A COMPARATIVE STUDY INTO THE COPING STRATEGIES EMPLOYED BY UNDERGRADUATE PSYCHOLOGY AND NON-PSYCHOLOGY STUDENTS

Abstract

This study investigated differences in coping strategies between psychology students and non-psychology students. The researchers hypothesized that psychology students would utilize more adaptive coping skills than non-psychology students, based on their exposure to psychological theory. The Brief COPE survey was administered to 43 psychology students and 47 non-psychology students. Analyses by means of T-tests were conducted to determine statistically significant differences in coping strategies between the two groups. The results indicated that there were no significant differences between the coping styles of psychology students and non-psychology students in 13 of the 14 subscales of the Brief COPE. However, a significant difference was found in one subscale, namely emotional support, with psychology students demonstrating significantly higher mean scores on the scale than non-psychology students (p < 0.01). Psychology students in the sample utilized the coping strategy of seeking emotional support significantly more than the non-psychology students in the sample. These results indicate that knowledge regarding coping does not necessarily translate into implementation of adaptive coping strategies. However, the results of this study indicates that psychology students sought more emotional support than non-psychology students and may therefore indicate that they are more willing to seek assistance in order to cope than non-psychology students.