Work and non-work coping strategies: their relation to personality, appraisal and life domain

Abstract

The nature and degree of the relationship between the choice of coping strategies, personality, situational appraisals and the extent to which these relationships are domain-dependent is open. This study surveyed 330 police officers in order to answer seven specific questions : (1) Is the selection of coping strategies independent of the situational domain ? (2) Is the experience of hassles and uplifts independent of the situational domain ? (3) Is the experience of hassles independent of the experience of uplifts ? (4) Is the selection of problem-focused coping independent of the selection of emotion-focused coping ? (5) Is personality related to the selection of coping strategies ? (6) Is personality related to the reappraisal of the situational events ? (7) Does the selection of the coping strategy relate to the reappraisal of the situational event ? The findings indicate that extraversion (E) and neuroticism (N) are related to the selection of coping strategy, and that personality, domain and coping strategy make independent contributions to the final appraisal of the events. Personality, coping and situational experiences operate as discrete subsystems, with N, emotion-focused coping and hassles correlating together on the one hand, and E, problem-focused coping and uplifts correlating together on the other. This finding of two independent systems also adds support to other results in signalling to stress researchers and practitioners that they need to take account of both negative and positive aspects of the stress-coping process.