" is more associated with "reactive
coping", because in general, we see coping as a response to a stressor. On the other hand,
there's also what we call "proactive coping", wherein the coping response is aimed at preventing
a possible encounter with a future stressor.
While coping mechanisms are brought about by a person's conscious minds, it doesn't mean that
all of them bring about positive coping; there are some types of coping mechanisms which are
maladaptive. Other psychologists say that maladaptive coping is also synonymous to "non-
coping", since a person who responds to a stressor using a coping mechanism but isn't able to
positively ward off the stressor or solve the stressful situation hasn't coped with the stress at all.

Types of Coping Strategies

Over the years, psychologists and researchers have identified about 400 to 600 coping
strategies, and yet there are so many other potential coping strategies that are still under
research. Because of this, the classifications of coping strategies vary from textbook to textbook.

One of the recognized groupings of coping strategies is that which was written in the psychology
textbook by Weiten, which includes the appraisal-focused or adaptive cognitive, the problem-
focused or adaptive behavioural, and the emotion-focused.

1. the appraisal-focused strategies are those coping mechanisms which involve the
change of mindset or a revision of thoughts. Denial is the most common coping
mechanism under this category.
2. the problem-focused strategies are those that modify the behaviour of the person. A
good example of this is learning how to cook a family dinner upon knowing that your
spouse's family would come over your house this weekend.
3. the emotion-focused strategies include the alteration of one's emotions to tolerate or
eliminate the stress. Examples include distraction, meditation, and relaxation
techniques.

Many psychologists also contributed in the study of coping mechanisms by grouping

mechanisms or strategies according to their manifestations and purposes. In general, here are
the general classifications of coping mechanisms:

 Defense - the unconscious ways of coping stress. Examples: reaction formation, regression
 Adaptive -tolerates the stress. Examples: altruism, symbolization
 Avoidance -keeps self away from the stress. Examples: denial, dissociation, fantasy, passive
aggression, reaction formation.
 Attack - diverts one's consciousness to a person or group of individuals other than the
stressor or the stressful situation. Examples: displacement, emotionality, projection.
 Behavioral - modifies the way we act in order to minimize or eradicate the stress. Examples:
compensation, sublimation, undoing.
 Cognitive - alters the way we think so that stress is reduced or removed. Examples:
compartmentalization, intellectualization, rationalization, repression, suppression.
 Self-harm - intends to harm self as a response to stress. Examples: introjection, self-harming
 Conversion - changes one thought, behaviour or emotion into another. Example: somatisation

What is Stress?
Stress is the physical, mental and emotional human response to a
particular stimulus, otherwise called as ‘stressor’. It is the
adaption/coping-response that helps the body to prepare for challenging
situations. Stress can be either negative or positive, depending on the
stressor.
When you hear the word “stress”, isn’t it that you fret a little bit because you know that stress has
been affecting your whole life? Well, you’re not alone. Each one of us has his own feelings
towards stress, and those feelings are more on the negative effects of stress.

Defining Stress

Strictly defined, stress is the physical, mental and emotional human response to a particular
stimulus, otherwise called as ‘stressor’.
For instance, if you are to start with making your thesis, the thesis itself is not the stimulus, rather
it’s the deadline, the depth of the subject, the extent of research to be done, and even your
partners in your research group are just some of the many potential stimuli that can influence
your response. The way you respond to these stimuli is exactly what stress is. Stress is the
mismatch between the perceived obstacle and the perceived resources for coping with the
"demands" of the obstacle.
The stress response may be thought of as the general component common in all
emotions, general adaption syndrom, where the strength of the response predetermine the
strength of the emotion. Actually this also applies to positive feelings.

The Two Faces of Stress

Stress can be negative or positive, depending on the level of our response to the stressors we
encounter.

Apparently, most of us only think about the bad sides of stress. Negative stress are actually
about stress that are beyond one’s control. This bad impact of severe stress is often manifested
in physical and mental signs and symptoms.

However, when we are only exposed to mild or moderate stress, we are actually able to
experience the good side of stress, which include improved creativity, learning, efficiency at work
and, eventually, a higher level of self-esteem that could lead us to be able to withstand a higher
stress levels in the future.

Causes of Stress

What is stressful for one person may not be the same for another, that is why the causes of
stress is diverse and individualized. The most common stressors, though, include hectic work
schedule, heavy work load, family and relationship problems, and financial problems. While
these popular stressors are often pointed as the culprits for stress, do you know that even
positive life moments, like getting married, may also act as stressors?
As long as something demands for your efforts or pushes you to work on it, it can be called a
stressor. Choosing a university to go to, getting married, selecting a car, and other great life
events can be stressful for you. With all these stressors around you, you need to learn
about stress management techniques in order to maintain the balance in your life.
Coping Mechanisms
Explanations > Behaviors > Coping Mechanisms

We are complex animals living complex lives in which we are not always able to cope with
the difficulties that we face. As a result, we are subject to feelings of tension and stress, for
example the cognitive dissonanceand potential shame of doing something outside
our values. To handle this discomfort we use various coping methods.

Here are coping mechanisms by type:

 Adaptive Mechanisms: That offer positive help.
 Attack Mechanisms: That push discomfort onto others.
 Avoidance Mechanisms: That avoid the issue.
 Behavioral Mechanisms: That change what we do.
 Cognitive Mechanisms: That change what we think.
 Conversion Mechanisms: That change one thing into another.
 Defense Mechanisms: Freud's original set.
 Self-harm Mechanisms: That hurt our selves.

Here is a full list of coping mechanisms:

 Acting Out: not coping - giving in to the pressure to misbehave.
 Adaptation: The human ability to adapt.
 Aim Inhibition: lowering sights to what seems more achievable.
 Altruism: Helping others to help self.
 Attack: trying to beat down that which is threatening you.
 Avoidance: mentally or physically avoiding something that causes distress.
 Compartmentalization: separating conflicting thoughts into separated compartments.
 Compensation: making up for a weakness in one area by gain strength in another.
 Conversion: subconscious conversion of stress into physical symptoms.
 Crying: Tears of release and seeking comfort.
 Denial: Refusing to acknowledge that an event has occurred.
 Displacement: Shifting of intended action to a safer target.
 Dissociation: Separating oneself from parts of your life.
 Distancing: Moving away.
 Emotionality: Outbursts and extreme emotion.
 Fantasy: escaping reality into a world of possibility.
 Help-Rejecting Complaining: Ask for help then reject it.
  Idealization: Playing up the good points and ignoring limitations of things desired.
 Identification: Copying others to take on their characteristics.
 Intellectualization: Avoiding emotion by focusing on facts and logic.
 Introjection: Bringing things from the outer world into the inner world.
 Passive Aggression: Avoiding refusal by passive avoidance.
 Performing Rituals: Patterns that delay.
 Post-Traumatic Growth: Using the energy of trauma for good.
 Projection: seeing your own unwanted feelings in other people.
 Provocation: Get others to act so you can retaliate.
 Rationalization: creating logical reasons for bad behavior.
 Reaction Formation: avoiding something by taking a polar opposite position.
 Regression: returning to a child state to avoid problems.
 Repression: subconsciously hiding uncomfortable thoughts.
 Self-Harming: physically damaging the body.
 Somatization: psychological problems turned into physical symptoms.
 Sublimation: channeling psychic energy into acceptable activities.
 Substitution: Replacing one thing with another.
 Suppression: consciously holding back unwanted urges.
 Symbolization: turning unwanted thoughts into metaphoric symbols.
 Trivializing: Making small what is really something big.
 Undoing: actions that psychologically 'undo' wrongdoings for the wrongdoer.

Other articles on coping:

 Positive Coping: Coping can be done well!
 Doublethink: Orwell's holding of contradictory beliefs.
 Preparation and Confirmation: Stuck in preparing to act.
 Masks: Faces we wear on the outside.
 Excuses: Many ways of justification and avoidance.
 Tend and Befriend: Female alternative to fight-or-flight.

So what?
To help people cope, find ways to let them safely let go of the stress that they experience or
gain a greater understanding of the situation.
Remember that coping actions are usually symptoms of deeper problems and addressing
them directly can be ineffective or even counter-productive. The best approach is to
discover the deeper cause and address this, which will hopefully then result in the coping
mechanism disappearing.
 Be aware of your own coping mechanisms and move to more functional means of
managing stress.
If you are using deliberate theatrical methods during persuasion, feigning a coping mechanism
makes it harder for the other person to broach an apparently stressful situation for you.

Defense Mechanisms
Explanations > Behaviors > Coping > Defense Mechanisms
Anxiety and tension | Defense Mechanisms | So what?

Sigmund Freud describes how the Ego uses a range of mechanisms to handle the conflict
between the Id, the Ego and the Super ego. His daughter Anna introduced the principle of
inner mechanisms that defend the ego in her 1936 book 'The Ego and the Mechanisms of
Defense'.

Anxiety and tension

Freud noted that a major drive for most people is the reduction in tension, and that a major
cause of tension was anxiety. He identified three different types of anxiety.
Reality Anxiety
This is the most basic form of anxiety and is typically based on fears of real and possible
events, such as being bitten by a dog or falling from a ladder.
The most common way of reducing tension from Reality Anxiety is taking oneself away
from the situation, running away from the dog or simply refusing to go up the ladder.
Neurotic Anxiety
This is a form of anxiety which comes from an unconscious fear that the basic impulses of
the ID (the primitive part of our personality) will take control of the person, leading to
eventual punishment (this is thus a form of Moral Anxiety).
Moral Anxiety
This form of anxiety comes from the Superego in the form of a fear of violating values and
moral codes, and appears as feelings of guilt or shame.

Defense Mechanisms
When anxiety occurs, the mind first responds by an increase in problem-solving thinking,
seeking rational ways of escaping the situation. If this is not fruitful (and maybe anyway), a
range of defense mechanisms may be triggered. These are tactics which the Ego develops
to help deal with the Id and the Super Ego.
 All Defense Mechanisms share two common properties :
 They often appear unconsciously.
 They tend to distort, transform, or otherwise falsify reality.

In distorting reality, there is a change in perception which allows for a lessening of anxiety,
with a corresponding reduction in felt tension.
Anna Freud's Defense Mechanisms include:
 Denial: claiming/believing that what is true to be actually false.
 Displacement: redirecting emotions to a substitute target.
 Intellectualization: taking an objective viewpoint.
 Projection: attributing uncomfortable feelings to others.
 Rationalization: creating false but credible justifications.
 Reaction Formation: overacting in the opposite way to the fear.
 Regression: going back to acting as a child.
 Repression: pushing uncomfortable thoughts into the subconscious.
 Sublimation: redirecting 'wrong' urges into socially acceptable actions.

After the initial list, many other mechanisms for coping with the difficulties life throws at
us have been identified by other analysts and authors.

So what?
Psychoanalysis often involves a long series of sessions with the client in which original
causes are sought out (often searching through childhood relationships) and cathartic
experiences of realization are used to teach the client how these mechanisms are no longer
appropriate.
For Freud, the purpose of psychoanalysis was to bring repressed memories, fears and
thoughts back to the conscious level of awareness. Two techniques he used are free
association and dream analysis. He considered dreams as the "royal road" to the
unconscious. He also analyzed and interpreted the various defense mechanisms.
In persuasion, you can watch for these dysfunctional mechanisms in people and either
work around them or with them as appropriate.
You should also watch for these mechanisms in yourself, and either learn to handle them or get
professional help in doing so.