Read the text and answer the following questions
A person P stays stressed all the time. Whenever P is asked how is he doing? his most common response is either showing worry on ‘what am I going to do’, ‘this isn’t happening to me’ or just saying ‘let it be, let us go out for dinner’. His friends and family are really concerned because he is not able to do the activities like he wanted to and even misses out deadlines at workplace very frequently. His friends and family supported him throughout and helped him seek professional help. The therapist helped him in deciding his priorities, and dealing directly with stressful situation. In addition to this, he was also taught strategies to relax through deep breathing and muscle relaxation, and practice creative visualization. After 10 sessions, finally he has learnt how to manage stress better, he is able to complete the task on deadlines, his health and social life has also improved. He has moved out of the city with his wife and his newborn child. This time he is much happier and stress free.
P’s common responses like ‘worry about what am I going to do’, ‘this isn’t really happening to me’ falls under:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Emotion-oriented strategy
Option (1) Task-oriented strategy — Incorrect. It means deciding priorities and acting to deal directly with the stressful situation, for example ‘schedule my time better’. Worrying deals with nothing directly.
Option (2) Problem-focussed coping — Incorrect. This is Lazarus and Folkman’s type, in which strategies attack the problem itself. P’s responses leave the problem untouched.
Option (3) Avoidance oriented strategy — Incorrect. It involves denying or minimising the situation and turning away to distractions such as watching TV or phoning a friend. ‘This isn’t really happening to me’ may sound like denial, but Endler and Parker list this very statement as an example of the emotion-oriented strategy, along with worrying about what one is going to do.
Option (4) Emotion-oriented strategy — Correct. It involves efforts to maintain hope and control one’s emotions, venting anger and frustration, or deciding that nothing can be done. Its examples are word for word P’s responses: ‘tell myself that it is not really happening to me, or worry about what I am going to do’. Both deal with how P feels, not with the deadlines themselves.
NCERT (2025-26): “Coping with Stress … The three coping strategies given by Endler and Parker are: Task-oriented Strategy : This involves obtaining information about the stressful situation and about alternative courses of action and their probable outcome; it also involves deciding priorities and acting so as to deal directly with the stressful situation. For example, schedule my time better, or think about how I have solved similar problems.…” “Emotion-oriented Strategy : … This can involve efforts to maintain hope and to control one’s emotions; it can also involve venting feelings of anger and frustration, or deciding that nothing can be done to change things. For example, tell myself that it is not really happening to me, or worry about what I am going to do.…” “Avoidance-oriented Strategy : … This involves denying or minimising the seriousness of the situation; … Examples of this are watching TV, phone up a friend, or try to be with other people.…” “… Problem-focused strategies attack the problem itself, with behaviours designed to gain information, to alter the event, and to alter belief and commitments.…” |