Strategies for Coping With Stress and Improving Mental Wellbeing (VCE SSCE Psychology): Revision Notes
Strategies for Coping With Stress and Improving Mental Wellbeing
Ways of coping
Different people manage the stressors in their lives in various ways. Some methods are more beneficial than others for reducing stress and maintaining wellbeing. For instance, you might seek support from friends and family to discuss your worries, engage in physical activity such as walking or running, or watch your favourite television programme to take your mind off things. Understanding which approaches are more helpful can improve how you handle stressful situations.
What is coping?
Coping refers to all the things we do to manage and reduce the stress we experience because of problems in our lives. It represents our efforts to manage the demands of a stressor effectively. These efforts typically involve using one or more coping strategies.
A coping strategy is a method that people use to manage or reduce the stress produced by a stressor. Two main factors determine whether a particular strategy will work effectively:
- Coping flexibility
- Context-specific effectiveness
The effectiveness of any coping strategy depends on these two critical factors working together. A strategy that works well in one situation may not be effective in another, which is why understanding both flexibility and context is essential.
Coping flexibility
Coping flexibility describes our ability to modify our coping strategies to meet the demands of different stressful situations. When we respond to stressors psychologically and physically, having greater coping flexibility generally leads to better outcomes. This involves recognising when a strategy is not working and being able to abandon it in favour of a more effective alternative.
Worked Example: Demonstrating Coping Flexibility
Imagine you are training for a half marathon but notice your fitness is not improving sufficiently with only two practice runs per week. Demonstrating coping flexibility, you would:
- Recognise the current strategy is ineffective
- Adjust your training plan by adding a weekly sprint session
- Monitor whether the new approach enhances your fitness more rapidly
This shows all the key components of coping flexibility in action.
The coping flexibility hypothesis proposes that greater coping flexibility produces better outcomes in response to stress, including reduced psychological and physical problems.
Components of coping flexibility
Coping flexibility encompasses several key abilities:
- Recognising whether using a particular coping strategy is suitable for a specific situation
- Selecting a coping strategy that fits the circumstances of the situation
- Recognising when the coping strategy being used is not working
- Stopping the use of an ineffective coping strategy and implementing a different, more effective one
Coping flexibility is a personality characteristic that is adaptive, enabling us to adjust our thoughts, feelings, or behaviour according to changing circumstances.
High vs low coping flexibility
Individuals vary in their level of coping flexibility, which affects how they manage stress:
Individuals with high coping flexibility quickly recognise when their coping strategies are ineffective and adjust them accordingly. These individuals tend to use a broader range of coping strategies across different situations and match their strategies to the specific demands of each situation.
Individuals with low coping flexibility tend to rely on the same limited set of coping strategies across all situations, persisting with them even when they prove ineffective. These individuals lack adaptability and are predictable in how they deal with stress.
The key difference: High flexibility means using varied strategies and adjusting when needed, while low flexibility means limited strategies used persistently regardless of effectiveness. People with high coping flexibility consistently achieve better outcomes when managing stress.
Context-specific effectiveness
A coping strategy demonstrates context-specific effectiveness when it matches or is appropriate to the stressful situation at hand. For instance, if you are preparing for a half marathon but only engage in sprint training, this approach does not match the demands of running 21.5 kilometres. A more suitable training regimen would include running longer distances several times weekly to build endurance and cardiovascular fitness.
Context-specific effectiveness also takes into account whether a coping strategy works well given various aspects of the situation, including the physical environment, the nature of the stressor itself, and characteristics of the individual involved. For a coping strategy to succeed in any given situation, it must align with the specific demands of the stressor and be suited to relevant personal characteristics of the individual, such as their personality, knowledge, or skills.
Both coping flexibility and context-specific effectiveness work together to influence our ability to cope with stress successfully. Think of flexibility as your ability to change strategies, and context-specific effectiveness as choosing the right strategy for the right situation.
Types of coping strategies
The methods people use to handle difficult or stressful circumstances have been organised into different categories. One classification system distinguishes between approach and avoidance strategies. In this system, 'approach' and 'avoidance' refer to whether an individual's activity is directed toward or away from the stressor. Both approach and avoidance strategies aim to reduce stress levels and increase coping ability, but they achieve this through different methods.
Approach strategies
An approach strategy is an effort to confront a stressor and deal directly with it and its effects. Activity is directed toward the stressor, its causes, and finding a solution that will address the underlying problem and minimise or eliminate its impact. These strategies involve active engagement with the stressor.
Examples of approach strategies include:
- Seeking advice from an expert such as a counsellor or psychologist
- Discussing your problems with a friend or family member to gain a different perspective
- Accepting responsibility for a problem or reframing a situation to recognise positive aspects rather than focusing solely on negative ones
- Developing a plan to increase your sense of control over an issue
Practical Example: Using Approach Strategies
If you feel stressed about your school workload, you might:
- Create a study schedule (developing a plan)
- Reduce your hours at your part-time job (taking action to address the cause)
- Seek guidance from a teacher or counsellor (seeking expert advice)
All of these directly address the stressor (workload) rather than avoiding it.
Benefits and limitations of approach strategies
| Benefits | Limitations |
|---|---|
| Approach strategies are generally considered more adaptive and effective than avoidance strategies | Initially or in the short term, approach strategies may increase stress levels whilst the individual is directly engaged with the stressor and its causes |
| People who rely more on approach strategies to cope with a stressor tend to experience fewer psychological symptoms and can function more effectively than people who rely more on avoidance strategies | An approach strategy may require considerable energy and focus to deal with the stressor, which means the individual might neglect other aspects of their lives |
Avoidance strategies
An avoidance strategy is an effort to avoid a stressor and not deal directly with it and its effects. They are considered maladaptive because they involve changing your behaviour to avoid thinking about, feeling, or doing difficult things. These strategies direct your focus away from the stressor, meaning you do not confront the stressor or its causes.
Avoidance strategies typically provide temporary benefits by relieving stress in the short term. However, in the long term, the source of stress remains present, and using avoidance may worsen your situation.
Practical Example: Using Avoidance Strategies
Instead of creating a study schedule to manage a stressful school workload, you might:
- Take a nap or oversleep
- Watch multiple episodes of your favourite programme on a streaming service
This would make you feel better temporarily but would put you further behind with your work, ultimately increasing your stress.
Examples of avoidance strategies include:
- Procrastination
- Napping or oversleeping
- Substance use or abuse
- Denial
- Use of distractions such as television or computer games
Benefits and limitations of avoidance strategies
| Benefits | Limitations |
|---|---|
| Selectively avoiding dealing with unchangeable aspects of a stressor by 'switching off' may be considered an adaptive strategy | Avoidance strategies tend to be maladaptive |
| Allows you to conserve energy to focus on other stressors that can be changed | Excessive reliance on avoidance strategies tends to be associated with several negative consequences, such as increased vulnerability to mental health problems and stress-related physical problems like hypertension and cardiovascular disease |
| Disengagement might be appropriate in a situation where nothing can be done | Long-term use of avoidance strategies can also contribute to other problems, such as delinquency, socially inappropriate behaviours, and substance use |
| Can be more effective in coping with stress in the short term | The strategies tend to only be helpful in the short term, and their long-term use can prevent people from responding to stressors in constructive ways |
| Ignoring a stressor for a couple of days whilst focusing on other things can provide 'time out' from a stressor whilst minimising potential stress from another source | Delaying actually dealing with a stressor can also have negative consequences and might be detrimental when action is needed |
Exercise as a coping strategy
Exercise refers to any physical activity that is usually planned and performed to improve or maintain your physical condition. Any form of exercise, from yoga to boxing, can help relieve stress. Being physically active reduces the risk of serious diseases or illnesses, including those associated with chronic stress, such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, and cancer. The benefits extend across multiple domains, improving physical health, mental wellbeing, and overall sense of wellbeing.
Benefits of exercise
Exercise offers numerous benefits for managing stress:
- It increases the body's energy demands, using up stress hormones in the process. This helps the body return to normal functioning more quickly
- It can help release tension that has accumulated in the muscles
- It increases the efficiency of the cardiovascular system and builds strength, flexibility, and stamina for encountering future stressors
- There are short-term psychological benefits during or immediately after exercising. For example, exercise can promote relaxation, thereby providing relief from stress symptoms
- Strenuous physical activity produces chemical changes in the body that can improve psychological health. The brain releases mood-enhancing beta-endorphins during exercise, which relieve pain and increase feelings of wellbeing and relaxation
- It can provide an opportunity for distraction or 'time out' from a stressor. Exercise can divert a person's attention away from a stressor and the negative emotional states associated with stress. It can also benefit by removing the person from the stress-producing situation
- People who exercise with others can experience long-term psychosocial benefits from the social interaction and potential social support these interactions provide
Beta-endorphins and Mood Enhancement
Beta-endorphins are neurochemicals released by the brain during exercise that act as natural painkillers and mood elevators. They are responsible for the "runner's high" that many people experience during intense physical activity, contributing to feelings of wellbeing and relaxation that persist after exercise.
Classification of exercise as approach or avoidance
Despite these substantial benefits, in most cases exercise would be classified as an avoidance strategy because it does not directly address the stressor you may be facing. However, if the stressor itself involves needing to improve fitness and lose weight, or training for an event like a fun run, then exercise would constitute an approach strategy.
Critical Distinction: When is Exercise an Approach vs Avoidance Strategy?
- Avoidance: Using exercise to distract from work stress, relationship problems, or academic pressure (the exercise doesn't address the actual stressor)
- Approach: Using exercise when the stressor IS fitness-related, such as training for a sports event or meeting health goals (the exercise directly addresses the stressor)
If you rely heavily on exercise as an avoidance strategy, this could lead to the previously mentioned limitations of avoidance strategies. It may only help in the short term and delay dealing with the actual stressor.
Key Points to Remember:
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Coping flexibility is your ability to modify strategies to meet different stressful situations. People with high coping flexibility use varied strategies and adjust when strategies are ineffective, whilst those with low flexibility rely on the same limited strategies regardless of effectiveness.
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Context-specific effectiveness means matching your coping strategy to the specific demands of the stressor and your personal characteristics. A strategy must suit both the situation and the individual for it to work.
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Approach strategies involve confronting stressors directly and are generally more adaptive, leading to fewer psychological symptoms. However, they may initially increase stress and require considerable energy.
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Avoidance strategies involve evading stressors and can provide short-term relief. However, they are typically maladaptive in the long term and can lead to mental health problems, physical health issues, and prevent constructive problem-solving.
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Exercise is usually classified as an avoidance strategy because it does not directly address most stressors, but it becomes an approach strategy when the stressor itself involves fitness or physical training goals.