Value of Understanding Personality and Proactive coping for University Students

Abstract

Coping in different situations involves the use of personal skills, attributes and various support mechanisms to manage challenging and stressful life experiences. There is a plethora of research focusing on coping as a response to a threat. However, there is currently increasing research focusing on coping as a proactive and future oriented strategy. Proactive coping draws on identifying resources that can be used to address challenges and pursue personal growth by overcoming negative outcomes associated with stressors(1). It is often argued that proactive coping is influenced by innate dispositions associated with personality traits. The Five-Factor Model is a trait based approach to understanding personality, which analyses emotion and cognition behavior. The model consists of Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. While experiences and situational factors can influence coping, personality traits can also affect coping ability. The Five-Factor personality model can be used to gain more indepth insight into how individuals with different personality traits cope with stressors. Further, it can be argued that there is a relationship between personality traits and proactive coping ability. The Five-Factor Model is used to argue that personality traits relate to proactive coping and that personality plays a critical role in coping styles and coping ability. Since coping is multi dimensional in nature, individuals with different personality traits will cope differently during stressful situations, even in anticipation of stressful situations. Understanding the relationship between proactive coping and personality traits is important, especially for university students who often find themselves in stressful situations and cannot cope. Through the use of proactive coping strategies, students will be ready to manage stressors more effectively, ultimately enhancing their experiences through positive outcomes.