Identify the problem-focused coping behavior in the following examples:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Making efforts to improve one’s performance after a setback
Lazarus and Folkman divide coping responses into two types. Problem-focused strategies attack the problem itself: they try to gain information, alter the event, and so reduce the threat (‘I made a plan of action and followed it’). Emotion-focused strategies only try to limit the emotional upset, with minimal effort to alter the event.
Option (1) Feeling sorry for failing in an examination — Incorrect. Feeling sorry is an emotional reaction to the failure. It does nothing to change the result or prepare for the next examination, so it is not problem-focused.
Option (2) Hiding examination results from parents — Incorrect. This keeps the problem out of sight instead of facing it. It is closer to the avoidance-oriented strategy, which denies or minimises the seriousness of the situation.
Option (3) Blaming friends for bad habits — Incorrect. Blaming others lets out anger and protects one’s feelings, but the bad habits stay as they are. No step is taken to change the situation.
Option (4) Making efforts to improve one’s performance after a setback — Correct. The person works on the cause of the setback to change the outcome next time. This attacks the problem itself, the mark of problem-focused coping.
NCERT (2025-26): “Coping with Stress … According to them coping responses can be divided into two types of responses, problem-focused and emotion-focused. Problem-focused strategies attack the problem itself, with behaviours designed to gain information, to alter the event, and to alter belief and commitments. They increase the person’s awareness, level of knowledge, and range of behavioural and cognitive coping options. They can act to reduce the threat value of the event. For example ‘I made a plan of action and followed it’. Emotion-focused strategies call for psychological changes designed primarily to limit the degree of emotional disruption caused by an event, with minimal effort to alter the event itself.…” |